The phrase ‘Flow Rolling’ often gets a bad rap in the grappling world. You know the feeling you go to slap and bump hands and your partner says, “You mind if we just flow?” You’re probably thinking, “Flow? What the hell! I want to fight!” People in the Jiu-Jitsu community often think of flow rolling as something less than live rolling. Some might even think that you only “flow roll” when you’re injured, broken, old, or weak. Flow rolling is a method of sparring that occurs at a lighter, less competitive / more cooperative pace than the regular rolling, involving a give and take in the match where your opponent is allowed to apply their techniques without your full defence and the emphasis is on movement and the exchange of positions. Flowing is when two students train from one movement to one movement without stopping or going for a “tapout.”
With an understanding of it’s definition and the knowledge of the basic movements of BJJ, a student can now flow. A practitioner will first warm up by stretching the legs, groin and later the upper body for a full body warm-up. The practitioner will start in a sit-down pose, on knees, facing his partner who is on their knees as well. They Shake hands and begin the first movement which could be bringing one partner into the guard position. Each partner will take turns and initiate the next move, never forcing a finishing move as the one of the main purpose to flowing is to not stop moving. A partner will move again until reaching a dominant position, like a full mount or knee on stomach. When position is attained the partner will let go of that position, knee on stomach in this case, and move to a side mount, or roll the partner off his back and begin cycle again. This training can go on and on, based on the skilled level of the students and cardio endurance. This flowing back and forth is a psychically a complete workout and mentally reinforces the techniques the students attempt during the flow session.
I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once. But I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. – Bruce lee
Develop your ‘Flow’
- Practice cyclical flow drills – Use these drills to help you develop more precise, accurate movements and transitions.
- “Dark” rolling (eyes closed) – When you grapple with your eyes closed you narrow your focus to your immediate needs. So instead of being distracted by all of the external stimuli when you grapple with your eyes open, you develop laser point focus on your partner. In addition, you are forced to move slower and with better precision which improves your technique.
- ‘Catch and Release’ flow rolling – This is a great way to move your body in and out of submissions. You want to use as little strength as possible and rely almost exclusively on technique. The goal is to exchange techniques with your partner using continuous movement with no breaks in the rhythm.
- The “right” partner – It’s important to find a partner who moves well. Also, find someone you roll with all the time who is familiar with the way you move. If they are choppy, resistant or in a deep egoic state it will be difficult to flow.
There are limitations to full intensity sparring (especially with evenly matched opponents) where each person will avoid taking chances or trying a new technique for fear of losing position and ending up getting submitted. This is where flow rolling will loosen up your game. Here are 4 ways that flow rolling can improve your jiu-jitsu.
1) Try new positions / develop your weaker positions
One of the ways one is discouraged from incorporating new positions or even attempting to improve your weaker positions is the fear that when your opponent counters the technique, you will lose your position on possibly get submitted. So you tighten up your game and instead restrict yourself to only your tried and true best techniques. But you have failed to try to incorporate that new position into your game and over a period this stifles your progress and growth.
With the cooperative nature of flow rolling you can attempt your triangle and your opponent allows you to lock it up before he starts the correct counter. With repeated attempts in flow rolling, you gain confidence in your ability to apply the triangle and have both added a new submission to your arsenal and corrected a weak spot in your game.
2) Exchange of many different positions
During a 5 min round of intense sparring, each person will attempt to limit the movement of their opponent and control the positions. This results in static matches where each tightens their grips and the movement between positions grinds to a halt. Instead, in flow rolling, you have the option to direct the roll repeatedly to the back position and try choke as many times as you wish. Repetition is the mother of skill and this a great way to get those reps in and make that technique part of your game.
3) Learning opponent reactions
Marcelo Garcia said that a key to getting deadly at submissions was to allow a tight, defensive opponent to move, thereby opening up opportunities for submissions. By the time most BJJ-ers are at bluebelt, they have some idea of their best positions. To bring their level up higher in those already strong positions, flow rolling will build your transitions to get to those strong positions and also build your knowledge of how your opponent counters. When you have a solid idea of how the opponent will counter your favourite technique you can now anticipate their reactions, start to build combinations and re-counters and thus always be one step ahead of your opponent’s defence.
4) Training around injuries
One of the unfortunate realities of bjj is dealing with training injuries. It can be frustrating to sit on the sidelines as you recover and feel that your hard won progress is slipping away. Training around injuries is a skill to keep your jiu-jitsu progressing and providing some mental relief from the frustration of being sidelined. High intensity sparring involves sudden, uncontrolled movements where you are unexpectedly forced to post a hand or shift balance onto your knee to avoid being swept. Flow rolling will allow you to avoid certain positions that aggravate your injury and still retain your timing and movement.
Flowing helps improve your agility and timing as well as teaches you how to use your momentum when you are training.
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