Why I stopped trying to roll like the 25-year-olds at my gym

For 3 years at my gym I was trying to keep pace with the 22-year-olds doing 6-minute round-robins. I was hurt every other month.

Then I switched: I let them attack, I worked frames, I conserved hips. I started winning more rolls. Got hurt zero times in the last 18 months.

The technical shift was treating each roll like a chess game I'm playing slow. The pacing shift was harder — letting young dudes "win" the first 90 seconds without my ego flaring.

Anyone else made this transition?