The Big Man on Campus

Walking around at 215lbs and being 6'1 I tend to be one of the bigger guys on the mats on a given day. Coming from a background of working as a lumberjack and picking up heavy logs all day, one of the biggest obstacles I had in training was not using size or strength to "win" during matches. I can't count how many times my poor instructor had to tell me to focus on using technique instead of muscle before the idea finally got beaten into my head.

A funny side story is that most of my competition losses have been against opponents that are 50lbs lighter and much smaller than myself. Those dang little guys are so squirmy and fast they just give me the hardest time trying to beat them!

Because of that though, I absolutely love when my bigger teammates show up to train. They are some of my favorite people to roll with because I lose all of size and strength advantages. I always harass T.C. when he is able to train because he absolutely crushes me every time. It forces me to become more technical, because there is no other option.

Even sitting down TC is a mammoth of a human

This past Saturday I was extremely privileged to get to train at the Alliance Eastlake Jiu-Jitsu Foundation and join them for their affiliation training. I failed to get a picture with them, but was thrilled to get to be one of the smaller guys on the mats. The school has a big lineup of 200-300lb guys. Combine that with a very technical, traditional approach to Jiu-Jitsu of smash and pass and I absolutely loved it. For me, getting crushed during training is a great thing for my personal improvement. It forces me to get better, and makes sure my ego never gets bigger than it deserves to be.

The training session was really what I was hoping to find out here on the West Coast. A slew of people that were bigger and better than me and loved to train hard. We got in close to 2 hours of nothing but straight rolling, and I got to lock horns with a bunch of big guys that didn't let me get away with anything. I was super lucky to be invited back whenever I can make the drive down there, and I'm really looking forward to similar training sessions and how my game will be able to improve from it.

About the Author:

Steven McMahon earned his Kyuki-Do Black Belt in 2011 from Grand Master Kim at Kim's Black Belt Academy and his  BJJ Purple Belt in January 2017 under Professor Charles Nunley. He trains out of Cornerstone BJJ in Fayetteville, NC. He is an active competitor at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Army Combatives tournaments.