Who is the most dangerous group to roll with?

Scrolling the Internet and this is the question of the day.

“Who is the most dangerous group to roll with?”

BLUF: The quick answer is, in the proper training environment, the greater the skill level, the lower the danger of getting injured. However, like anything, there are exceptions.

Discussion

This POV is only about the training environment.

Rolling is training.

Your head instructors cultivate the tone of the training environment.

The greatest threats in the training room are training partners with:

a lack of skill,

a chip on their shoulder,

Fear, and

their ego (or a combination of all of this).

YOUR ego influences how you will prepare and respond.

Examples

We’ve all met the guy that trained “MMA” and comes in to train.

They brag, and make it sound like their training was superior to what we do in Jiujitsu.

Then they try to fight during rolling like it’s a death match.

If they do try to catch you in something it’s awkward and they squeeze or strain.

They usually gas out fast and never come back.

Then we have people who genuinely want to learn and train but their lack of skill makes them dangerous.

Maybe even their fear of the unknown.

They fight like hell to survive and they can easily cause injury with their wild movement and thrashing.

Other examples of risky training partners:

✔️ The guy that doesn’t like to lose

✔️ The guy that trains like it’s their job

✔️ The hardcore competitor

You can get injured in these scenarios too, because of what they bring into the training room, regardless of their belt level.

I’ve trained with competitors and law enforcement professionals whose lives depend on them being able to handle people easily and they train that way.

The partner with an ego can be dangerous because they need to win every round.

Damned if they will let you win 1 set second of any exchange, they act like their asses are on fire to escape from anything that even gets close to them being in a bad position.

Your Options

The ideal strategy is to know who you are training with and how you will deal with their potential to injure you.

You can fight fire with fire or with water.

It also depends on your skill level. You may not have the tools to have a competitive roll with a skilled practitioner. Working on your defense and escape skills might be the best option you have.

Know when you are the HAMMER and when you are the NAIL.

Tapping is always an option. Letting your ego dictate whether you tap or not is on you.

If you can’t stand the idea of “losing” a round in the training room then you might be the most dangerous to yourself overall.

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