Private Lesson and My Grappling Game Plan

Yesterday I had a private lesson with Jason Scully. We went over what my gameplan was, as I realized I had never evaluated my strengths and weaknesses in BJJ. I never took the time to think if I preferred playing guard, passing guard, being in mount and submitting, etc. Jason has a sheet called a "Grappling Game Plan". I believe you can find it if you subscribe to his newsletter, which you can do by going to http://www.grapplersguide.com.

What the sheet does is it lists every position (being in guard, having someone in your guard, being on the bottom while the other person has mount, etc.) and your job is to list what moves you do the most in those positions. Not the moves that you know you can do from each of those positions, but the moves that you do most often. Once Jason and I figured out what my "go to" moves and what my most comfortable position was, we were able to figure out a sequence of moves that would be the most effective in competition. So for example:

Start standing-->single leg-->half guard on top-->bullfighter pass-->side control-->mount-->mounted triangle

That is an example of what one sequence would be. That isn't one of mine, but Jason and I went over what several scenarios would be for me. He also made the point that those sequences are thing I should pull off in competition, but should work on all aspects of my jiu jitsu during regular class. That's the difference between doing well in competition and being good at jiu jitsu; being good at a few moves is different than being able to do many with a reasonable level of competence.

I found Jason's lesson very helpful, and now I have a blueprint for my own grappling that's going to come in handy during competition. It also gives me some good things to work on. I don't have any plans to compete soon, because I really need to apply to some more jobs and focus on finding something full time for the next year or two. I'll train as much as I can, but I also need to work on becoming a "real person" :)