Tour GAME is your COMPASS

In BJJ, your 'Game' is your compass. It is your plan - should everything go well. It provides you with direction and clarifies your 'intention'. Your 'game' is like the tip of the pyramid - but let's not confuse that with your 'foundation'.
Therein lies the quandry.
Do we focus on the foundation or do we focus on trying to achieve a very specific goal? Going into a match with a specific game-plan, in some ways, robs us of the ability to 'adapt'. So we need a correct mix of the following ingredients:
- intention (game-plan)
- ability to adapt
The most basic model that seems to work well, is to first provide a foundation (basics) and then have the student focus on their particular 'game' - thereby developing a certain amount of 'intent'. As more and more techniques are introduced to them over time, these techniques are added on top of their 'basics' - so with the pyramid analogy in mind, we can picture the foundation upon which all future techniques are 'stacked', giving us more ability to 'adapt' should the need arise - along with the tip of the pyramid which represents our 'intention' or the small group of techniques we are trying to finish with.
My coach Rigan Machado once explained it to me in this way:
"Your game is very focussed like the end of a funnel - with endless amounts of techniques and new ideas being poured into the much larger 'opening'. All these techniques serve to help you better achieve your ultimate end - which is to finish the fight at the pointy end of the funnel.
I hope I havn't confused. These are concepts not easily captured in a single sentence.
Best wishes,
JBW