Three methods that I use to figure out problem positions:
1. Ask my instructor/classmates for their input and explore the position with them.
-this gives you the chance to get multiple viewpoints on the position, how to prevent it, how to stop it once it's locked in and how to deal with it once you are playing the position.
2. Break the position down on your own by watching teammates use it and watching video of the position. Figure out how people are getting into the position, what they need to complete a successful entry into the position, what they need once they are in the position and what they are trying to do with the position/where they want the position to go.
3. Play with the position intuitively. Meaning pay attention to what you naturally do when you feel like you are being put there and pay attention to what your training partners with more experience do intuitively if they are new to the position. If there is anything that you naturally do that makes it harder for your partner to enter into the position or complete their goal in the position, then make a note of it and start building around that nugget of information. For example, when I play with footlocks against guys who aren't that experienced with them, they naturally try to grab my hands to stop me from finishing the moves. Sometimes their hand placement is useless, sometimes it effectively stops me from doing what I want to do. So now I can take the movement that they used intuitively and build something off of that. Maybe using their effective gripping to improve my footlock defense, maybe modifying my own grips to make it harder for them to control my hands when I am trying to footlock.
Hope that makes sense!
