Do you have these 24? If not get to work!

This was an awesome email by Stephan Kesting of beginningbjj.com that i wanted to share with you. It will help you a lot with your gameplan design, which if you are battling with, this will definately get you started!
Ive been doing Jiu-jitsu now for 12 years and I constantly realise more and more just how important the fundamentals are, and having a well rounded game before starting to specialise in any positions.
Enjoy this email and check out www.beginningbjj.com for some great resources from Mr.Kesting.


Early in your BJJ development you should be a generalist. This means developing basic skills in ALL areas of BJJ. (Eventually you'll probably specialize a little bit more, but that comes much later, usually around purple belt).

So for now you need to make sure that you're covering all your bases. You really don't want there to be severely underdeveloped areas of your game!

One way to figure out whether there are major holes in your game is to use a checklist like the one below.

Try ranking these positions in order of how much you know about them:

• Closed guard
• Open guard
• Half guard
• Side mount
• Knee mount
• Full mount
• Rear mount

This ordered list then becomes a handy tool to decide which techniques to practice, and what positions you should start your sparring in.

Remember, usually you make your fastest progress by working your weakest area!

Another, somewhat more analytical approach, is to subdivide these positions even further. Lets split each of the above positions into three technical areas:

1. Submissions from that position.
2. Transitions from the position to an even better position.
3. Escapes/guard passes if you're caught in that position.
   

When we take consider those three types of skills for each of the major positions, we end up with 24 skill sets:

1. Closed guard submissions
2. Closed guard passes
3. Closed guard sweeps
4. Open guard submissions
5. Open guard passes
6. Open guard sweeps
7. Half guard submissions
8. Half guard passes
9. Half guard sweeps
10. Side mount submissions
11. Side mount transitions
12. Side mount escapes
13. Knee mount submissions
14. Knee mount transitions
15. Knee mount escapes
16. Full mount submissions
17. Full mount transitions
18. Full mount escapes
19. Rear mount submissions
20. Rear mount transitions
21. Rear mount escapes
22. Turtle submissions
23. Turtle transitions
24. Turtle escapes

Now I don't normally assign homework, but I want you to try this. Go down that list again and figure out if you know at least two techniques for each area.

To be able to flow and spar and play and feel comfortable on the ground you need to have at least a few good options for each one of the above 24 areas.

This approach also helps you identify areas for improvement.

Hypothetically, let's say that you know 17 different sweeps from the open guard, but you're completely lost when you get stuck in the half guard.

Question for you: if that's the case, should you work on more open guard techniques, or spend some quality time on the half guard?

I bet you just answered the question yourself! Stephan Kesting
www.beginningBJJ.com

Gameplan Design

The Gameplan is an organisational tool that will help streamline your training and allow it to always have direction.
It's basicly a start to finish outline of what you use on the mat, from shaking hands to submission.
Ideally do a rough draft on paper but keep it as a word document as it makes it easier to update, and you should be updating it regularly! It's a living thing and you will be adjusting and refining it all the time.

It's a framework of techniques for each position, i.e. CLOSED GUARD: armbar-triangle-... you will then have details for all you've learnt for each of these, i.e. triangle: control the head, clamp down with shin etc.

It's very important that you use a standardized format and terminology so that if you look back in 6 months you know what the heck you were talking about.

STARTING: Standing: Gi: your gripping system, grips you work for, takedowns, pull guard
No Gi Standing: armdrag single ,double leg etc
*note:these are just hypothetical examples to give you ideas.

Important that you have CONTINGENCY SITUATIONS, what ifs...
Must have your objectives outlined at the start of each position:
e.g.GUARD: Objectives: submit, sweep, take the back, submit!
(important to note that you must have gi and no gi gameplans for each position, they may very well be similar but should still be seperate. Can even have MMA gameplan.)
e.g.GI GUARD -double wrist control to push/pull triangle
-collar and sleeve control to cross choke-armabar-triangle



Dont just list every technique that you know! That could go on for pages and pages and isnt focused enough.
Must have Positions Of Referance
e.g. for guard, double wrist control, collar/sleeve, etc then have options in bullet form off that.

Position
-initial grip 1
-initial grip 2 -option 1
-option 2...
Then contingency plan:
-if he escapes triangle-hard transition to omopalata
-look to face plant opponent
-get sweep
It's also important to have transitions- if in a scramble need to look for POSITIONS OF REFERANCE,i.i to lock in a submission or position.
e.g if opp passing your guard and it's almost passed, dont be stubborn and hang on just to waste energy and get passed, have transitions planned.
Getting guard passed- turtle out-granby roll to reposition guard
-hit double or single leg
-turtle guard sweep

Now work your way through all 8 Primary Positions doing the same thing.
BACK-MOUNT-SIDE-KNEE RIDE-ATTACKING TURTLE-GUARD-OPEN GUARD-HALF GUARD

It's also important to include "your" techniques, find the techniques that work for YOU in each position.
You dont have to include every conceivable type of guard. If you suck at butterfly guard, dont play it, likewise for De La Riva Guard etc stick to the 8 primary positions and work from there.
It can be as deatilaed or simple as necessary.
Remember this is your A-Game!! Choose techniques that you would use to step onto the mat and win now.

This is where the learning happens as it will allow you to now start to identify the holes in your game. The areas you need to work on get stuck onto your training game-plan or your B-Game and get worked on, when you pulling them off regularly then add it to your A-Game.

Once done the primary positions then remember their opposites, i.e under mount, passing guard etc.
I know the initial process is a pain in the a$$ to get started but you just need to do it! Once the basic outline is done it gets easier and starts to come alive.

I hope this helps, if you have any questions give me a shout and Ill do my best to try answer them.
Now get that gameplan down!

Gameplans Why Bother?

Firstly it gives you a way to constantly evaluate your performance in class and competition (if you compete). Im always amazed at how many guys say they feel they arent improving but when I ask what they are working on they just stare at me blankly. Either that or they change their focus constantly without any structure. Having a gameplan allows you to really evaluate your game all the time. It also allows you to identify and eliminate weak points and improve a lot quicker than if you just wing it as you go.

It gives you a big confidence boost and really allows you to focus your taining as you can eliminate the "what do I do know!?" situations in class as you can work out what you are trying to achieve offensively and defensively in each position. This is also where the evaluation and elimination of weak points come in as now after training, you can quickly think where you did well and if there was a point you got stuck or didnt know what to do you can identify what you need to work on.
You can chat to your coach or training partnersfor help, or work it out yourself. There is so much information available now for jiu-jitsu it's awesome, books,dvd's the internet. Identify where you have holes or weak points in your game andwork on them. But you cant do this if you dont even have a gameplan.

Ill discuss next time some basic tips on how to structure a gameplan.

“He who fails to plan, plans to fail”.

Grappling Maps

This is something that has been around for a while but Ive been slack with getting done. I have just recently been playing around with it and it's already helped me analyze my game a lot. It is called a mind map. It's basicly an outline of your game. This images below are just a sample that I found ages ago, apparently by the legendry Rickson Gracie. I am working on completing my own. It's an awesome idea to do individual mind maps of every major position and common reactions to your opponent's counters and movements.

They form a great visual blue print of your game-plan and allow you to realy analyse and start to put together what you know.
It makes a great starting point as well for a more detailed game-plan.

These 2 are really just to give ideas, they helped give me some ideas as to basic starting points for my own. I hope they help your too.
Micah