If you’re smaller, new, and unsure where to start, sit down and play guard. You’re not taking down someone who outweighs you by thirty pounds, has been training longer, and is twenty years younger.

I watched two students roll the other day with a big gap in size and age. They started in turtle, but eventually both got to their feet, and I could feel myself tensing up. I watched them for twenty seconds, then asked them to reset in turtle.

After the round, I talked to the older student. He hasn’t spent much time sparring on his feet. Most injuries don’t come from submissions. They come from falling. You go down wrong, you hurt yourself. You land on someone else, you hurt them.

After class, I checked in with the younger student. He said he got caught up in what he was going for and forgot who he was rolling with. It happens. But you have to stay aware of who’s in front of you. I don’t roll with a seventy-year-old the same way I roll with a forty-year-old, and that’s nothing like how I roll with a twenty-five-year-old.

Training smart means adjusting.