E210 | Pace vs. Speed: How to Control the Rhythm

Full Transcript:

**** Welcome to Tapped In. My name is David Figueroa-Martinez with DFM Coaching. And today we're going to be discussing pace versus speed and how you really need to use pace as a tool when you're rolling. I was in an open mat recently and I had rolled with this gentleman that comes to my morning classes. And one of the things that I noticed was that he did everything really fast. He did everything with a lot of speed, movement, going to the next thing, moving on to the next after that.

**** And one of the things that I noticed was that every time he did this, it left an opening. It left a brief window for me to execute an escape or formulate some kind of foundation for the escape that I would then use later. The thing that happens when you're constantly in a state of movement is, one, you're taxing your own cardio. And if you have high cardio, like that gentleman does, it may not feel like it's a big trade-off. It may not feel like it's a big gamble, because you have the most confidence in your cardio that you can play that game with a lot of ease, and you can play that game with a lot of confidence, and you know you're going to tax their cardio more than it's ever going to tax yours.

**** Completely understood. I understand it, I get it, I understand the thought process or the game plan behind that. But it does create a couple of issues, like I said. Every time you move, you're giving me an opening. Every time you decide that you want to transition to the next thing, you're giving me an opening. Every time you decide that you want to transition to the next thing without solidifying the first, there's an even bigger gap.

**** Because if you haven't secured the position outright, there's space between us. And then when you decide that you want to move on to the next, you haven't solidified the space and really engineered enough that all that is gone and you're dealing with pressure or being locked up. And then you move on to the next, you're giving me space from the first technique, and then as you move on to the next, you're giving me added space as you transition to the next one. And then you never really solidify the one after that, so then there's added space in that.

**** So, you're giving me a lot of real estate to play with. And the higher or the darker the belt is, the more susceptible you are from that belt to get reversed or submitted or have someone re-enter the guard. So your job, our job as practitioners, is to use the pacing in a way that engineers a higher likelihood of success for us.

**** So there's a clear distinction: speed versus pace. Pace is the overall strategic element of the match. Speed is the amount of time in which you do a technique. Slightly different. While they overlap, they are different. I can use pacing where I'm slowing down key elements of the matches, and then I'm doing maybe a step-over from side control to mount really fast. That's speed.

**** The pace in which I'm adapting or constricting or expanding the match itself is: what do I do before and after that? When I'm in side control, have I slowed everything down? Have I dropped my pressure? Have I solidified the controls in that moment, so I can, one, if I'm a competitor, get my points, and then two, allow for the gravity of the situation to really become a problem for them?

**** I want them to have to deal with my weight. I want them to have to deal with the physical limitations that I'm applying or imposing on them. I want them to have to deal with their breathing being labored. I want them to have to deal with my ribcage expanding on top of their chest or ribcage, and they can't really take a deep breath. I want them to be uncomfortable. I want them to physically be dominated in that sense.

**** And when you're in that spot and you can't move, you can't establish frames, you can't establish a hip movement, you can't establish a lot of things, things go through your mind. That's when you start assaulting their mental or their psychological aspects, and they're sitting there, they're worried about what's going on, their mind starts to take over, they're panicking maybe a little bit. They are being betrayed by their cardio because they can't quite take a deep breath.

**** So now you're compounding the physical along with the mental, and then you're easing into the next step. So if I'm in side control, I got side, I got really heavy pressure, maybe I have an arm under part of their upper back and I'm creating the suffocating element or constricting pressure. Physically they can't breathe normal, mentally they're starting to get worried.

**** And then I ease into—really tightly—into the mount. Maybe I bring my knee to the inside of the hip, over the ribcage, slam down my foot, now I'm in mount, but I never really gave up a whole lot of pressure. So now they have to deal with, "Oh shit, things are getting even worse." And then I start easing into arm control, and then I start easing into S-mount, and then I quickly go into an armbar.

**** Or if I'm in a position where maybe I'm passing the guard, and I do the guard pass really slowly, grinding, and then I get to a point where maybe I could switch the hip and I do that really fast. Or we're in a position where maybe I decide that I'm going to tax their cardio, and I'm moving from knee on belly to mount to knee on belly, and I'm moving around because I want them to have to try to catch me.

**** Those are elements of playing the pace. You're going to be calculated in how you hit the gas, you're going to be calculated on when you hit the brakes, calculated on when you drop that weight, and then when you're going to start doing things fast again. You determine which one they are, but having an idea of how to establish that, how to maintain that without losing control, and then how to push it when you feel most comfortable.

**** There's times when the hand fighting for me is maybe a little faster pace. Maybe I'm more comfortable with the hand fighting than they are, so now I'm just kind of like I'm pushing speed a little bit. And then I get that arm drag. Arm drags aren't something you can really do slowly, so now we're going to push the pace a little bit, and I'm going to wait for them because I'm hoping they make a mistake, or I'm more comfortable with the position that I know they're going to make a mistake.

