Games. Systems. Strategies. Decision trees. There are a lot of ways to think about the way you deliberately perform Jiu Jitsu. This categorization of your actions allows for structure, reflection, and assessment. It’s important. As a blue belt, I told you that your goal was to build games, and then build more. At purple, it's time for complexity. It’s to create endless loops. It’s time to connect your systems together into one cohesive attack.
Building Games
First, let’s review. A good game should have 1) 2-3 primary attacks 2) 2-3 secondary attacks, 3) a path back into your game when it’s shut down, and 4) multiple ways to get there.
The connection between these ideas can look a little different depending on the game being played. For example, attack A can lead to attack B, or you could have the option to attack A or B. These two scenarios are illustrated below.
The arrows are your execution. When things go wrong, there has to be some problem solving mechanism. This gives you the option of staying on an attack, or moving along the arrows to the next. This alone develops complexity in your game. The arrows are your execution, and now you have more arrows.
Now, if you add 2-3 secondary attacks, you quickly begin to develop lots of complexity.
We are almost to the end of our blue belt criteria. We just need multiple ways to get into our position.
This is beginning to look complicated. In fact, as you have developed your games throughout blue belt you may have found this challenging. It requires more than performing a technique. It requires an understanding of how your position defines the nature of the technique, and how it connects you to something else.
Can you replace the generic names above with your game?
Better Games
As a purple belt, your job is to take a macro view. To make this complexity cohesive. You have already done the bulk of the work. You have multiple games in your lexicon of knowledge and just need to connect them. The more connections that you can create, the more endless loops of action you can threaten your opponent with. I’ve added some additional connections in green. The green lines connect your different systems together, creating a larger, more cohesive attacking strategy.
I highlighted two attacks in red. Can you see the problem with these attacks in the game?
Take a minute. Review the attacks. What is wrong?
They both have problem solving mechanisms, but don’t have arrows going anywhere. You can get there, but need somewhere to go from there. These parts of your game are stuck. You need options. Being stuck at blue belt is normal. At purple, you need to eliminate anything that is stuck. If you are stuck, you are not a threat. At purple you should be developing a game that is always threatening. No matter where it goes, you can move into another attack sequence.
Reclaim The Game
Losing is a bad plan, but staying on the offense is a turn based game and at any given moment it may not be your turn. Your game includes pathways to get into your system, but should also include ways to funnel into the system as a defensive response. You can outline escape games from pinning positions. Framing priorities, escape preferences, etc…. But you should have defensive funnels prior to being pinned. This occurs mostly in dynamic situations, such as stand up battles and guard passing/retention battles. If someone passes your legs on a pass, it’s not wise to wait until a pin is secured so that you can execute your escape game. There are moments between the games that define how the next game will begin.
These moments could be arrows on your graph. A decision to go from one position to the next. The conceptual difference here is that you are moving from one thing to the next as a defensive response. The decision wasn’t yours. It was theirs, and now you are out of your game and into theirs. How do you get back before they enter into their system? You can call this a scramble, but this moment is only a scramble if you have no plan. I’ve added red lines to our graph, creating connections as a defensive response. This allows us to move from offensive, to defensive, to offensive cycles.
Starting to look complicated? Remember, you already have most of the squares and lines on this graph. You just need to make additional connections to add complexity to your game. The process of building these decision trees is important, and I recommend that you build your decision trees as a thought exercise. Want to know what to focus on? This exercise will help pinpoint the holes in your game, and it will be one of the most efficient ways to increase your skills, fast.
Sound like homework? Yup, welcome to high level Jiu Jitsu. You are entering a phase of conceptual and technical development that requires more than sweat and mats.