Positional sparring is often one of the least utilized, yet highly effective, methods for improving your ground game.

While rolling can be fun and unpredictable, positional sparring offers a focused way to develop key skills in specific areas.
It isolates positions that you either struggle with or want to improve, giving you the opportunity to develop better control, escapes, and submissions.

WHY POSITIONAL SPARRING?

In a normal roll, you might find yourself in a number of positions, but you rarely spend enough time in any one area to make significant improvements.

For example, if you struggle with escaping Side Control, you might only experience that position once or twice during a rolling session.
That’s not enough time to fully break down what’s going wrong and figure out how to fix it.

With positional sparring, you start directly in the position that you want to work on.

This allows you to repeat the scenario over and over, making small adjustments along the way. If you’re working on maintaining Mount, for instance, you’ll start in Mount and face different opponents trying to escape.
Therefore, each round gives you immediate feedback on your technique.

IMPROVES YOUR OFFENSE AND DEFENSE

One of the greatest advantages of positional sparring is that it sharpens both your offensive and defensive skills.

Let’s say you’re focusing on back control. You’ll spend part of your training session attacking from the back and another part defending.
This helps you understand both sides of the position: how to maintain control, set up submissions, and deal with defensive counters, as well as how to survive, escape, and regain a better position.

BUILDS YOUR CONFIDENCE

Positional sparring also boosts your confidence in areas where you may feel weak. Especially when it comes to defense.

If you’re constantly struggling with getting out of bad positions like Mount or Side Control, regular rolling won’t always provide enough time to address those weaknesses.
Positional sparring gives you the reps needed to feel more comfortable in those situations.

HOW TO START?

If you’re not currently using positional sparring in your training, start by identifying a position where you feel less confident and efficient in.
It could be escaping Mount, holding Side Control, or attacking from the back.

Then, ask your training partners to focus on that position with you for a few weeks.

Also, during those positional sparring rounds, aim for consistent improvement rather than immediate success.
Don’t be discouraged if you struggle at first - remember that the goal is to isolate the problem and work through it.