Coach Smith is in my opinion the greatest technician to ever step on the matt. I listen and say if i had a coach like this i would have been unstoppable. What an advantage to have these guys providing this knowledge to kids. Great for the sport. Thank you coach.
Former wrestler here. I do Judo and BJJ now a days but I just wanted to say that you’re definitely on the right path man. The biggest problems with takedowns in BJJ is that they’re seen as an afterthought. So many Jiu Jitsu black belts are technicians on the ground in terms of grappling IQ but are about as smart as a bucket of rocks when it comes to standup grappling. Whenever BJJ schools do try to teach standup, it’s usually piss poor Judo or god awful wrestling. On the wrestling side, BJJ instructors will teach students how to do singles, doubles, ankle picks, etc and they will also teach them how to sprawl, but they never teach students how to knee slide, peak out, gator roll, etc to recover from bad shots or fight out from under a sprawl. This is why most BJJ folks lack the confidence to go for takedowns, because they have no solid option other than pulling guard if their takedown attempt fails. Getting sprawled on obviously sucks, and no matter how good of a wrestler you are, you will get sprawled on. The difference is that wrestlers are obviously comfortable in those bad positions whereas BJJ people are not, and that’s the difference in terms of mindset when it comes to takedowns. Even tho (I am assuming) you are not a wrestler, I think it is good on you to want to learn this stuff, and who better than John Smith of all people, even if it is RU-vid lol but anyways knowing this stuff will tremendously help your Jiu Jitsu game by a huge long shot. Keep up the good work brodie
