Practice · Constraint design

Constraints explorer.

Every game in the library shapes behaviour by manipulating a constraint. Those manipulations fall into six types — the dimension the coach is working along. Naming the type turns the library from a list of drills into a way to design practice: ask for the spatial constraints, see what a handicap looks like here, or build a game along the same axis in the generator.

Pick a node on the map, or read down. Each type carries the games that use it and the invariants those games tend to surface — the constraint → game → invariant funnel. The win condition stays an outcome, never a technique, so one position can train different things depending on which constraint you add. The constraints-led approach covers the theory.

1 2 3 4 5 6 GAME
  1. Positional Position & roles 66
  2. Spatial Available space 1
  3. Temporal The clock 2
  4. Handicap Advantage or restriction 22
  5. Informational Available information 1
  6. Scoring The win condition 1

Positional

Position & roles
66 games

Where you start. The position and roles frame the problem — the base constraint every game carries.

Makes salient The position itself, and who holds the advantage. Every game starts here — it frames the problem before any other constraint is layered on.

Positional is the base every game carries — a starting position and a goal for each side. It is the constraint the whole library is built on, so rather than list all 66 here, browse them there. The five types below are the distinctive manipulations layered on top.

Spatial

Available space
1 game

The space available. Confining or opening the area changes which solutions hold up — a confined box removes retreating.

Makes salient Staying connected in place. Take away the room to retreat or circle and the answer has to work where the players already are.

Confined-Area Guard Retention Developing

Often pressures INV-01

Temporal

The clock
2 games

Time. Round length, continuous holds, and short windows tune urgency, patience, and durability.

Makes salient Urgency, patience, and durability. A short window, a continuous hold, or a half-length round picks which of those the game rewards.

Back Position — Seatbelt Keep Foundations Hook War — Back Position Lower Control Developing

Often pressures INV-01INV-02

Handicap

Advantage or restriction
22 games

An asymmetric advantage or restriction that scales difficulty without scaling resistance — a head start, a banned option, numbers up or down. The phase-ladder rungs are designed handicaps; a coach also sets live micro-handicaps in the moment, when a low-quality default solution appears.

Makes salient The skill an advantage isolates. A head start, a banned option, or numbers up or down scale the difficulty without ever softening the resistance — the lever the phase ladders run on.

70/30, Shotgun Grip — Advance Inside Advanced Back Retention with Hooks Developing Butterfly Ashi, Shotgun Grip — Thread to Control Developing Caught in 70/30 — Escape and Reverse Advanced Cross Ashi, Feet Free — Win the Grip Proficient Cross Ashi, Gripped — Finish or Triangle Proficient Finishing the Escape — From the Back Foundations Finishing the Pass — From the J-Point Foundations Finishing the Reversal — From Shin-to-Shin Developing Finishing the Strangle — From the Back Developing Game Over — Finish or Take the Back Advanced Inside Sankaku — Finish or Advance Advanced Off-Side Guard Pass Proficient Outside Ashi, Shotgun Grip — Close to Sankaku Developing Outside Heist, Shotgun Grip — Advance Outside Proficient Passing the Ankle Line Developing Passing the Knee Line Foundations Rebuilding Behind a Frame Developing Recovering From Flat Proficient Single-Leg X — Enter the Outside Game Developing Standing vs Seated — At a Disadvantage Advanced Standing vs Seated — With an Advantage Developing

Often pressures INV-LE01INV-01INV-LE05INV-08INV-02INV-G01INV-G05INV-LE04

Informational

Available information
1 game

What a player can perceive or use. Grips off, restricted vision, or limited options force attention onto a different cue.

Makes salient A different cue. Strip a grip or limit the options and attention moves onto information the player was ignoring.

Connection Hold — Grips Off Foundations

Often pressures INV-01

Scoring

The win condition
1 game

The win condition itself. Rewarding an outcome — never a technique — shapes the behaviour that emerges.

Makes salient Exactly the outcome you reward. Naming an outcome — never a technique — is the most direct constraint of all.

50/50 Positional Dilemma Proficient

Often pressures INV-LE01INV-LE03INV-LE05

The constraint type is the design axis; the games library is where you browse and filter them, the phase ladders string handicap rungs into finish-first sequences, and the games generator composes a new game along any of these axes. For the coaching craft of choosing one in the moment, see designing a session. Any game, invariant, or constraint can be dropped into your own page as a card from the widgets gallery.