Are hobbyists too obsessed with having a “game”?
I sometimes think hobbyists are encouraged way too early to think in terms of “my game.”
On one hand, having a direction is useful. On the other, I see plenty of people with limited training time trying to become highly specialised before they’re broadly competent. They’ll talk about building a game around one guard, one submission chain, or one passing style, while still having obvious holes everywhere else.
For a lot of non-full-time athletes, is “developing a game” actually helpful or just a nice-sounding way of avoiding weaknesses and staying in familiar territory?
Curious where people stand on it.
Should hobbyists be trying to develop a personal game early?
Or should most people spend longer just becoming hard to beat everywhere before narrowing anything down?
I personally reside on the, learn to be hard to kill and once you're defensively sound build a game around where you can reliably get to. Until then, keep defending and escaping as the priority.
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I remember drawing flow charts and planning how the roll would go. My opponent disagreed most of the time. For defence one should learn most common situations, but for offence - you might get away with few very good options. Maybe knowing when to pull the trigger can help - atleast for competitors. For beginners "game plan" is developed by lesson plans - what you teach is what they know both for defence and offence. Youtube and other learners from instructional bring some colour to rolling.
So yes - one should have a game plan very early, but it is developed by instructor. Later students will find their own game. I just watched an instructional ( seminar) on building a game plan. Not for me - not atleast a very detailed one. My in get dominate grips, if not break and reset. With grips close distance and stapilize. Then isolate and submit.
I completely agree with your take, and I love the "hard to kill" philosophy you mentioned. Pushing a hobbyist to find "their game" too early usually just results in them hyper-focusing on a single sequence and leaving massive, exploitable holes everywhere else.
My approach aligns perfectly with yours: defense and escapes have to come first. If you aren't defensively sound and hard to submit, you will never get the chance to deploy an A-game against a competent training partner anyway. The priority should always be surviving. Once that foundation is rock solid, you can start building a game around the positions you can reliably force and maintain.
Developing a specific game also heavily depends on the individual's context:
Age and Attributes: A 40-year-old with kids, a full-time career, and a two-day-a-week training schedule shouldn't be prioritizing complex inverted guards or heavy De La Riva games. For older hobbyists balancing outside responsibilities, longevity, injury prevention, and practicality have to dictate the direction they take. If someone is a younger, natural athlete, by all means, they should experiment with the complex stuff—but the defensive foundation still needs to be there for everyone.
Non-Negotiable Fundamentals: Coming from an SBG environment, our approach really anchors this idea. The fundamentals are non-negotiable. Because we train with a mindset of jiu-jitsu for fighting—both gi and no-gi—you simply can't rely on highly specialized, sport-specific gimmicks to save you. You have to be broadly competent.
Organic Development: The beauty of mastering those broad basics is that it naturally breeds variety later on. You won't see everyone playing the exact same game at our gym. Instead, you see people using the same undeniable fundamentals to support whatever unique style eventually emerges for their specific body type and goals.
Specializing is great, but it should be the roof on the house, not the foundation.
If it's a hobby (which it is for the bulk of us, I'd wager), I see no issue with trying to develop a game. The point of a hobby isn't necessarily to do something "properly" but to enjoy doing it. If they like it, they should have a game.
I'm a 44 year old hobbyist with a gi specific gameplan using collar sleeve open guard. I've been working it since I was a white belt. I started competing when I was a purple (too late, really). Having an offensive funnel I try to force people into helps anchor my training so that I can focus on the fundamentals like base, posture, alignment, kuzushi etc.
Believe me, I get plenty of time practicing my retention and escapes against bigger or more experienced partners :)
If one competes, it is good to have a favorite technique for attacks. For defence one has to deal what opponent is giving.
I am running a basics CLA lesson tuesday mornings. In a way it might develope a gameplan for students. I start often with gripfighting to unbalancing. Next is seated guard sparring like sweep vs just preventing a sweep game and final position is supine guard.
In future we will get to pinning and finishing from varios situations. Students are getting also "normal" lessons during the week. So pinning and finishing is not new to them.