Judging strength from appearance is something people do all the time. I
think it's pretty likely they do it wrong all the time. I know I do.
During my final
randori tonight, I paired up with this dude that looked
bulky. Also, he had a beard and some kind of Eastern European accent. I was
thinking, "This dude is probably strong. Bear-wrestling strong." As you can
probably predict from the above set-up, this turned out not to be so! We
were being relatively good judoka (and were also really tired) and not forcing
shit, but I'm fairly certain that he wasn't any stronger than me. He wasn't that big, at least
height-wise, either.
So what made him appear strong? I think it the beard, and the accent helped
as well. I don't remember the beard in detail, but it had to do with the
nature of the beard as well, not just its mere presence. After all, some
beards make their wearers project "Guys, I am a Unix system administrator!"
instead of "I vill crush you!"
My girlfriend hates facial hair, so I will probably never grow a beard, but
if I did, however, I would study the strength beard well to determine its functional
characteristics. You potential beard growers - this is a recommended strategy!
Conversely, I've been surprised plenty of times by people that are way stronger than
they look. There's this skinny dude at judo in his fifties (probably). He's
got gray hair and smiles often. Yeah, he's got a crushing robot grip, and
he can peel my guard off like my legs were made of pasta. If you're in his
half guard, he can actually make you tap out by crushing your trapped leg.
That submission owes plenty to technique, but I still think you need the steel trap
legs to make it happen.
Speaking of strength, I have a not-very-well-supported theory. I think that
strength training is making me a little more resistant to injury. I've seen
about one injury a month this year, and I've landed awkwardly a few times,
but I'm OK. Deadlifts and various dumbbell cleans all put pressure on,
besides the obvious targets like the posterior chain, your ankles and knees.
A lot of people sprain ankles, knees, and shoulders. Like I said, this isn't
a well-formed proof. I could just be less unlucky of late than the other guys.
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