So much to work on...

[Tammo Haarhuis]

Hi guys,

today after rolling a thought about the things i have to work on and theirs a lot. Top game, leg/foot locks, armbar escapes, attacking etc etc.

so my question is, how do you decide on which of your "problem areas" you want to work?
do you even decide? is their some kind of "guideline" maybe?

[Slick Rick]

Hi guys,

today after rolling a thought about the things i have to work on and theirs a lot. Top game, leg/foot locks, armbar escapes, attacking etc etc.

so my question is, how do you decide on which of your "problem areas" you want to work?
do you even decide? is their some kind of "guideline" maybe?

I feel you're pain. I'm still learning and re-learning so I don't forget.

But here's some advice I've given to people before:
You won't be good at everything all at once. There are the basic essentials you'll want to be good at.

1) positioning.. learn to get and keep position because what use is a submission if you can't get to a position to start it from.
2) play the guard closed (you have to get your rubber guard in, and you have to learn how to render your opponent useless)
3) play the guard open (you can't always rely on you're close guard, so begin playing the open guard and butterfly.. get comfortable with this, because if you aren't containing them with rubber guard, you're either standing up or playing the open guard)
4) rep your perfect triangle and perfect armbar.. learning the specific details down to the arm movements is key to applying them, and applying ad-hoc triangles and armbars
5) don't get overwhelmed trying to learn 1000 submissions. Most matches that end in submissions are from no more than maybe 5 or 6 different ones(arm bar, triangle, RNC, guillotine...) Once you become good at those four, then you can go for others. I'm much more afraid of the person that can do a few things well, than the person that does many things but with no consistency(it looks like messy grappling at that point)

As always, this is just my 2 cents, but I've been through this already, and I can save you time getting there.
Thanks. Rick

[Josh Passini]

I feel you're pain. I'm still learning and re-learning so I don't forget.

But here's some advice I've given to people before:
You won't be good at everything all at once. There are the basic essentials you'll want to be good at.

1) positioning.. learn to get and keep position because what use is a submission if you can't get to a position to start it from.
2) play the guard closed (you have to get your rubber guard in, and you have to learn how to render your opponent useless)
3) play the guard open (you can't always rely on you're close guard, so begin playing the open guard and butterfly.. get comfortable with this, because if you aren't containing them with rubber guard, you're either standing up or playing the open guard)
4) rep your perfect triangle and perfect armbar.. learning the specific details down to the arm movements is key to applying them, and applying ad-hoc triangles and armbars
5) don't get overwhelmed trying to learn 1000 submissions. Most matches that end in submissions are from no more than maybe 5 or 6 different ones(arm bar, triangle, RNC, guillotine...) Once you become good at those four, then you can go for others. I'm much more afraid of the person that can do a few things well, than the person that does many things but with no consistency(it looks like messy grappling at that point)

As always, this is just my 2 cents, but I've been through this already, and I can save you time getting there.
Thanks. Rick

Rick is always on point. I feel the same way.

[Tammo Haarhuis]

thanks guys!

[Lucas Walker]

Pick the things on the list you make that you'll use the most often (i.e. escapes back to guard or whatever) and out of that smaller list pick the thing you are worst at! The worse you are to start, the quicker and larger / more rewarding improvement you will see and the more your game will benefit. Next item on the list you might pick something that just takes a minor tweak to get right so you get some instant gratification too and stay positive. Go back and forth.

[AJ Camacho]

Where ever I'm hitting dead ends in my game, that's usually where I'm sticking my focus. As an example; for awhile my open guard passing was horrible... after I got that figured out, then my side mount sucked. Now that I have that sorted out, I am reworking my side mount and mount attacks while increasing my side mount and mount retention.

On top of that I got different game plans and routes that I'm building up and fleshing out for various body types and skill sets. Keeping track of everything can be a bit overwhelming but ultimately I just have to look back and my last roll session and fix the leaks in my game.