Looking for "Primary Battles" or Core Heuristics for different positions
Hi everyone,
I’m looking for advice or specific course recommendations that break down the "primary battle" or the main objective in various positions.
For example, in Jason’s Guard Retention course, there is a very clear heuristic for the guard player: always keep your foot on the inside of the passer .
I find these kinds of simple, actionable "Golden Rules" incredibly helpful. Does anyone have suggestions for other courses or concepts on the GG site that offer similar "easy-to-follow" objectives for different situations (e.g., side control, mount, or specific guards)?
Thanks in advance!
5 Comments
Wrestle Ups: Always keep your head above theirs.
Side Control (Top): Control the diagonal shoulder and hip to stop rotation.
Half Guard (Bottom): Always aim to secure an underhook.
Guard Passing: Never engage the legs until you win the grip fight.
Top Mount: Separate the elbows from the ribs.
Top Half Guard: Flatten their shoulders to the mat.
Bottom Side Control / Mount: Keep your elbows tethered to your hips (T-Rex Arms).
Pin Escapes: Frame the structure, don't push the muscle.
Closed Guard (Bottom): Always break their posture.
Back Control: Maintain chest-to-back connection and control the rotational axis.
Seatbelt Grip: Always hide the choking hand under the control hand.
Leg Entanglements: Control the knee line.
As always this is a the tip of the ice berg!
Good question. Some other principles I can think of are:
The Top/Bottom Dynamic: Almost every position on the list is paired (e.g., Mount Top/Bottom, Back Offence/Defence). You can't truly master a position without deeply understanding the active resistance from the other side. We are intentionally training both sides of the coin simultaneously.
Action/Reaction Dilemmas: Spending dedicated time in these restricted "minifights" exposes predictable patterns. It allows us to set traps and force dilemmas—using our positional control to lead opponents down a path rather than just forcing a single technique.
There are some other principles I follow with my own training which I can go into more detail on, but that might be drifting a bit too far from the original post!
Maybe it would be easier for me to discuss one "minifight" at a time. Do you anything for standup handfighting? I got two ideas. One is Martin Aedman's style of greco entry - three ways to get 2on1. And other is Gary Mayabb's move to push with t-rex arms and react to opponents push back. Both work similar - you close the distance in Martin's case slowly and in Greg's case very fast. So idea is to make opponent react and you get to play from there. I don't know what would be the golden rule here?
@crossoverI think this ties into the action/reaction principle we've already mentioned. One of my golden rules would be to control inside position, then look to off-balance and cause dilemmas from there.