BJJ Tips: Position before Submission

We've all heard this countless times but what exactly does mean or, more importantly, how do you interpret it?

Here are just a few of the ways I interpret Position before Submission (Pb4S):
  1. Learn positional escape before submission escapes.
  2. Master positional escapes before submission escapes.
  3. Learn positional dominance before submissions.
  4. Master positional dominance before submissions.
  5. Treat every submission as a control position before seeing the finish value in it and practice it from that respective.
  6. Focus on transitions between positions before transitions between submissions.
  7. Never sacrifice a good position for a chance of submitting someone.
  8. Always ensure you are in the best possible position before launching your submission.
  9. Always ensure your opponent is in the worst possible position before launching your submission.
  10. When mid-submission you sense your positional dominance slip away, abort the submission and work on regaining your superior position.
  11. What I learn from positional dominance will translate in gi, no gi, MMA, self defence...etc. better than submission knowledge which may work under one set of rules but not another.

Remember: Every time you go for a submission*, you narrow your options (not always a bad thing, as long as you understand it!)


While the superior position will always give you a number of options


Do you want the best of both worlds? Work hard on making your positions so mechanically superior that you don’t have to actually make the choice. Here is a clip of a newfound heroine of mine Hillary Williams demonstrating a wicked Americana from mount in perfect form.

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*I’m not saying don’t go for subs or that you can't transition from one sub to another. That’s too simplistic. I’m a deep, deep man!
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2 comments:

A.D. McClish said...

Really like this post. Over the last several months, I've stopped worrying as much about submissions and have tried to do exactly what you were talking about. One thing I haven't been doing is transitioning out of certain submissions when I am losing the position. Mostly, this is true of chokes. I tend to hold on and try to finish them. Bad idea, as I usually end up losing my position.

Liam H Wandi said...

Thanks Allie. Chokes are tricky like that. They keep calling your name :)

"Aaalllie! Don't give up on me yet. I'm almost on...just pull a little harder" and before you know it, you're on mount bottom still holding on to their collar and just about to get armbarred. I know exactly what you mean.

One thing I like to do when choking (especially from guard) is to open my guard and use my feet to push their knees and just bring my partner into what Cane refers to as Posture deficit. Of course this is something I partially do before the choke as a set-up but it also make the choke that much tighter and they usually post out their hand for balance rather than use them to block the choke or pass.