i think grapplers need to look at striking like strikers look at grappling; work on your defense, your ability to effectively defend, control, counter takedowns, ground control or submissions.
your whole focus should be on developing the ability/conditioning to effectively, if not technically do the things i mentioned; once you are able to do these things, then you slowly incorporate the offense.
the reason you do this is because a neophyte grappler/striker, your not gonna be able to effectively manhandle or beat up the more experienced/tenured guys; an your offense or aggression is gonna expose your deficiencies even more so and give them your best opportunity to stop you/pick you apart/submit you or control you.
most grapplers LOVE hitting they don't love getting hit, but learning how to move, control range, move your head, upperbody, cover up or parry and block isn't as fun or appreciated as swinging for the fences or leg kicking or whatnot. They think if they have some athleticism or some durability that they can translate that to striking and alot of the time it doesn't work; because strikers are used to fast hand tough powerful explosive guys w/SKILLS, your natural abilities unless worldclass won't mask your deficiences.
so the best thing you can do w/a grappler is teach them the game and work on their defense, that way they can find the opportunities to apply their skills; i.e. working on headmovement/upperbody and footwork so you can work through your opp hands and get to the body (evans v silva). In fact alot of what evans success is, is based on his willingness and ability to defend, i.e. using footwork, moving alot, head/upperbody movement; its never been his offensive ability or skills, his willingness to stay outside, use angles, parry, block, etc is what seperates him from the majority of mma guys who are only eff going forward.
by doing that it forces your opp to diversify his attacks to overextend or to impose himself or be too aggressive; an if you really work your def u can create opp to go for that clinch and throw, clinch and trip, duckunder and shot, slip and clinch, or slip and shot.
use the def to strengthen your ability to apply the strong point of your offense, i.e. takedowns, clinches, throws, shots, trips; def is underappreciated in mma, if you show the slightest signs of it you can and will shutdown 90% of the guys due to the fact they don't often face guys who use it at all..much less effectively.
the best grapplers work on this-randy-rashad-edgar-faber-all use the def aspects of their game to enhance their ability to takedown, control and finish their opp; instead of coming straight in w/predictable attacks or angles, which enables you to get keyed in on and finished or guys insistence on flashing their newfound off skills which gets them beaten up (koscheck/silva) koed (maia/marquardt-hazlett/daley).
