advice What are the most optimal stick positions for a submission artist?

[Nutlord]

Somewhat of a noob here, big MMA fan been playing since September.

So I've just created my first attempt at a submission artist with a purple belt in BJJ and a (9) in wrestling, made sure he had great subs. My first fight is against a guy who has a brown belt. So now I'm a bit torn between the stick positions, my other fighters are primarily boxers so I havent used them too much. I set mine to Guard Bottom as I plan to pull guard (didn't focus on TD offense) with a high counter and finish% from the bottom. Is this the best strategy against someone with slightly superior BJJ or should I try Back/None with the hopes that my guy will gain the best positions?

[Jersey]

If your wrestling is much better than his, it might be beneficial to go for top position.  Guard bottom is a great spot if you just want to go sub-for-sub, but against a higher belt, that could be risky and he might just keep passing your guard.  I was in a similar situation fairly recently, and I left stick position open, but leaned my sliders towards bottom position, which can work similarly(I think.  I won, at least, hah.).

[Nutlord]

Thanks for the reply. My wrestling is one point better, do you think if I should try Guard Bottom with the hopes of catching an armbar or go for Open?

[Jersey]

2 hours ago, Nutlord said:

Thanks for the reply. My wrestling is one point better, do you think if I should try Guard Bottom with the hopes of catching an armbar or go for Open?

I am not the expert in this by any means, but like I said, what I did in a very similar situation was leave stick position open and toggle a fairly strong ground bottom preference and the last two times I've went that route, it worked fairly well.  Sounds like a tough matchup.

[stpierrecanada]

I’ve had success with mount, side control and bottom guard with BJJ guys.