The power of elbow control: A huge part of success in Jiu jitsu becomes from posture – and a big part of good posture in Jiu jitsu is concerned with keeping your elbows close to your hips and torso. The more you can do this, the more difficult it will be for an opponent to control you and open you up to attacks. It stands to reason then, that Taking your opponents elbows out of position, away from the hip and torso, is an excellent way to undermine his game and makes it easier to apply your own. This is particularly important when employing chest to chest pins, but it's also a valuable idea when passing half guard. Here I use double underhooks to undermine my partners elbow position and thus make defense from half guard bottom very difficult. Note that head position also becomes important in this context as you can see here. The basis of defense in Jiu jitsu is elbow position- there is a reason why the old masters call them elbow escapes – knock that domino over first and all the others will soon fall
