I'm a blue belt, so you may think i'm a little early in this quest but I've defiantly got to the point where I can escape threats and make others tap (albeit not too often). What im looking for now is some advice on how to develop my game. There are so many guards out there I want to initially focus on only one or two but i'm wondering which is best for someone with short legs. I can rarely close my guard so that is out of the picture, I'm also probably about 10-30kg lighter than most of my club. People with short legs, what's your go to game? X- guard? De la Riva? Spider guard? Thanks.
10 Comments
pequena, post: 63559, member: 23763
I'm a blue belt, so you may think i'm a little early in this quest
This is something a lot of people think and say. I feel a person can start developing a game pretty much immediately. When I ran my academy I had white belts develop games right away all the time.
As for developing a game. It's recommended that you try and find your holes and weaknesses first. If you have not filled out the game plan worksheet that we provide, I highly recommend you fill it out. It will help you see where you have holes.
You can find it here: https://grapplersguide.com/second-portal/lms/lessons/starting-a-grappling-system-and-game-plan-worksheet.21634/
Look in the "Instructor Notes" tab to find the documents to download.
I could of written this post myself. My legs are short so I often try new things to see where I'm comfortable. I often put my self in positions to try out everything. I think some stuff just clicks and some stuff doesn't. I'll also be trying out the game plan worksheet that Jason has provided.
Bom Abraco, post: 63593, member: 34390
I could of written this post myself. My legs are short so I often try new things to see where I'm comfortable. I often put my self in positions to try out everything. I think some stuff just clicks and some stuff doesn't. I'll also be trying out the game plan worksheet that Jason has provided.
Yes, just started on that. It looks like it’s a good way to analyse your strengths and weaknesses. How do you get on with De la Riva and deep DLR?
pequena, post: 63628, member: 23763
Yes, just started on that. It looks like it’s a good way to analyse your strengths and weaknesses. How do you get on with De la Riva and deep DLR?
Depends on my old knees. Feels harsh on them sometimes
pequena, post: 63559, member: 23763
I'm a blue belt, so you may think i'm a little early in this quest but I've defiantly got to the point where I can escape threats and make others tap (albeit not too often). What im looking for now is some advice on how to develop my game. There are so many guards out there I want to initially focus on only one or two but i'm wondering which is best for someone with short legs. I can rarely close my guard so that is out of the picture, I'm also probably about 10-30kg lighter than most of my club. People with short legs, what's your go to game? X- guard? De la Riva? Spider guard? Thanks.
Another thing or research you could do is look at people currently in you weight class, chances are they may have a similar body structure and you and look their matches to see the game they play. Some questions are, what type of person are you training with or competing against, do you thing they will have a similar body type?
I would think that no one should limit there BJJ style due to your body type, but you could get a killer open guard, half guard, leg game, butterfly guard, spider guard.
you could look to Kristian woodmansee or Mikey Musumeci.
just some ideas.
I've never really had a long term plan to build my game, it just happened organically. Lots of short to medium goals.
Look at what your go tos are and try to make your game more well rounded. Playing heaps of guard? Force yourself to pass more and learn more top control. Or look at where there are gaps. Always stuck under side control? Side control escapes and counter attacks are going to be your focus for a bit.
Jason mentioned the game plan worksheet and that could be a really good starting point to see where to go to next.
I started with the things that I found myself doing naturally when I wasn't thinking about it. I'm very passive (read lazy) so would often find myself on bottom where people would pass my guard and slide into mount however I could almost always manage to slip into bottom half guard and slide a knee in for Z-Guard. Because I spent most of my time there it guided me to people like Craig Jones who utilizes it at the top level.
Once I had a fairly comprehensive game from Z-Guard/Knee Shield I worked backwards so I didn't end up there in the first place, guard retention, and forwards from the places I landed from my Z-Guard attacks. Again searching instructionals and content and worked on it every roll I had until I found my go-to's in those areas. And thus my own personal internal flowchart gradually expanded from there to create my game.
The other way my personal game has developed is through the people I train with. One person is really hard to choke, he's just got no neck, so I would attack armbars. Because of this, he'd get good at defending both the setups and armbar finishes, so off I trotted to brainstorm and watch some content to give me tips on bypassing his defences. I'd use what I'd discovered until it didn't work anymore and so on. Now my armbars, which I would never land previously, are an integral part of my game. This would be accelerated if he was doing the same but for armbar defences but my attacks wouldn't work as well for as long, forcing me to get better faster, rather than rely on my old faithful techniques.
Pred500, post: 63681, member: 33377
I started with the things that I found myself doing naturally when I wasn't thinking about it. I'm very passive (read lazy) so would often find myself on bottom where people would pass my guard and slide into mount however I could almost always manage to slip into bottom half guard and slide a knee in for Z-Guard. Because I spent most of my time there it guided me to people like Craig Jones who utilizes it at the top level.Once I had a fairly comprehensive game from Z-Guard/Knee Shield I worked backwards so I didn't end up there in the first place, guard retention, and forwards from the places I landed from my Z-Guard attacks. Again searching instructionals and content and worked on it every roll I had until I found my go-to's in those areas. And thus my own personal internal flowchart gradually expanded from there to create my game.
The other way my personal game has developed is through the people I train with. One person is really hard to choke, he's just got no neck, so I would attack armbars. Because of this, he'd get good at defending both the setups and armbar finishes, so off I trotted to brainstorm and watch some content to give me tips on bypassing his defences. I'd use what I'd discovered until it didn't work anymore and so on. Now my armbars, which I would never land previously, are an integral part of my game. This would be accelerated if he was doing the same but for armbar defences but my attacks wouldn't work as well for as long, forcing me to get better faster, rather than rely on my old faithful techniques.
Thanks, this is a very useful reply. I think I need to spend time analysing my current game and also looking At how I can develop my game with those I train with, looking at what I struggle with and working on that. Thanks again.
Thank you Professor Scully for your response. I never realized you had a section on developing a game plan.
I get asked by a lot of junior belts for guidance and how to develop their game. I tell them go to class and ask professor questions. In addition to this I will now be telling them to buy a membership to grapplers guide and look at your game plan vids.