This is the old school way of thought in Jiu Jitsu that gets overlooked a lot now a days.
And I think it’s both good and bad.
Old school Jiu Jitsu, at least in America, was always centered around usefulness in a fight.
Especially during a time when everyone thought that karate black belts needed to register their hands as deadly weapons and that the dim mak or death touch was real.
—So what better way to promote Jiu Jitsu than to have it work in a fight?—
Which is exactly what the first UFC did and was designed to do.
To showcase the effectiveness of Jiu Jitsu in a fight.
But it couldn’t have just been anyone that could fight.
They needed someone not too big or too strong to properly represent Jiu Jitsu.
There were probably lots of other fighters that could have been chosen to represent Jiu Jitsu from the Gracie family alone. Someone like Rickson was considered one of the best to ever do Jiu Jitsu and MMA.
However, I doubt that it would have had the same impact if he competed and won.
They needed some one like Royce if the powers at be were going to sell Jiu Jitsu to the masses.
He doesn’t look threatening at all. Just a normal guy.
That’s probably the closest approximation to your average person.
Not some big muscled dude.
But the everyman Royce.
Someone the average person could see themself in.
The rest is history.
So how does this all help you?
I think training so that you are prepared for somebody larger and stronger is only going to benefit you.
1// It’s going to keep your technique true. Whenever I learn a new technique I always ask myself if this move will work on some one larger.
Yes, okay good.
No, then I probably won’t invest too much time in the technique.
This won’t always be the case. Of course, the deeper your skill in Jiu Jitsu becomes. Your moves tend to tailor to your opponents.
But when it comes to basic Jiu Jitsu. This is the truth.
A great example of this is the head lock escape.
Realistically, the only people that perform headlocks also tend to be the strongest lol.
That means if your technique isn’t good a.k.a. your head lock escape isn’t up to par. Then you’re just not going to get out.
2// It will push you to train with those partners that are bigger and stronger. Doubly so if they are faster.
Big guys roll a lot different than those people smaller than you, or even those partners that are the same size.
The big guy game tends to be a bit slower but with a lot more pressure and 100% less forgiving.
There’s been times when I have sparred with training partners significantly larger than myself and if they were able to reach a good position on me. It was game over.
Just their sheer mass alone means that your technique has to be on point if you are going to stand a chance.
It’s not easy and can be very rough on your body training with the big boys.
However, your confidence in knowing that you can go up against a larger opponent and not give up is priceless.
You will learn that often technique and will power will make up a lot of the difference in size.