Fighting smaller people: One of the great themes of Jiu Jitsu is that of constantly developing your ability to OVERCOME GREATER STRENGTH WITH LESSER STRENGTH. As such much is written and talked about how to beat bigger opponents. In contrast, little is spoken about how to beat smaller opponents. The feeling is that bigger people ought to be able to beat smaller people just in virtue of being bigger. However, I'm sure you have all had the unpleasant experience of going up against a tricky smaller fighter and really struggling with the task. In the recent adcc World championships open weight division exactly this scenario played out – 77kg division entrant Lachlan Giles had been beaten in his first match in his own weight division and went into the open weight as a heavy underdog as one of the smallest entrants. He used the classic weapons of the smaller athlete – inversion, inside positioning and off balancing to successfully attack three much larger heavyweights and win by submission – one of the outstanding performances of the event. Underestimating the smaller athlete resulted in three heavyweight world champions getting soundly defeated (lack of knowledge of the leg lock game was also an obvious factor). It was a valuable lesson to the Jiu Jitsu World – we cant ignore the question of how to take on smaller opponents. Gordon Ryan took on Mr Giles in the midst of his heavyweight blitz. We decided that the two best options would either finish him with counter leg locking as he appeared vulnerable to some strong counter opportunities and Mr Ryan has an extremely strong leg lock and counter leg lock game that the other heavyweights clearly lacked; or play a game based on the two biggest problems bigger athletes can create for smaller athletes – nullify the effects of the legs and inversion by stepping over a knee and getting chest to chest to maximize weight advantage and minimize movement from underneath, then get behind where height advantage creates tremendous control and submission opportunities through arm traps with body triangles. The second option arose first and here you see the result – but make sure you have a plan for ALL opponents big AND small
