Does having a plan improve your bjj?

[Dirty Holt]

if you can't achieve your goal without a plan, shouldn't you plan to learn how? the best musicians don't have their face stuffed in sheet music, and they can improvise. they know their instrument so well that they just play.

that's the idea. well, that's how i operate - know as much as i can, see the opportunity and have the ability to seize it.

Being a hobbyist musician, I will disagree. Just like every world champ in BJJ, all of the famous musicians that changed how we thought about music did a few things so much better than everyone that it came through in their improvising. Examples:

Hendrix - hammer on/pull off over major blues scale
Van Halen - 3 note per string minor pentatonic and tapping
Malmsteen - sweeping arpeggios
Rhoads - legato over diatonic scales

Then you look at all great bjj world champs. They are going to have 2-3 things they score with from each position probably 80% of the time; thats it. When the shit gets hot and they need to score, they dont just go with the flow and rely on a vast array of techniques. They are going to try to smash you over the head with what they do best. I mean just look at last years ADCC. Within 1 second, most hardcore fans of the sport could tell you what each finalists go to moves are. Off the top of my head:

Mendes
Lister
Palhares
Garcia

There is no doubt these guys have a plan of a few things from each position.

 

[Uchi Mata]

Yes, it helps a ton. There are no world champs that dont have pre set strategies that they know work for them. The problem for most bjj athletes at the hobby level is that their coach is very uncomfortable teaching very few things and letting the athletes figure shit out on their own. This leads to 45 minutes of a 90 minute class being a technique seminar with 7 different options from a given position. If you were actually training with a plan, the technique portion would take literally 10 minutes and you would have an extra 35 to drill whats in your plan, but that requires a coach that has figured out how to make people achieve their potential, which is very rare.

I feel like a lot of coaches try to teach improvisation by showing a ton of moves from every position, with the idea that if they show 20 variations that guys will be able to hit them as needed. It's bull. What allows for improvisation is knowing the basics and setups for the those basics so well that when you see a chance you can take it regardless of the position from which you see the situation emerge. So for example, I don't need to know 500 arm bar setups, I just need to know a few really, really well and when I see the opportunity arise I can go for it instantly.

I can't really affect what my coach teaches or what we drill, but when I'm rolling I definitely have a few things I'm going to work on and try to perfect, to the point where I won't have to think about them in future when situations come up where those moves are appropriate...I'll just go for them.

Understanding a position isn't about knowing a million options, it's about having practiced the basics of that position so thoroughly that you can flow between them effortlessly. That position can be as basic as the mount or as complex as the berimbolo, but the principle remains the same. Improvisation comes from instant positional recognition, which comes from practicing a few moves to perfection. Once you have the core move down pat the little variations are easy. My favorite days are drill days where there's very little technique and a lot of drilling, because 'knowledge' in grappling isn't the ability to rattle off moves and variations, but rather (essentially) muscle memory. From most positions I just do the same things over and over but I've gotten decent at them, because I drill them endlessly.

 

[Uchi Mata]

Being a hobbyist musician, I will disagree. Just like every world champ in BJJ, all of the famous musicians that changed how we thought about music did a few things so much better than everyone that it came through in their improvising. Examples:

Hendrix - hammer on/pull off over major blues scale
Van Halen - 3 note per string minor pentatonic and tapping
Malmsteen - sweeping arpeggios
Rhoads - legato over diatonic scales

Then you look at all great bjj world champs. They are going to have 2-3 things they score with from each position probably 80% of the time; thats it. When the shit gets hot and they need to score, they dont just go with the flow and rely on a vast array of techniques. They are going to try to smash you over the head with what they do best. I mean just look at last years ADCC. Within 1 second, most hardcore fans of the sport could tell you what each finalists go to moves are. Off the top of my head:

Mendes
Lister
Palhares
Garcia

There is no doubt these guys have a plan of a few things from each position.

When I saw 'plan' in the thread title, I assumed it was about training plans, not plans from a position. I don't really think you can be effective having plans in a position, in the sense that plans imply conscious thought. You want to have go-to moves and secondary options for the common counters in all the key positions, and drill the shit out of them. You need a training plan to develop those moves, because they'll be different for every person depending on your physical and psychological makeup. BJJ definitely suffers from people attempting to learn too any different moves from various positions. This isn't about endorsing 'the basics', it's about choosing carefully what you invest your mat time in. Berimbolos are fine if you want that to be your go-to from DLR, but don't spend a lot of time working on other DLR styles if you want to berimbolo every time. I literally have maybe 20 moves I use in rolling on a regular basis, that I will go to instantly if I'm really serious about beating you. Hell, I'm curious if I can list them:

Passing guard:
- double unders
- torreando/X-pass
- cross sleeve grip standing for breaking closed guard
- hip switch Marcelo style for passing half guard

Side control:
- chair sit back take
- KoB to mount
- ninja mount

Knee on Belly
-far side armbar
-cross choke

Mount
- cross choke
- armbar

Back
- armbar
- bow and arrow choke

Guard
- helicopter sweep
- X-guard push sweep
- far sleeve feed situp sweep
- butterfly hook sweep

Half guard
- Gordo sweep
- deep half elevator sweep to double unders pass
- deep half waiter sweep

That's essentially it. If you restricted me to just those moves, it really wouldn't affect my game that much. The set is a little different for no-gi, but the core is the same. I know how to hit all those moves and have practiced them thousands of times, and if I get in a position where I can go for one I will without thinking. Everything in between is really just seeing a route to one of those moves and working towards it.

In Judo, it was even fewer. I think in my whole Judo career I only ever scored with:

- Osoto gari
- foot sweeps
- uchi mata
- tomoe nage
- armbar
- bow and arrow choke
- sumi gaeshi (once)
- pins (usually yoko shio gatame)

You don't need a lot of moves, just to be really good at a few.

 

[ancientcurrent]

the person with the clearest strategy has the clearest path to victory