What Is Flow Rolling?

Flow rolling is a lighter and less competitive method of sparring than regular rolling (sparring). Flow rolling allows you and your partner to practice techniques on each other without a full defense. 

When flow rolling you and your partner will often provide a slower defense with less resistance than a regular rolling session. This allows you to sharpen skills that you have drilled but are not quite ready to execute in a high-intensity session. Other benefits of flow rolling include.

1. Developing new positions and improving weak positions. Things can move so quickly in a full-intensity sparring session that it is difficult to process what is going on and think about the best course of action. Flow rolling allows you to slow things down and improve new and weak positions.

2. Training around injuries. The slower pace of flow rolling allows you or your opponent to avoid any injuries mindfully.

3. Allow a lower belt to learn while sparring with an upper belt. Often, if a lower belt is rolling with an upper belt, the upper belt will allow the lower belt to move through their offense without curtailing them too much. This provides ample opportunity for the lower belt to see their mistakes and improve. In a sparring match between two opponents, the skill level can often be so extreme that the lower belt is incapable of learning due to how dominant their opponent is. This can alleviate that skill discrepancy.