**** This is where that tactical element comes into play that you really have to play, and you really have to make your own. And it doesn't mean that everything's going to be ground down to five miles an hour per se, because if you are a faster player, then that can be 30, 40%. That could be a little faster. That could be a faster match. It does not have to mean that everything's ground down to damn near zero and you're just grinding away. You can use elements of speed and faster pacing, but I want you to understand that you control these elements.

**** And there's a plus to slowing things down at the right moment; there's a plus to speeding things up at the right moment. If we can picture it—for you baseball fans or even boxing—one of the things that I had annotated or explained to him was like a puncher who throws everything at 100%. And it gets easily timed. It gets easily... your opponent knows what's coming. Everything's 100, so everything's going to be that. It's easier to anticipate.

**** Now, if you could picture in baseball, the pitcher who knows how to throw the fastball, and then the next pitch is a fastball, and then they hit you with a curve, and the speed is different, the angle is different, and now you're thrown off. I have to understand how to drive the action variably. Sometimes I'm going to be going 100% with certain people because I know their gas tank is trash. And there's people that their gas tank is either close to mine or better; then I've got to use a little bit of downshift a little bit. More pressure, more heavy weight, more pressure from the hips, more ribcage pressure coming down, and that becomes a massive tool for us.

**** So, understanding both. And you can use this offensively, like I explained, but you can also use this defensively. There's times when I slow things down because I understand the other person's faster and they have lighter feet. If I'm in the guard and I'm going against someone who... there was a gentleman at Gracie Redlands, I think he was a little shorter than me, and when I rolled with him at purple belt, I rolled with him, I immediately got the impression, "Oh, this man probably..." and I could be wrong, maybe he wrestled, he did something, because his base was stellar, his feet were really light, and he moved a lot.

**** And when I had this round with him, within the first minute, I understood that I was in a round with someone slightly different. He's different than most of the brown and black belts that I roll with. He's light, he's compact, he fucking strong as shit, and he understood where he was going to do most of his damage. And I couldn't catch up to him all the time.

**** So then what I had to do was slow down the pace. And so I used a lot more like lasso, spider, half guard. And I needed to use these elements because I was not as fast as he was. I was never going to win a battle when it came to speed. And some people are like, "Oh, you're a black belt." None of that fucking matters. We all have limits: physical limits, age limits, weight limits, aspects of our body that just don't respond the way someone else's body responds. And you have to understand this is perfect when it comes to pacing.

**** His pacing against me should be faster. He was good with weight, he was good with balance, he was good with pressure, but his pacing was going to get him the most success when he was hitting the gas. And that's an example of: you want to be faster, because against me I'm a little bit slower, a little older, and I'm not going to be able to hit that pace for a long extended battle or an exchange of a battle. I'm going to want to slow this down.

**** So for me, I played a lot of, again, lasso. I think I played a little bit of spider and I played a lot of half—butterfly half. And I made sure at certain parts where he did not stand. I didn't want him standing at all. Because if I had him down at least on one knee, I knew that his movement would be constricted. So that pacing defensively for me was a bit slower.

**** And then when you know you got the position right, then you can hit that gas and pick up the pacing. You start throwing up maybe submissions or off-balancing measures to try to get a sweep. But again, this can be used offensively and defensively, top, bottom, it doesn't matter. It can be used from standing. But we have to understand when it's go-time and when it's a good strategic measure to slow things down.

**** If you can master this or at least get a good handle on it, you'll start paying attention to, again, who you're going against. There's certain people that I know I can break them with cardio. I can break them by pushing the pace. I can break them by making them constantly mentally exhausted. So if I'm in mount, I love the armbar from there, but I have some chokes. So then I start throwing out calculated submissions and pressure, and submissions and pressure. And I understand they're going to bridge at some point, so I anticipate the bridge, I negate it, so now they wasted energy. And then we're just slowly ticking things away. I'm forcing them to mentally adjust and physically adjust to everything that I'm throwing up from that same position.

**** The pace is a little higher, and then when I find that they've exhausted themselves, now we're going to go for the submission. Now we're going to go for the armbar from mount with a lot of heavy pressure, and then we're going to end the bout. Or I'm going to take the back, and I'm going to hand fight you, and I'm going to increase the pace of the hand fighting. And I'm going to continue to dig in for the collars, but never letting go of the controls from that position, because I want you to get exhausted. I want you to get mentally exhausted. The pace is a little higher than just sitting there with a seatbelt.

**** I want to hand fight. I want the continued adjustments that you're going to have to continue to make in order to keep up with me. Because if you die down and if you slow down, then I'm going to get a deeper grip on the collar, I'm going to get a deeper grip maybe on a kimura, and I'm going to go to armbar from that position. A lot of things can happen, but I want you to constantly be worried about something.

**** I'm hoping this makes some sense to you guys. If you have any questions about this, if you're struggling with understanding the pace versus speed or understanding that strategic element of pacing, please let me know. Hit me up, send me a message, DM, whatever. I love to help. This will go a long way. This will really help you understand the game of Jiu-Jitsu. If you like this episode or any of the episodes, please like, share, subscribe. Goes a long way. Ratings go a long way too. But anyways, until next time, thank you so much.