train under constrained environments
When one practices within a constrained environment, it allows one to achieve repetitions under very specific criteria.
This concept can be taken a meta-level. You can constrain yourself to one position, and at the same time, you can constrain yourself to varying levels of the submission game within each position. As an example, one can start in closed guard, then trap triangle, then pyramid, then triangle, then an end-stage triangle, and work from there.
This is called cognitive scaffolding, where even the smallest incremental step in a new or challenging action is unconceivable by a novice practitioner. Therefore, the builder of such a "scaffolding" would lessen the cognitive load by applying constraints so that one can support the amount of cognitive load necessary to move the next step. Basically, if we're practicing finishing the triangle, we'll just start in a locked triangle so we don't have to deal with the cognitive load of passing the guard, breaking their posture, and taking forever to simply get to a triangle position.
Game designers are amazing at this. Games are almost always designed in a way where the onboarding experience is scaffolded to the user. They keep things simple and incrementally bring on more complex actions until the entirety of the game is revealed.
Other positions one could try:
- back
- mount
- turtle
- closed guard
- single leg
- saddle / cross ashi
- 50/50
- irimi ashi
Are there any reasonable shortcuts to cognitive scaffolding?
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