You show up for yet another day of training. While you love BJJ immensely, last night you had a run in with a blue belt (who also just so happened to be the Ohio University All-American wrestling champ) in a roll that could only be likened to getting run over repeatedly by an 18-wheeler.
Shambling in through the doors, you gingerly bump fists with your teammates as you make your way to the changing room. Utilizing every martial art skill at your disposal, you get out of your work clothes and into a gi just in time to bow in and begin the day’s training.
It goes well; you manage to loosen up a bit, but then it’s time to begin rolling. You lock eyes with your favorite training partner, that equally battered purple belt who loves playing a lazy half guard, a match made in injury heaven.
Before you can make it to the promised land of an easy-going roll, though, it happens. A bright-eyed, bushy-tailed new guy intercepts your path and asks to roll.
His grin stretches cauliflower ear to cauliflower ear as you sigh, chagrined, and he proceeds to tell you how he’s new to BJJ but has wrestled since he was four and just won his third MMA fight.
Your back creaks as you lean in to slap-bump, and, through a wince, you ask if they mind keeping the roll flowy as you’re pretty beat up.
He graciously accepts, mentioning he too is recovering from his last fight and would love to work on more technical things. You feel relief; maybe this wasn’t going to be as bad as you thought.
The timer begins, and as you slowly try to make your creaking grips, you get blast-doubled so hard you wonder if a car has just crashed its way through the doors to put you out of your misery. The new guy comes at you with an intensity your body can’t quite keep up with now, so you do what you can and lock up a guard, holding on for dear life.
You know if he manages to escape, you’ll be in for a full round of being mauled. So, you stall out the rest of the round focusing on containing this relentless wildness. The buzzer sounds, signaling the end of the round and your opponent gets up bemused. Neither of you really got what you wanted out of the round, but at least you survived.
This time, you make a beeline to your original choice. You slap hands and mention the same request to keep it flowing. He agrees, and this time as you begin, despite the tiredness, injury, soreness and whatever ails you, you smile as you and your partner begin to flow.
[Experience Muay Thai: The Warm Up]
How to flow
Flow rolling is a hard concept for a lot of newcomers to BJJ to understand as it requires a certain level of skill to do effectively. Simply put, flow rolling is the catch and release of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
You move lightly from position to position, never forcing anything. You work with your timing and understanding of leverage, and as you transition from position to position. When you catch your partner in a submission, you never fully lock it, so they too can move, escape and transition.
It’s very much in line with the expression “Go with the flow” — nothing is forced, everything is fluid. It’s like a dance in which you and your partner can be creative, connecting the dots between movement and technique.
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The ability to flow roll represents an extremely valuable tool in our training arsenal. If you can’t smoothly transition from different positions or react calmly to different scenarios, you’ll find glaring holes in your game.
Sure, you can sometimes catch submissions through sheer doggedness and force — maybe you can pull off something that won’t necessarily work on every opponent — but by learning how to smoothly flow into these positions and submissions, you develop a skill and grace in your game known as fluidity.
By slowing it down and reducing the pressure, your mind can freely spin with new ideas, creatively putting together combinations you may never have thought of in a traditional spar.
BJJ, despite its nickame of “The Gentle Art,” is extremely hard on the body — especially in the beginning. For those who train regularly, it’s near impossible to constantly be going at 100 percent every roll; often the only way to keep going and improve is to let go and flow.
[Why You Must Train Live In BJJ]
Flowing through life
In life, you have days when you feel on top of the world, you have an effective strategy and you know if you give 100 percent and force the outcome, you can succeed in whatever endeavor you’re pursuing. However, like in training, this approach isn’t sustainable: even when you find success, it doesn’t make your process the best way there.
You can cultivate a flow mindset in everything. What do you do when you burn out? Do you force yourself to push through without changing your approach? This might work initially, but what about after that, and then after that? We all know what happens when you tro brute-force something.
Brute force can be effective sometimes, but trying to brute-force something immovable only leads to frustration. Alternatively, with the concept of flow, you can creatively move through the motions and have fun with what you’re doing instead of chasing the outcome. Instead of trying to crush life, you can focus on the movement of creativity and pursuit itself.
By flowing through your problems instead of butting them head-on, there’s a chance you can find a more creative solution, connect dots you didn’t realize were an option, and most importantly, create fun while also solving your problems.
Whether it’s work, BJJ, relationships, or whatever you value in life, there’s always going to be that day you feel beat up, burnt out, tired or run into an All-American Wrestling Champion who dumps you on your head before you can pull guard.
These are the days where you must power through just to show up, and brute-forcing the problem with limited energy won’t do.
Sure, you can endure and power through, but that rigidity will eventually take its toll. When an obstacle appears insurmountable, your best bet is to flow: be loose, creative, and look for new options.
Let your body find joy in its movement and grow in finding new solutions.
“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.
Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” ― Bruce Lee
