Walking in the front door: When you first come to engage with an opponent you will almost always have to make a frontal engagement because no trained opponent will give you an advantageous angle for free. You have to go forward and create an initial approach that is neutral – both of you have equal opportunity to attack and defend. The Whole idea of jiu jitsu however, is to gain some form of ADVANTAGE prior to attacking – so you want to think of approaching front door but entering the side door – you have to be able to consistently gain advantageous angle once you've made the initial frontal approach. You approach from the front because you HAVE to, but you attack from the side because you WANT to. Learning to cut to an advantageous angle and enter through the side door is a huge part of the game. Make a mental habit constantly working for an angle rather than try to bulldoze through the front. Understand that good opponents will always resist you attempts to gain angle on one side and square up to you to restore the frontal position – every time this happens, switch to the other side, so that you misdirect an opponent and become difficult to predict. Enter from the front – attack from the side whenever possible – this simple insight will add greatly to the effectiveness of your game.
