Strategy
Do What Works
A familiar name does not automatically make a solution useful. Ask what it achieves, for whom and under which conditions.
- Proposal
- Test
- Conditions
- Adjustment
A proposed solution is tested, assessed and adjusted before being used again.
Take an awkward entry seriously
A grappler uses an unusual grip to prepare a pass. The entry does not resemble the normal lesson but sometimes creates a useful angle. Instead of rejecting it immediately or declaring it a secret weapon, the coach investigates which contact produces the effect and how a partner can disrupt it.
Test the entry with several appropriate partners, first at a manageable level and then with freer responses. Look beyond completing the pass. Is balance still available? Can you release safely when the partner closes the grip? Does the entry offer anything when the other person knows it is coming? Works becomes a description of conditions rather than a word of praise.
Works needs a complete sentence
The movement looks unusual but sometimes gives you a useful position. What now? You need not dismiss it because it is unpopular, or immediately declare it a secret weapon. Ask what works: for which purpose, against which resistance and at what cost? Without those questions, a fortunate result acquires more meaning than it deserves.
This is not a scientific theory or a reason to ignore coaching. A coach may see why an apparently successful technique is vulnerable. Conversely, an unfamiliar solution may suit your build or a particular response. Both possibilities deserve investigation. The useful question is how to gather sufficiently honest information to distinguish them, rather than deciding by appearance or loyalty to a familiar method.
A result can hide a problem
A technique may succeed in your current group because partners have not learned a particular defense. That makes the observation useful but limited. An action may also succeed through a strength difference while its intended timing contributes little. Ask what explanation exists besides your preferred explanation.
Safety and agreements belong in the assessment. A movement that routinely requires partners to accept pain, or succeeds only with harder contact than agreed, does not work for the shared training goal. Resulting Fallacy warns that outcomes cannot fully establish decision quality. Confirmation Bias makes it tempting to remember successful attempts most vividly. Record failures as well, and distinguish useful individual expression from avoiding uncomfortable evidence.
Give the idea an honest challenge
Choose one solution you are uncertain about. State the effect you expect and what failure would reveal before testing it. Ask a suitable partner to seek a credible response without turning practice immediately into a maximal contest. Repeat under several relevant conditions and record unsuccessful attempts too.
Then discuss which conditions recur. The idea may be useful as a supplement but too vulnerable as a main route. A small adjustment may make a meaningful difference. Or the solution may contribute little. Do What Works requires willingness to receive all those answers. A useful personal game develops through testing and adjustment, not by declaring that your existing preference must remain correct regardless of the evidence.
Sources and further reading
- Representative Learning Design and Functionality of Research and Practice in Sport
Research on representative tasks informs test conditions; it does not validate an individual technique.
See an idea alongside another
Related models
Scientific Method
A clear prediction and contrary evidence sharpen the meaning of works.
Confirmation Bias
Successful attempts alone give a distorted account of a solution.
Resulting Fallacy
A favourable outcome does not establish that every choice was good.
Tokui Waza
A personal speciality develops from solutions that become reliable under relevant conditions.