Regressive Games
Learning By Working Backwards
When teaching or learning new skills it’s common to start at the beginning and end at the end. It just makes sense – this is how things go! We are going to turn that notion upside down by beginning at the end and working our way back to the beginning. What are Regressive Games?
Regressive games are characterized by starting at the end-state of a movement and then working backwards. Instead of jumping straight into the deep end, these games allow you to break a situation down into much smaller manageable slices. Think of it like a match in rewind. The Benefits of Regressive Games
Regressive games offer several key benefits:
- Reduced Overwhelm for Novices: By starting at the end, newer learners and coaches aren’t immediately inundated with the full complexity of a situation. This makes training less overwhelming for everyone.
- Extended Problem Exposure: Many important moments in grappling are short lived. Regressive games allow you to occupy these temporary positions for much larger amounts of time. This leads to a deeper understanding of those situations in a seemingly shorter amount of training time.
- Isolated Focus: All well constrained games let you concentrate on specific situations and rapidly build skill there.
- Demonstrates Value of Connections: The value of connections can be taught with little to no verbal instruction. For example, if you start a player with established frames in one game but take those away in the next game it makes the value of those connections clear.
- Coaches Already Know How: Many of these sequences are generally already known by most coaches. Instead of needing to do extensive research before building games for your students you can dive in immediately using your existing knowledge. Take your favorite sequence, add live resistance, and run it in reverse!
Building Regressive Games
First, a good resource for gaining a deeper understanding of game design and how to incorporate them into your practices is Kabir Bath’s YouTube Channel. I’ve used his content extensively to rapidly increase my knowledge of game and practice design. It’s home to some of the best coaching content out there.
- Start At The End: If you want to illustrate the value of underhooks for the top player in a half guard situation then start them in the top position of half guard with double underhooks already established.
- Remove Connections: In the next game you start to remove connections and open up the game so that it becomes more complex. In our half guard example maybe your second game starts top player without underhooks.
- Repeat: Finally, continue to remove connections and work your way out towards more complexity and less connectedness. If you wanted to take this to the extreme you could start with our half guard example and work all the way out until both players start standing and disconnected.
An Example Worth Following
Click the link below to check out Kabir’s four game design frameworks and take your practice design to the next level.
Kabir’s Game Design Frameworks
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