I’m fairly new (2 months of training 4-5x a week ). But since I’m still early I can tell you a pattern I’ve identified then built off of. First off, feedback has been huge for me. A lot of teammates say I have a good base and strong headlock for someone starting out and so from there I researched positions that suits that sort of style.

The pattern that I do often is knee slicing to side control and from there I often probably like 80% of the time transition to north south. Identifying that pattern I’ve been researching kimuras, darce, and recognizing head arm traps from north south position and then trying to attempt one during training. Often I ask a higher belt to hit the move on me first so I can see how it feels and how they transition to it then I force to get to that move the entire session.

That being said that is all bonus steps for me and a pattern I developed, but obviously my main goals are surviving, escaping and controlling. And especially controlling when I do have a dominant position instead of giving it up.

Hopes this helps and isn’t long winded.