One problem with fighting younger guys is that they’re like the Energizer bunny – they keep going and going and going…
How can you beat them?
To beat them you first need to wear them down and then break their will to fight.
This is all well and good in theory, but how exactly do you do this in reality?
Think of the young punk’s gas tank as completely full. However unless you’re in amazing shape (congratulations if you are) then your own gas tank might only be at 60% full.
Now if you match the other guy move for move, technique for technique, and scramble for scramble then soon you’ll end up completely depleted (i.e. no fuel left in your tank at all) and he’ll still have enough to make your life miserable.
So you have to make haste slowly, and engineer situations where he’ll burn through his reserves much faster than you!
What’s the best way to do this?
One of the best ways to do this is with guard passing.
Now I’m not talking about a fast paced, speed based style of passing guard.
I’m talking about slow, pressure based passing, where you put kill his legs to keep you safe and pin his hips to make it much harder for him to move. Then, as a piece de resistance, you spike all of your body weight down into his belly or diaphragm so that he struggles to draw breath.
It may take a while to pass in this situation, but don’t worry.
He’ll be fighting at 100% just to keep things from getting worse, while you’re essentially just hanging out, watching him get tired.
You can relax for a while…
Once you get to a good guard passing position it’s not quite taking a nap on the mats, but it’s pretty close.
In fact you may even choose to DELAY your final guard pass for a while.
During the pass he’ll be struggling, fighting, and – more importantly – burning energy at a crazy rate. So why not leave him there a little bit longer so that when you finally do pass he’ll be in an even worse position to resist your submission attacks.
This slow, delayed method of passing guard is a favorite strategy of 4 time BJJ black belt world champion Fabio Gurgel. And he has taught it to many of his very top students, 57 of whom are BJJ world champions themselves.
If you’re interested in learning how to develop the sensitivity and technique to do exactly this then here’s a short 2:27 video on Youtube of Fabio Gurgel explaining how to crush a younger, stronger opponent’s hopes and dreams with guard passing.
It’s called, fittingly enough, Advice for Older Grapplers Struggling with Guard Passing…
As the Karate fighter Bill ‘Superfoot’ Wallace once said, “There’s always going to be someone younger, stronger and faster than you, but there never needs to be anyone sneakier!”
You can totally add this sneaky strategy to your bag of tricks. It’s a very useful tool to have.
Cheers,
Stephan Kesting
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P.S. Fabio Gurgel’s Pressure Passing System, which breaks down more strategies and the exact techniques to crush guards and take names, is now live in app, DVD, and online streaming format! Check it out because it’s really good.
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