Developing a game?

[ProfessorQue]

I recently talked with my head instructor not too long ago and he told me that at the white belt level (which is where I am) I should be learning defense from all positions.

I agree with this but he also went on to say that as I roll, I'll "develop a game" and then I will start figuring out how to get to certain positions from anywhere and tap guys out with the same thing. And that would be a good indicator that I'd be heading towards blue belt status.

My question for you guys is: how do you go about developing a game? How do I go about figuring out what my game will be if all I'm ever doing is defending when I'm rolling?

 

[lechien]

Easy as.

When I was a white belt, I preffered playing guard.

So I pulled closed guard and went for hip bump sweep and kimura.

I kept doing it until I became really good at it.

Then my training partners caught to my game so I went for scissor sweep instead.

Then I became really good at it and they caught on to it.

Then was omoplata sweep.

Etc..

Well you get the idea.

 

[dimmyfinster]

The Mendes bros show a series of guard retention drills that I think should be the basis for any white belt guard. If you focus on one guard you are toast if you can't get to it or lose it. Which is all the time as a white belt. Good open guard retention gives you the confidence to try a move where you might lose the guard instead of just sitting there and holding.



I think guard retention from open guard is even more important than side control or mount escapes. If you didn't use all your energy to avoid getting passed you did something wrong.

 

[winterbike]

In hindsight, my bottom game evolved from escapes. I started escaping side mount and mount better, but was stuck in bottom half. Then my knee shield improved, but I got stuck there. Then I started playing with half-butterfly and that's when it all kinda clicked together. That was 4-5 years in.

Top game, same thing. Got stuck after passing or nearly passing guards, so I started going for americanas to giftwraps to get to the back. Got stuck in the back, so now I'm going for armbars because I can pop them a few steps earlier in the chain of movements. 5-6 years in.

I'd say the only real commitment I made was to 1/2 guard. At some point I decided "fuck it, I'm always pulling 1/2 guard (and variations)" so I'd get a real feeling for it. It took about 2 years for it to really pay off. The rest was problem solving. "Oh I get stuck here, how could I fix that?". And after a while it connected. Was it that efficient a process? Maybe not, but I'm not sure it could have been avoided for me. All the moves I have fun with are moves that made sense for me almost from the second I saw them, forcing myself to do other moves never really amounted to anything.

 

[Uchi Mata]

I recently talked with my head instructor not too long ago and he told me that at the white belt level (which is where I am) I should be learning defense from all positions.

I agree with this but he also went on to say that as I roll, I'll "develop a game" and then I will start figuring out how to get to certain positions from anywhere and tap guys out with the same thing. And that would be a good indicator that I'd be heading towards blue belt status.

My question for you guys is: how do you go about developing a game? How do I go about figuring out what my game will be if all I'm ever doing is defending when I'm rolling?

Your instructor is correct on all counts. Notice that he said you'll develop it, not that you need to develop it. It's an organic process, it happens naturally as you learn more and more of the BJJ repertoire and figure out what does and does not work for you. Once you get to the stage where you know most of the moves and know which ones suit you (generally mid to late blue) then you start consciously working on certain aspects and adding techniques to solve specific problems. But as a white and early blue belt, game development should be natural and unconscious.

 

[ijustwannasurf]

Everyone above has covered how it is your game will develop strictly from defense- you'll gravitate toward some positions naturally, and can build from there.

As to what you can do to help that process along? Study tape. I don't mean instructionals, or highlight reels. Watch as many full matches of one person as you can, and figure out what positions they use repeatedly. Reverse-engineering their grips and entrances is much more effective for you than just watching the end result. Ask your upper belts or coach who you should watch re: the positions you should work on.

There is an objection to this strategy, and it's that younger belts should just follow the curriculum and listen to their instructors. We've all dealt with the idiot YouTube technique collectors, and that is no fun, but that's not what I'm advocating. Studying a person's whole game allows you to see positions connect, and how basic movements are useful in the most advanced moves. If you try to go out and be Rafa as a 4-stripe white belt it probably won't work, but if you set your grips like Rafa does in open guard, you'll learn a lot about how you can play that position. Look for the small stuff that happens over and over.

My number one reason for advocating this approach is that it starts to show younger belts that they can be responsible for their own growth; the amount of time and focus they put in to particular issues is directly correlated to how much they improve. You need an instructor and a team to train, no doubt, but you are not simply a passive participant in your own development.

 

[SuperSuperRambo]

You can't just engineer it like that. I tried to do that many times between white and purple belt and it just plain doesn't work. You have to grapple a lot and find what things you gravitate towards organically, then refine those things, fill in the gaps, and develop a strategy and tactics that force your opponent into your game. Emulation can help. But you don't consciously engineer it from the start.

 

[Dirty Holt]

I disagree that you cannot engineer your own game with what you want. The problem is that no coach allows beginners to train this way.

When I was a beginner and my teammates were beginners, we came from a wrestling background and trained just like wrestlers. Pick a few things, drill hard for an hour straight, do that every day for a month straight, and you have it way better than most bjj beginners. Why? Because beginners do bjj classes, which consists of watching multiple techniques a day, lets be honest - probably getting less than 20 reps per move a class, then switching to new techniques the next day. You cannot engineer a game that way. You can, however, engineer whatever you want into your game if you have the freedom do drill like a wrestler.

 

[selfcritical]

I disagree that you cannot engineer your own game with what you want. The problem is that no coach allows beginners to train this way.

When I was a beginner and my teammates were beginners, we came from a wrestling background and trained just like wrestlers. Pick a few things, drill hard for an hour straight, do that every day for a month straight, and you have it way better than most bjj beginners. Why? Because beginners do bjj classes, which consists of watching multiple techniques a day, lets be honest - probably getting less than 20 reps per move a class, then switching to new techniques the next day. You cannot engineer a game that way. You can, however, engineer whatever you want into your game if you have the freedom do drill like a wrestler.

My friend and sometimes Sambo coach ran practices like this, and I think it was the main reason his guys did well against people with much more technically skilled coaches. He would just watch tape, interrogate your A game, and put about 80 percent of practice on drilling or going live with your A game and things that connect to it. He was in fact really bad at teaching technique, but his guys did well

 

[Steve3730]

I agree with your instructor. You need to learn to defend and survive once you are able to block what is coming at you, you'll start to mount an offensive. You can pick what you want to work on but somewhere along the line you will develop strengths in certain positions, where these strengths are will become your game. The top jiujitsu players in the world have a game they are not 10s in every position. What they are 10s in are the ability to put their opponent in their game. Roger will get you in a position that leads him to mount you and choke you, Marcelo will get your back, etc.