I've been doing bjj for almost three months now, and I've loved every second of it. I like to think I've had a good number of tough and competent rolling partners, but today at practice I rolled with another no stripe white belt who just started coming. This is at the end of a fundamentals class in the gi that went over the hip bump sweep and kimura from closed guard. The rules were each pair would start from the closed guard, with the person on bottom trying to sweep and the person on top trying to pass, no submissions allowed.

Now like I said, I've had tough rolls before (hell, they're all tough as a white belt) but until today they've all been really productive. I'm 23, 5'10" and 175lbs with an athletic background, and this dude looks to be in his mid to late 30's, is a little taller than me but looks like he might have a good 30 or 40 pounds on me.

I start on bottom and have an okay time of it; I never managed to sweep him, but got some good practice with opening my guard proactively and trying to contend with a bigger, stronger opponent. I noticed he was a little spazzy, but didn't think anything of it. Once we switched top and bottom, I immediately felt like something wasn't quite right, as if he were fighting for his life. Over the course of three minutes, I got poked in the eye from him trying to grab at my face, and got deep bruises on my triceps from where he was sinking his fingers into the meaty part of my arm. He wouldn't even try to sweep or anything, just grab directly onto my arms with death grips and break my posture using them. This would work not necessarily because of any technique he was doing but simply because I wanted him to let go of my arms. It's worth mentioning too that it felt like he was going close to 100% while we were practicing the kimura, which I endured but my shoulder certainly didn't appreciate it. I've never left the gym feeling so frustrated.

Am I right to not want to roll with this guy anymore, or should I adapt more on my end to what is, at the end of the day, a full contact, combative sport?