Experiment with different variations of your favorite finishing holds – you will need them all against tough opponents: All the various submission holds of Jiu jitsu have many variations. Each of those variations have their strengths and weaknesses. Each has a domain where they work very well and other domains where they work less well. As such it is important than you familiarize yourself with them all, as tough opponents will put up a level of resistance that will inevitably take you into different domains as you try to apply your favorite submission. Here, Garry Tonon takes on the great adcc champion Vinny Magalhaes in an absolute division match way back in 2015. Despite the big size disadvantage, Mr Tonon was able to get in deep on the legs on several occasions. Excellent defensive awareness from Mr Magalhaes saw the two athletes exchange several different positions, prompting Mr Tonon to go through several different varieties of ashi garami to maintain pressure – here he works with an outside lock as his opponent turns prone to shut down an initial inside sankaku lock. Rapid fire transitions from one variation to another in the face of changing positions and circumstances is a hallmark of good submission specialists – and it must become a part of your game too!
