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Comment by evantbyrne | Hacker News Reader

Not that I disagree with your point, but... throwing your fight against the much smaller woman at the dojo is contractual. Weight classes exist for a reason.

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Sure, and I'd agree with you if the much bigger guy could, I don't know... breathe. :)

Weight classes exist because they matter amongst opponents of roughly the same skill and training level. If one person is trained and the other is not, they matter a lot less.

You're not the first person to be surprised by this and challenge me on it. You also wouldn't be the first person to come to the gym, try to prove your point, and fail. :)

Everyone that has cooed grappled has a story like this. Part of the reason is practice, part of it is giving up before the fight even starts, but also that BJJ places constraints on matches in such a way that make physical characteristics matter less between hobbyists. BJJ–and even contact sports like MMA–don't resemble combat from any era of human history, so we might as well cut the pageantry and settle this by seeing who has more caterpillars in their bedroom right now. I've got at least a couple dozen.

Sure, but none of that contradicts anything I said, and... makes my point?

Within the constraints of BJJ, which I agree is not full-on combat, obviously... training matters more than weight or strength, a majority of the time.

I'm not sure where the disagreement is, and you definitely win on caterpillars.

We are in agreement on the point of the article. Next time, consider the state on your butterfly army before sizing up strangers below a navy seal dot com article, and you'll save yourself some embarrassment.

Weight classes matter between two trained opponents. Quite a bit less when one’s a newbie and the other an expert.

Yes, but the description above has to be hyperbole. A 6.2 built athlete vs small woman...

Have you tried it? It may be one of those "you have to see it to believe it" things but I can assure you that was not hyperbole

Training exercise is not the same as life-or-death conflict. It may also be the bigger person is holding back because they don't want a manslaughter charge.

I've seen it more than once, and the most recent time was my buddy who showed up specifically trying to prove a point. He was untrained. She was very trained. He didn't succeed at making his point.

He signed up for the gym a month later.

Having wrangled toddlers, I'm entirely onboard with the idea that a smaller opponent fighting in unexpected ways can be surprisingly difficult to handle even with a clear weight and strength advantage.

Yeah, but this scenario assumes you want the toddler to live.

Having wrangled toddlers…

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