What Is Advanced? (Patreon)

By Sam

Something to consider for those who are more moderate to advanced in whatever combat sport or strategy sport they engage in. This could include Star Craft to chess to even pro wrestling or warfare games. Perhaps even to political games.

There is an old adage: Know the rules to break the rules—or some variation. This is meant to serve as a teaching tool, something a teacher tells a student who is trying to get ahead of themselves. But it's not actually all that accurate.

If you're thinking about it from the perspective of trying to beat an opponent, it's more useful to think of it as: Know the basics to set up the advanced.

Now there is no uniform definition of what the basics are, so let's get that out of the way. I think to understand the basics, you have to spar a lot. So in BJJ, you spar with blue belts. What are their reactions? White belts give you more natural non-martial reactions. But by blue belt they know certain rules so they aren't going to, let's say, have one arm in and one arm out in the closed guard. And if you post an arm on their chest, they will reflexively go for an armbar. If you're going for a guard break, where one hand is pushing on the leg and the other arm on their chest, they might then shoot a triangle.

A boxing version is, with a brand new person—who shouldn't spar anyway—their reactions are more like flinches, or uncalculated. But once they get better, if you throw a jab, they will start to time you for a right cross. So now it's calculated. The basics are all the calculated stuff people do right when they get over their normal untrained reactions. Or put another way, these are their trained reactions, the stuff their instructor has been repeating over and over to them.

Whether in chess, or Star Craft, or even pro wrestling, it's not the person who's trying to figure out how to play the game, but it's the beginner moves they try. So in pro wrestling, your opponent might try to do an arm ring and run the ropes and clothesline. Simple things. Then if you know that's where their mind is at, what can you do off of those reactions to tell a compelling story?

Same for strategy games, but the objective there isn't to tell a story but to win. Once you know what those beginner moves, and once you know what your own calculated reactions are, then you can use this knowledge to your opponent's disadvantage. You know where they will build their base or that they will probably overextend so you exploit. You know they will counter the jab with a right so you counter the counter with a fake jab, slip and your own right straight. You post on their chest, let them go for armbar, so you can pass their guard. Or you show them some of your own reactions, these are known as feints, you're giving them disinformation. Once they think they know what your calculated reactions are, you know what their likely responses will be, then you exploit those reactions. This is analytics in sports AKA money ball. It's about knowing what they know then building a strategy around that.

See, you never actually break the rules. That's what advanced is, you're never breaking the rules, but rather, you're building on the rules. You're using your knowledge of all the typical calculated moves to set up traps they're unprepared for, which looks like rule breaks but they're, in fact, a very sound understanding of the rules. And ultimately it's about really following the rules to their natural conclusions. I think 5 moves ahead of you because I know that many more rules than you. Think of it like Jenga, you're trying to build a taller building of rules than them, whoever has the taller building wins.

Used the basics to set up the advanced. What do they know? And where does their knowledge end? Then take them into moves they don't know the rules for. Find the limits of their fight IQ. You can use this in everything.

Hope this serves you well.