Back in the day there was very little formal BJJ instruction.
Rather than train with a blue belt who had learned two mount escapes and had paid a large affiliation fee to a Brazilian blackbelt I decided to find another way.
My solution at the time was to train at the UBC Judo. Unlike most clubs that club spent half the class on newaza (groundwork).
That meant I could make relatively good progress just analysing bootleg competition footage from Brazil and the occasional instructional , and then go practice the material on a cadre of willing bodies.
(Which is why I’m so bullish on garage training groups now, but that’s a different story).
Anyway, on to the stupid part…
One night, we had a very competitive University Judo team from Japan show up for practice.
The first half of practice was tachiwaza (standing work) and quite honestly, we got schooled.
The visiting Japanese team was very, very skilled at grip fighting, which allowed them to control the matches. Basically, we got thrown four times as often as they threw us.
Then we went to the ground for the second half of the practice, and everything changed…
They were hopeless on the ground, and we were very good at that aspect of the game. We strangled and armlocked them into oblivion.
But the insane thing was that their coach had told them NOT to tap to us until their joint was about to break.
So even a slowly-applied armbar went something like this…
“Hey, I’ve got the arm, that was easier than I thought…”
“Hmmm, this guy isn’t able to escape, but he’s also not tapping; he must be very flexible. I’ll go a little further….”
Eventually, the arm would go POP, POP, POP, and then the Japanese judoka would tap out.
By the end of practice, at least four of our visitors were injured, sitting on the sidelines hugging their aching arms.
What an idiotic waste to protect the ego of their coach.
In the short term, not tapping to a submission will set your training back, because you can’t train effectively when injured.
And in the long term, every injury in your twenties is a never-ending arthritic ache in your forties and fifties.
The next time that you’re tempted to not tap against a fully applied submission, ask yourself this:
“Is this the last 5 seconds of the gold medal match of the World Championships in the Adult category?”
(And if you live in the US, maybe also ask yourself if you’ll be able to afford a full shoulder reconstruction if you don’t tap).
If you’re in the finals of the most prestigious tournament in the world and have excellent healthcare, then maybe – MAYBE – there’s an argument to be made for toughing out the submission.
BUT IN EVERY OTHER CASE BLOODY TAP OUT EARLY AND TAP OUT OFTEN!
Lasting a few extra seconds against someone who caught you in a submission at the club doesn’t make you a better grappler.
Sacrificing your limb to win a piece of plastic at some local tournament is just plain stupid, no matter how much it makes your instructor happy.
He who taps away lives to train another day.
Stephan
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