Mindset when rolling or competing

[Toppy]

Hey guys, just curious to how people approach rolling or competitions in mind? What I mean is do you go in with the 'No mind' philosophy and take it as it comes? Or do you have a specific game plan? Or maybe a bit of both? Just curious as I'm a 'no mind' guy and have mixed results, should I be taking a more methodical approach? Or just carry on until it all falls into place?

[Wancarlos]

Always have a game plan brother. Whether you're rolling or competing , to progress in this art, you must have a goal set. No one is perfect, so before and after every roll (if they aren't total d-bags) they always come up with something they want to try or defend, or fill-in a piece of their game that's missing. I am a firm believer in ALWAYS having a game plan. Even when "flow-rolling," one has the plan to flow and look for openings. I think the "no-mind" approach results in "no results"
Just speaking from experience.

[David Rosado]

70% is me implementing what I've learned up to that point and using it live to make sure that I'm good at that. 20% is paying attention to other people's games and learning from better guys. 10% is me experimenting or allowing bad positions to work my way out. But my first 6 months of sucking was mostly due to me doing the opposite. Using youtube moves 80% and failing 80% haha. I started doing better when I started using what I learned in class up front. I swear, it was like magic. I was on a roll. I was hitting damn near everything.

[Toppy]

Always have a game plan brother. Whether you're rolling or competing , to progress in this art, you must have a goal set. No one is perfect, so before and after every roll (if they aren't total d-bags) they always come up with something they want to try or defend, or fill-in a piece of their game that's missing. I am a firm believer in ALWAYS having a game plan. Even when "flow-rolling," one has the plan to flow and look for openings. I think the "no-mind" approach results in "no results"
Just speaking from experience.

Cool, would you recommend a flow chart? I'm finding I'm more comfortable with options from lockdown than full guard so I guess that's a start. And I am working on my flexibility for rubber guard. How do you plot your game?

[Toppy]

70% is me implementing what I've learned up to that point and using it live to make sure that I'm good at that. 20% is paying attention to other people's games and learning from better guys. 10% is me experimenting or allowing bad positions to work my way out. But my first 6 months of sucking was mostly due to me doing the opposite. Using youtube moves 80% and failing 80% haha. I started doing better when I started using what I learned in class up front. I swear, it was like magic. I was on a roll. I was hitting damn near everything.

Awesome! I tried that once and it must of been written on my face or something as I got countered or muscle out due to my opponent seeing it coming lol

[Wancarlos]

Cool, would you recommend a flow chart? I'm finding I'm more comfortable with options from lockdown than full guard so I guess that's a start. And I am working on my flexibility for rubber guard. How do you plot your game?

If you have the time and desire, go ahead and do the flowchart. lol I have tried that more times than i can imagine, I have about 70 flowcharts drawn up since just February man. Every minute you put into a roll, you'll see that there is always something new to add. I say just have goals to start. For example;

M: Guard passing
T: Guard retention
W: Solidifying control
T: Escapes
F: Sweeps

Put as much time in as you see fit, every day with a goal is a day closer to that goal. My current goal is to execute a certain pass that i have high reward with in Gi Bjj--in no gi. The reason anyone can add anything at all to their game, is because they have solidified the majority of the basics. So make "Pulling off the basics" during rolls and drills your major goal, then the rest should follow. It's a game plan we have all used in one way or another.

[David Rosado]

Awesome! I tried that once and it must of been written on my face or something as I got countered or muscle out due to my opponent seeing it coming lol

Then you need more reps, or your instructor is not teaching you good paths.

This is another thing that has me spoiled from 10th planet Roc. We'd rep a series sometimes for a month until Zog saw that we had it down. So when I'd use it in a roll, I already had so many reps in it, that I would nearly always hit it in rolling same day.

Paths and series are superior to learning moves in pieces. I like my new school in that I am learning a lot of stuff back to back, but I'm sad that I don't get enough reps to become a killer with them. Now it's like, "today we're learning a new guard pass."

With zog it's "ok, we're learning a pass, into side control, to destroying the arm, to americana, to kimura if americana fails, to inverted triangle if kimura fails." "Today we're going guard break to clamp, to wedge, to knee knot, to splits, to achilles, to straight ankle, to foot flex." You get what I mean? What made me good under zog is that I have back up plans to my back up plans to my back up plans. Most BJJ schools don't do that for more than a week.

[Toppy]

If you have the time and desire, go ahead and do the flowchart. lol I have tried that more times than i can imagine, I have about 70 flowcharts drawn up since just February man. Every minute you put into a roll, you'll see that there is always something new to add. I say just have goals to start. For example;

M: Guard passing
T: Guard retention
W: Solidifying control
T: Escapes
F: Sweeps

Put as much time in as you see fit, every day with a goal is a day closer to that goal. My current goal is to execute a certain pass that i have high reward with in Gi Bjj--in no gi. The reason anyone can add anything at all to their game, is because they have solidified the majority of the basics. So make "Pulling off the basics" during rolls and drills your major goal, then the rest should follow. It's a game plan we have all used in one way or another.

Cool thanks man. I used put sooooo much effort into quickly getting the kill from wherever I was that I kinda broke myself lol. Very disheartening but now I just try to get a better position. But I like your way of prioritising, I had met a guy at CGJJ that had his entire game plan flow chart on his phone. I will admit it was a mess lol

[Pat Campagnola]

I'm not much of a believer in having a set game plan. Every time I have gone out with a set game plan I end up focusing too much on what I want to happen and miss many opportunities that present themselves. I spend too much time working for something specific instead of just taking what is there. Of course I don't realize this until I watch the videos later on.

With that being said, I also don't go in completely void of any plans. I have certain go-to things that I look for if I find myself in certain positions, but I try not to force things.

[Wancarlos]

I'm not much of a believer in having a set game plan. Every time I have gone out with a set game plan I end up focusing too much on what I want to happen and miss many opportunities that present themselves. I spend too much time working for something specific instead of just taking what is there. Of course I don't realize this until I watch the videos later on.

With that being said, I also don't go in completely void of any plans. I have certain go-to things that I look for if I find myself in certain positions, but I try not to force things.

Well I gotta say I even agree with this. I imagine that in some cases, the game plan is to see what's open at any opportunity. I mean, I'm speaking to a large spectrum where the Mendes Bros ALWAYS plan for Bolos and Keenan Always does some made up stuff.
But in the beginning, in my opinion, It's darn-near irresponsible to not set goals for a roll/class. And those goals can be anything.