davey123's blog

I love doing straightforward competitive submission matches, though like to keep it safe and sane. Sometimes have found that when wrestling another really competitive guy things can escalate risking injury and these days I have become a bit calmer. After all, we are doing it for fun right? I’m not really one of those guys who think that wrestling must always be ‘deadly’ (maybe that’s not a good word to use in this context) serious. Am totally up for a normal bout with one clear winner.
But….. have also always loved playing the heel for any guy who likes to be worked over a bit (or a lot…hah hah!). If you read my recommendations you’ll get an idea of what I like. Surprisingly (to me) have also found more recently that I enjoy being the jobber from time to time, and some guys seems to have the chemistry/knack of bringing that side out of me. Pity that I have so much muscle I don’t bend better! SO…… have been thinking of what kind of match could exploit both heel and jobber aspects. What do you think of this…….any takers……..???

One by One Heeling

This is my suggestion for how to have a fun match where you both want to do some heeling and jobbing and use a good range of both BJJ and promission holds. I am assuming that both guys will only tap/submit when they really need to. Pride preventing simply giving up easily. I suppose this is a good way to extend and test your ability to absorb punishment and take pain. Important to have a ‘safe word’ which means if the man in a hold says it, the guy applying the hold lets go immediately without hesitation or questions. ‘Break’ is a good clear one, but I have used many different ones in the past ….some deliberately humourous or silly (eg he has to say ‘I am a tit’)
The match starts with a bit of a roll….then whoever gets the first sub hold on, attempts to keep it on his opponent at just below the opponents tap threshold…so the hold is kept on for some length of ‘punishment’ time, as long as possible! When the man trapped does submit, the guy applying the hold backs off the pressure a bit and asks his victim if he really wants to give up. This gives the guy on the receiving end time to adjust and regroup a bit and he can respond with either ‘no…fuck you’ type of response, or simply say ‘yes, yes I give’ (or whatever you say when you want to quit). Multiple submissions are thereby obtained from the one hold, with varied intensity.
Then once the final submission is obtained from that particular hold (‘I quit’), you reverse positions. The guy who was on the receiving end now as his reward applies any hold he wants on his opponent who is compliant in getting into the hold. The hold is ‘worked’ well, as in the initial hold. This enables you to try out holds which you like to use but maybe rarely can in fully competitive bouts, or simply drill and perfect your holds. Because you alternate between taking and applying you can last longer. If you feel like it of course you can be mean and go for a relatively quick full submission but if you want to enjoy punishing and stretching out your man you can take your time. Being on the receiving end…you are actually in charge because you decide how long the punishment really lasts…in effect you are challenging yourself to see what you can take. It’s fun! And could be hot too of course! You are basically swapping from heel to jobber and vice versa after each hold is worked to the final submission from it.
If you have the luxury of a bigger matted area (eg when wrestling somewhere like Pippas in Manchester) you can invent other fun rules which make it more interesting. For example if the man trapped in the hold manages to reach the edge of the mat and can touch the floor just beyond the mats with any hand/foot, the hold has to be released and he escapes. He then gets his ‘reward’ for his special efforts becoming the guy who applies the next hold on his opponent. Of course if you use this rule there is motivation for the guy underneath not to simply take the hold but to struggle to try and reach the edge of the mats to escape. It introduces a moderate competitive element. Necessary therefore always to start off in the centre of the mats!
The thing I like about this is that so often in either competitive matches or when heeling, inevitably the guy who is on the receiving end of a series of submission holds becomes tired fairly quickly as his resilience is broken…fine if you like that. But in this approach instead of it all becoming one sided you both get to experience heel and jobber roles, unlike in a normal heel match, or as actually happens often in competitive matches where one guy turns out to be dominant because he secures a particularly gruelling hold on his opponent early on which weakens the man.
Tell me what you think! And of course anyone who wants to try it out with me…..get in touch!!!