Three Choices

Imagine you know what technique your partner is going to try and tap you out with.  Heck, they told you what it was right before you starting rolling.  What a dream, right?  Should be fairly easy to defend when you know exactly what is going to happen.

Sounds silly (it’s a fun drill though, try it) but it’s easy to get fixated on trying to get a particular move to work.  Despite bad positioning, despite bad timing, despite bad technique – sometimes it’s just tempting to force it… and you know what?  Sometimes it works.  You muscle it through and get the tap.  Sweet.

For all those times it doesn’t work, it’s nice to have given some thought to other moves that can branch off a particular submission.  Take the kimura from the guard, for instance.  Say you go for it but they grab their pants.  Darn!  Well check their neck.  Did they lift up their head to defend against the kimura?  If so, then use your free arm to go for the guillotine choke.  Or alternately, if they sat up to defend against the kimura, push into them and go for the hip heist sweep.  The three moves fit together beautifully, allowing for multiple options instead of trying to bulldoze one particular move.  Look for those branches, those places where techniques are set up in a similar way, where you can go multiple directions depending on the reaction of your partner.