Isolating limbs: In an MMA or fighting context, what makes the dominant pins of jiu jitsu such as the mounted position dangerous IS YOUR ABILITY TO DO DAMAGE WITH STRIKES. All this changes in a grappling match however, where strikes are not allowed. The single most important ability you can develop to make yourself dangerous from a dominant position in a grappling context, is THE ABILITY TO ISOLATE AND CONTROL A LIMB. An isolated limb can be controlled and broken (or in the case of the neck – strangled (the neck is the fifth limb in grappling)). I always encourage my athletes to go the extra distance when they get to a dominant position – DON'T BE SATISFIED WITH THE PIN ITSELF – GO THE EXTRA DISTANCE AND FIGHT TO ISOLATE A LIMB. The day you start doing that you will begin SUBMITTING people from dominant positions rather than merely HOLDING them. Here, Gordon Ryan does a fine job of pinning down Ralek Gracie's right arm from a variation of the mounted position, thus isolating one arm from the other allowing complete isolation and control of the head and left arm in ways that lead directly to a variety of submission holds.
