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Last Updated on 2020-08-12 by EtherealWinter
So in these times off the mats, with all the free time we have on our hands, it’s a good time to assess your current game. It’s a good time to ask yourself what is your “A” game, not what you’re working on, but the moves that you would use in competition. Do you actually know what they are and how they fit into your overall game?
One of the best ways to do that is to flowchart your game. Think about about what you do standing, what do you do from guard? What do you do from the top positions? Join up how they flow from one another to each other. The granularity can be however much you like, you can start high level and go lower level if you think you need it.
Seen above is a flowchart that I’ve just made of my game as of now. Whilst plotting it I noticed that I didn’t really have options from side control apart from transitioning away from it. That might be an area where I might put extra effort in when I’m back on the mats. Another area I could work on would be to potentially to develop a system for guard passing. The basic guard passes that I utilise are unconnected and it might be good to have options that flow from A to B.
These are basic areas I have identified about my game that need some polishing:
- Top side control options
- Guard passing system
- Work on takedowns
- Work on complementary follow up to the scissor sweep (triangle?)
- Top turtle attacking options
- Work on a system for attacking/passing top half guard?
I’ll have to think about my options during this off, and work on those when I can get back on the mat.
How does your game checkout?
Super cool idea for an exercise I’m definitely going to try this!
I might even try to connect my ‘bottom’ flowchart more specifically to my ‘top’ flowchart, so that it shows where exactly I end up when I sweep from half guard for example.
Btw, we have a similar standing ‘A’ game (mine is not A game either, in fact it’s much worse I’m sure since you did Judo for 2 years). In addition to kosoto gari I spam Sasae (similar). And I also try to go from Uchi Mata to Ouchi Gari. (And for me there won’t be an arrow from Uchi Mata straight to top game, because I’ve never hit a clean uchi mata before haha.)
Btw2, I see you haven’t posted in a while and that you’re running now; I hope you’re able to come back to BJJ quickly.
Best,
Max
Thanks for your comment! I have actually been training, covid has been very well controlled in Australia. I haven’t had any recent updates because I haven’t had the time to watch any new instructional (was half way through Danaher’s Kimura series and part way through Bernardo Faria’s pressure passing series) due to a career change requiring a bit more of my time. Oh well, I manage to get at least one session in a week, sometimes two, just gotta keep the mindset that it’s a marathon not a sprint.