Building Gameplans
With the new gameplan section on Grapplers Guide, I’ve started thinking more deliberately about how people actually build their game. I think a lot of us think we have a gameplan, but in reality it’s more like a loose collection of favourite techniques.
I’m curious how people structure their gameplans. I've always been of the school of thought to build backwards from your best submission/position but more where I struggle is:
How deep do you map branches?
For example:
A-game sweep → pass → submission
But then also: what if the sweep fails? what if the pass stalls? At some point the tree becomes enormous. This is what I struggle with most. Creating a closed system of my own that doesn't become overwhelming. And if you don't go deep then, How much of your gameplan actually survives against people better than you? A lot of plans work great against equal or slightly worse opponents, but against someone better the whole thing collapses and you’re just trying to survive.
Right now I’m experimenting with just trying to use dilemmas of two branches (push vs pull for example) and filtering those into as many identical scenarios as possible but it's still just becoming a mass of techniques impossible to filter with any real intent live against better grapplers.
Would be really interested to hear how others build their gameplans, especially people who compete regularly.
2 Comments
I do not compete ao not really what you want to hear. I used to do long flow charts to cover most situations. Some where like 68 options long. Now I do mostly ecological games and CLA. Idea is to get a lot of reps in a very short situation. Situational sparring? Yes, but both have a win sitautions and game resents often.
My collar sleeve gameplan was mostly structured by someone else. Dan Lukehart's Collar Sleeve Anthology makes up 80% of what I do. Over the years I've added (and removed) techniques from GG and other instructionals depending how congruent they are for me. What I do for competition is definitely not a loose collection of favorites techniques. They must flow together in the heat of battle if I'm going to funnel my opponent into a losing position.
I start with a fast pull if I know I'm facing a guard player. If not, I get two nice grips and sit. I have a reliable sweep for left, right, and back. The standing and kneeling version of the sweeps in each direction are very similar for my dummy brain. So that's 6 (really 3) techniques to help me open up the elbow space for omoplata and even triangles if I'm adventurous. I keep this same offense when cycling between collar sleeve and DLR.
If the initial attacks don't score, the next branches are to deal with common foot placement for standing and kneeling and for the grips they use. I usually find deep DLR-X or far side sleeve DLR and try my reliable and similar sweeps in all 3 directions.
Ideally, I finish with omoplata. If I sweep and get to the top I don't have a structured game plan. Just get to mount or back and stay there haha.
So to answer your question – my selection of techniques is not very deep at all. I occasionally find success against higher belts but not consistently. If I was consistent than I'd be their peer.