Question for the higher belts(high blues and above pref)

Im a new blue and I want to be a top game player. Should I still focus on rounding out my game or should I focus on improving top game aspects( guard pass, takedowns, top control, etc)? I kind of think its too early to focus on a certain aspect but then I remember michael Jen mention about developing techniques around a system. if I concentrate on the top game I'll probably practice on the weaknesses once in awhile to plug any holes. Advice plz thanks

 

"You know a thousand moves - and they all suck." - Carlson Gracie

Translation: Focus on the basics and master them.

 

Start building up a gameplan for yourself.

 

You're a new blue belt now - congrats. You're still very new to BJJ so soak up what your instructor offers for a while. I don' t think you need a grappling gameplan just yet.

 

i had no top when i got my blue, so i really started to focus on it. then my guard fell apart, so i had to go back to working guard because i was always ending up on my back in tournaments. i think the best thing to do is train a little more holistically. pick one of your weaker areas and work on it, especially against newer guys, where you'll be able to have more success with slighty sloppy technique. when those same techniques aren't working against better guys, ask for help..this is where you start to tighten things up. by using new techniques against new guys, you get a general understanding and feel for how they work. this makes them easier refine in the long run. train hollistically by working nothing but top against newer guys, and your guard against guys that are better than you. use your guard to get on top of the better guys, and then you can start to use the top techniques that you've been learning by rolling with the newbs, and usually, you'll have decent position to start off with if you got the top with a sweep or something. if you are in good positions on top and losing them, work on not losing them, then the submissions will come. this has been my approach to training for about the last 8 months, and i feel very confident where ever i'm at. a year ago, i was all guard and pretty pathetic on top.

 

i would still try to play a very well rounded game. Your naturaly going to lean more toward what your good at. I wouldnt try to have the mind set that "I only want to build a top game". Just keep training and learning jiu jitsu.. It will all come together.

Jiujitsu is and always will be the guard.. in it or passing. It is what is so different from most of the other grappling arts.. No one developed the guard as much as bjj.. So i focus most of my time there.. The guard, or passing it.

 

Lots of drilling of moves that make you scoot your hips, Example; Simple sweep.

Training regularly you will continue to learn moves, but your focus should be on movement, let me explain. If you observe blue belts are doing BJJ now but kinda mechanical, purple belts are crazy doing all kinds of moves and then by brown they have settled down to being real fluid.

A new blue with a focus on movement, this means for example you have a guy passing your guard, and you know he is going to pass. Dont sit there and watch as he locks you down in side control, begin your escape just as soon as you can see he might pass. Always keep moving your self.

Escapes are what they say they are, moving yourself, leaving out from under the guy, not pushing him off of you. Technique!

Your top game, do not hop around bringing your hips up making space. Move tight and smooth while on top.


Train, train, train......alot. Move, move, move, dont sit still in between moves.

Train all the time, remember blue to purple is the longest transition from belt to belt.

Congrats on your Blue!

 

I got my blue some 600 posts ago ;p

Seriously, blue belt is way too soon to start isolating things in your game, especially since you're a "new" blue belt. You know moves like armbars, elbow escaping, and the bump and roll, but you've far from perfected them, so be sure not to neglect these.

Aside from that, I think that if you want to be a top player, you've also got to concentrate on how to get there. Many BJJ schools start off the knees, so its easy to get on top, but in a tournament you're on your feet. I would try to learn off the feet (with wrestling and/or Judo) or find myself a really solid sweep from the guard. I personally think the sweep would be a better approach, because if you havent already had experience with Wrestling or Judo, you're not going to take down someone else who is say, an ex collegiate wrestler and has 12+ years of wrestling experience. Natrually, after you find your sweep, find your takedown.

 

Very good advice.

 

Blue belt is where you start organizing and combining your techniques into some kind of style. Basically you begin to figure out what works best for you. Good blue belts can impose this game on their opponents.

Purple belt is where you really define your style. It isn't a gimmick or two, or prefered position. It is a recognizable style, and not just a chain of moves or combination. Everyone has prefered positions and those change as you progress. But to really excell you should be trying to figure out what works for YOU, and learning to impose that plan on your opponent.

 

There's no color belt where you really begin to define yourself. You define yourself from day 1. You find out what you like and what you don't like. If you want to be a top game player than be one. The first thing you need master are your top game techniques. Learn to pass, hold side, improve your position, submit, etc... The next thing you need to worry about is.. what to do from bottom. If you're a top game player you have to do whatever possible to get on top. So if you find yourself on bottom, you need to know your escapes, as well as have 3-4 SOLID sweeps you can do almost 100% of the time. So in essence you need to have a both solid top and bottom game, it's just from the top position where you'll be attacking more rather than bottom.

 

Don't worry too much about your "style". Your game will come out on it's own as you train. Just work on what your coach tells you to, work on your weaknesses, and pretty soon your game will reveal itself.

 

doesn't just happen. you should know what you like and what you are good at withing 6months to a year of training. your game doesn't reveal itself, you learn things you like and adapt it to your game

 

Hmm, that's funny... I don't remember specificly choosing to be a guard player.

To a certain extent I agree with you. After I began to see my game was mostly a guard game I adjusted my training acordingly.

6 months? Maybe. I was already playing guard probably the majority of the time at 6 months, but looking back my top game wasn't that far removed from my guard game then, they both sucked.

At 6 months I was playing closed guard game, today, though still a guard game, it's much more specific, and mostly a half guard butterfly game that would have never occured to me at 6 months of training.

 

it's also a lot about what you're dealt. if your instructor teaches mostly techniques from guard you will more likely become a guard player. so you learned a lot from the guard and played it a lot therefor you became a guardplayer.

 

Welcome back, hayliks.

You must have posted on other forums for a while, during your hiatus from Sherdog...?

 

If you only focus on the top game then you will be stuck if ever caught on the bottom. You still need to practice the bottom game but you can place more emphasis on escaping inferior positions and sweeping to gain the top position. You don't need to become a bottom player but you DEFINATLEY need to be able to transition from the bottom to the top, be it escapes, reversals or sweeps.

A good way to do this is to always start on the bottom when sparring.

 

Learn combos (Top or bottom it doesn't matter). Learn lots of them. Drill the shit out of them so it becomes a nervous tick. Keep your opponent running.

 

basics, basics, basics. and develop what you you like... that's what I do...

 

LOL, Cesar Gracie once told me that he asked Carlson, how is my technique?

Carlson answered, "If they are tapping its good, if they are not tapping your technique sucks!"