I was just wondering when you guys train? What is your focus, and why, since your training dictates how you would respond to a situation. I prefer to mix grappling with close in sparing, focusing mostly on elbow/knee strikes and pulling people into them. I lose the advantage of having a long reach, but I think I gain an advantage because it is harder to fight someone who ties you up and then throws an elbow to your face.
This is not to be a critique on if people are training wrong or right but an
eye opener to new people showing up different ways of training and to give the older people new ideas.

I try to focus on where I am weak. You are right you can tie a person up if you are close in, however you may not be fighting one guy at a time, nor will you always be able to get in close enough to tie someone up. It is also extremely energy consumtive to get into a grappling situation even if it is standing.

Question everything, Know nothing.

As far as sparring: I wrestle everyday, do BJJ sparring usually on tuesdays and thursdays, and i do Vale Tudo sparing on friday. That is my usual routine, and i try to concentrate on every aspect of my game, strong and weak points.