Below, you will find reflections from the stand-up grappling practice that I led at Fit Factory Jiu Jitsu, 3814 Boyd’s Creek Highway, Sevierville, TN on February 3, 2025.
As a coach, I’m generally more interested in how well your body understands a technique (coordination) than how well your mind understands it (knowledge). This is why I spend a lot of mental energy tailoring drills to channel people into specific places where, if my drill was well designed, they can’t help but feel what I want them to feel.
I have lots of drill formats in my toolbox, simple-yet-effective standards like designated roles to sidestep the classic flaw of complicity in drilling or positional sparring to afford players repeatable, full speed reps, but there is one trick that I occasionally hint at during 1-on-1 conversations, which rarely makes it into my coaching curriculum. Its a trick I use to coach myself, but I don’t make everyone else do it.
Perhaps I should.
I’m talking about drilling without telling your opponent you’re drilling.
This is something I do during sparring rounds or open mat. The way it works is simple. When the round is beginning and you and your opponent slap hands and bump fists and they ask you if you want to work on something specific (assuming they ask at all), you say the equivalent of “Nah, lets just play open.” or “We’ll just see where it goes.”
As far as they know, this is just an open round, no constraints beyond the typical jiu jitsu code of conduct that includes things like: no eye gouging, no small joint manipulation, no striking, etc. They’re going to work their game. You’re going to work your game. If someone taps you’ll both grin or grumble and then you’ll reset with another slap and bump.
Even though you said that you were playing open, you’re actually playing a constrained game, and critically importantly, they don’t know it. This provides the important opportunity for you to practice specific parts of your game against truly non-complicit resistance.
Why covertly constrain your open sparring?
Anytime you’re drilling something specific, your opponent/partner cannot help but influence the outcome.
If they know what you want, and they’re feeling magnanimous, perhaps they’ll facilitate your success the way people so often do in linear drilling. This is fine with absolute beginners (so they can sort out the most basic motor control details) or at the utmost edge of expertise (so they can explore the most fined tuned details such as grip variations), but if you do it to me, without me asking, I’m going to be pissed.
On the contrary, if your opponent is feeling withholding, and they know what you’re after, they can attempt to stonewall you, establishing stalling grips or postures, keeping the thing they know you’re after protected at the expense of other targets that they know are “off limits”.
Covert constraints can be via positiva or via negativa.
Via Positiva
(AKA, “I’m only using ____ position/submission”)
This is the narrower of the two modes of constraint. You chart a path to victory and say, “I’m only walking on the path. No detours down alternative routes. No off-trail, bushwhacking adventures, I don’t care how interesting or laden with potential they appear in the moment.”
This is the sort of constraint I often associate with the A-game mindset of competitive jiu jitsu. You assess your skills and determine that you’re most likely to win a certain way, then you chart the most efficient course to that victory point, then you map out ways to get on-course from anywhere.
The game becomes all about staying on course, or when necessary, getting back on course with maximum efficiency.
The one major downside to this approach is that it becomes predictable. Play a long enough round with a savvy enough opponent and they’ll figure out what path you’re after and they’ll begin blocking it deliberately. If you’re smart, you’ll look for what openings they’ve created elsewhere in their effort to block your main road, but if you’re emotionally attached to your A-game (as is all too often the case), you may find yourself just bashing your head against the walls they’ve built.
Via Negativa
(AKA, “I’m not allowed to use ____ position/submission”)
Are you a one-trick pony? Do you find yourself always going for the same submission? The same pass?
This simple constraint can foster creativity and growth of your game through the simple act of making your best tricks off limits. Bonus, its a good bit harder for your opponent to get wise to your constraints unless they’re really familiar with your A-game, and even if they do realize that you’re deliberately not playing it, they won’t be able to throw up specific road blocks since the constraints don’t specify what you’ll be playing instead.
Yes. You can use both simultaneously.
The two most obvious (but by no means the only) ways to combine via negativa and via positiva are as follows:
Only allow certain submissions, but disallow certain positions that would get you there, i.e., “I’m only submitting via armbars, but I can’t attack them from the guard.”
Or, allow certain positions but disallow specific submissions that you might attack from there, i.e., “I’m only attacking submissions from the mount, but I can’t use the arm triangle.”
Covertly constraining your sparring is definitely an intermediate/advanced skill.
It requires that you be good enough at the game (relative to your opponent) that you can channel the gameplay into your chosen area. It also requires that you set aside your desire to win, in favor of your desire to learn and grow. It would be very much against the spirit of this kind of training to complain to your opponent afterward that you “would’ve had them if you’d been allowed to use ____ technique”
For best results: change up your constraints regularly and keep them to yourself.
Good Hunting,
Charles
As the saying goes, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” but this should not preclude us from laying out a path and exploring. I think this is your point, or at least a portion of it.
I love this idea of covertly constraining your open sparring. I’ve never heard of it. I usually just do my game and see where it goes. I’m trying to be more goal oriented when it comes to sparring, like having a plan when it comes to training. Thanks for this concept it’ll help me figure out what Id like to work on and how to in each sparring session.