Begin with denial: Most jiu jitsu athletes begin their matches with a clear sense of what their favorite moves are and how they want to employ them against their opponent. This is good, but I recommend you begin with something else first. BEGIN EVERY ENGAGEMENT WITH DENYING YOUR OPPONENT THE TOOLS HE NEEDS TO IMPOSE HIS game UPON YOU – ONLY THEN DO YOU WORK TO IMPOSE YOUR GAME UPON HIM. Any time both athletes are simultaneously working to implement their own moves, it immediately becomes a dog fight. Top tier athletes typically focus first on shutting down their opponents avenues of attack and only then switch to the positive act of launching their own attacks. Here, gordon ryan shuts down the dangerous open guard game of world champion Romulo Barral with his signature body lock. Once Mr Barral's guard was sufficiently nullified, he switched to a positive passing game leading to a decisive strangle attack – a near perfect demonstration of the denial/impose sequence that is such a key feature of our approach to the passing positional game. Photo @banejitsu
