It’s all about tempo…
Tempo.
1 : the rate of speed of a musical piece or passage indicated by one of a series of directions (as largo, presto, or allegro) and often by an exact metronome marking
2 : rate of motion or activity : pace
3 : In the card game of bridge, tempo refers to the advantage of being on lead, thus having the initiative of developing tricks for one’s side.
The Workout Of The Day today spoke to several issues, but primary among them was the idea of acceleration as a way of setting the Tempo in a race. I wrote:
“Those riders that can lift the tempo when they need to or want to are the ones that win; they put the screws to the competition by forcing them to match their accelerations – or not.”
In Jiu-Jitsu practice tonight, I rolled with a really good white belt. Really good. After the roll, he thanked me and asked “What can I do better?” “What do I need to work on?”
Damn.
I told him he should work on controlling the tempo of the match.
Allow me to elaborate…
I’m a fairly small guy. I weigh in at around 146. The guy in question was 100 pounds or so heavier than me.
There’s an etiquette to this type of a size discrepancy in BJJ training; the big guy doesn’t blob-out and squash the little guy. No belly-flop to Americana nonsense. You roll to get better, and you use your skill and your knowledge.
This doesn’t mean you can’t – or shouldn’t – use your size; I for sure ain’t gonna forget about my speed and agility advantage!
So, controlling the tempo…
“What I mean,” I told him, “Is that you need to use your size and weight to freeze me. You need to dictate where the fight goes.”
“I’m a higher belt, so theoretically (at least!) I know more than you. When you go from position ‘a’ directly to position ‘c’, I can see it coming, and I get there before you. ”
“You need to take the time to stop at ‘b’. Hold me there, think about your next step, and control the match. Don’t rush your moves. I will see them coming, and will counter you before you get there.”
“In short, you need to control the tempo.”
There’s a universality here, folks.
Control the tempo of the event and – more often than not – you win.
That’s the theme for my training this week…
M
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