What does your personal game evolution look like.

It is amazing how each individuals game can evolve and change as time goes on. I see it in some of my teammate and myself. Not to long in the past I hated side control. I really, really avoided being in top side at all costs for years. I have always been more of a bottom player. I was reflecting the other night about this because now with the solid addition of twister side(and everything that goes with it) and a serious north south choke(finally, that took 2 years to get ok at)and can crusher to darce, I am now looking for side control. Now I am looking to just get to side control were I can go twister side or ns choke or Can crusher.While my true side control is still lacking,I'm really on top a lot more and loving it. Man how things change in BJJ, that is what I love soo much about it. How has your game evolved in the last few years?

I went from sucking to sucking less. I cant really remember life before d'arce and jnt though....

I still suck pretty bad. I've only been at it a few months though. Having serious problems getting any submissions with the Darce during sparing. No prob during drilling, but when live rolling I can not submit people it seems. Need to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

D'arce, Jap neck ties, and everything in between. Now deep hook transitions and lots of rubber guard.

At first, I knew nothing.. Then I learned full guard, and thought I knew everything.. Then after 4 years.. I realized I still know nothing :P My technique has obviously improved in the years ive spent practicing.. But Id say the past year has been the biggest improvement in my game by far. Once I realized its not about winning, and instead its about improving yourself.. I learned at a MUCH faster pace. Instead of going in to class trying to tap my partner out everytime.. I started swimming straight to the deep end. (Putting myself in positions I knew I was bad at).. And within no time I could feel many holes in my game being filled. In fact, I dont think i can remember 1 time in the past 6 months that Ive even tapped someone out in class. If I have a submission, and I know I can finish it, Ill just let it go and move to something else. But, Id probably say my favorite part of rolling is now seeing how deep I can go and still get out. Woohoo for Jiujitsu!

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Originally Posted by Cody Kietzman

I went from sucking to sucking less. I cant really remember life before d'arce and jnt though....

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Same here. I really like hitting head n arm chokes for side control or NS. and adding the d'arce from the last MTS. But notice my mounted subs need a lot of work, so will start focusing on the next month.

I went from knowing thinking that I knew most things (from observation) to realizing that I ain't know a dag gone thing (in application). And I still have a loooong way to go.

Changes:I used to think I liked to be in my guard. I used to prefer getting to mount. Now I mainly sweep from guard to get on top and I prefer side control to mount. The reason is because my most effective submission is the americana (or as I call it grilled cheese) and I like to work TSC because options open up. For a long time I'd get to mount but be clueless. That's another change. My mounted attacks have gotten better. Ever since our class repped arm triangles and S mount, I've been hitting mounted triangles, monoplatas, and arm bars or armbar transitions into omoplatas.

What hasnt' changed: I still prefer half guard to full guard because I'm still lazy and I hate fighting to break posture. In half guard I find that I use less energy and it's more about balance and leverage. My guard still sucks and guys tend to pass it just from being persistent. My side control bottom defense is still pretty strong. Mostly because my guard retention sucks...mostly because I'm lazy....because when I actually try, my guard retention turns into butterfly sweeps. But currently, my style is basically defined by laziness. I like positions that I don't have to fight hard from.


Room for improvement: I need to include some weighted sit ups into my life. I can't let my improvement be hindered by laziness. I need to be more persistent about breaking and maintaining posture. I also need to work my butterflies. Whenever I use buttefly I have a LOT of success. I'm not sure why I don't try enough. I guess I feel like my guard's already passed at that point and I'm used to letting guys pass so I can get to half. I also need to attack with subs from bottom instead of JUST sweeping. Mostly, I just gotta stop being lazy.

Recently, I've had to relearn everything.

My old gym just didn't have any high level competitors (they're a young gym) so a lot of the escapes and reversals I could do really only occurred due to the space my opponents gave me. So now I have to relearn how to grind out that space and how to tighten up all of my transitions. At my current gym, all defensive moves have to be preemptive during the transition because you'll be toast if you let them settle in with their crazy shoulder pressure.

The only exploitable edge i have is in my leg locks since they are infrequently used at my current gym so there's a lot of long, leg extended, open guard work where I end up falling with an ankle in my arm pit. So now I'm known as the weird smashable leg lock guy. Everybody has already tightened up their open guard and the leg lock opportunities for me are less and less. So now I'm trying to rewire my leg lock entries into leg drags, replace knee reaps with single leg X guard, and tighten my transitions between single leg X and standard X.

Basically, my game is a scattered mess right now. I can see where routes are forming but I just need more reps to really flesh em out and reconstruct my game.

My technique has tightened and i have more A game finishes than just a few months ago....let alone a year ago or when I started messing around in my back yard 3 years ago.

I actually made a conscious game change when I hit purple belt. I was having some major back pain and I figured out it was from my full guard bottom game. I was getting stacked multiple times during every roll. After a few years of this my lower back was killing me. I thought I was going to have to quit JJ. But then one night it dawned on me that if I started using a top game then my back will not get so jacked...

So I consciously changed from a bottom to top game. Which is not the best strategy for a 135# guy but hey at least I can still train.. :)

~Cade

I used to be a strict full guard player. I was nervous about anybody being in my halfguard because in my mind it was just one more step to losing it all and having my guard passed. Since putting in the reps in 1/2 guard and learning to be more offensive in turtle/monk guard now I have no fear of my guard being passed.
I still prefer to play guard over being on top but if someone pulls guard Im perfectly fine working those top game reps.

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Originally Posted by cade

I actually made a conscious game change when I hit purple belt. I was having some major back pain and I figured out it was from my full guard bottom game. I was getting stacked multiple times during every roll. After a few years of this my lower back was killing me. I thought I was going to have to quit JJ. But then one night it dawned on me that if I started using a top game then my back will not get so jacked...

So I consciously changed from a bottom to top game. Which is not the best strategy for a 135# guy but hey at least I can still train.. :)

~Cade

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Great post Cade, thanks.

I'm 150 and always felt like the bigger my opponent (in absolute) the more I wanted to take top position.