Competition intensity: Very often I am asked how I am able to reconcile safe training in the gym with the breaking intensity required for top level competition (shiai). The squads safety record in training is very good despite being a group whose philosophy of jiu jitsu is based around ruthlessly seeking submissions over the whole body. People ask how they are able to train in a relatively mild way with each other every day, yet when the time comes in shiai, to be able to take a lock or strangle through to completion with maximum torque. The key is to focus skill development around CONTROL rather than power. When your ability to control an opponent's movement is well developed, you can apply whatever degree of power you choose at the time you wish to use it. When control is insufficient, you will be forced to apply full power in the hope that maybe you will get a break before your partner can effect an escape. This creates a very unsafe training environment and a hit or miss competition record. Most of the major joint locks and strangles offer great amounts of control as well as breaking leverage – learn to exploit that so that you can break and strangle at your discretion rather than in a flurry of movement where you are racing against time to get the job done. The great cliche of our sport is position before submission
