Fatigue is the ultimate submission in BJJ

Fatigue is the ultimate submission in BJJ

Fatigue is the ultimate submission in BJJ. We all have our favorite submission holds, but people who get tired will eventually “break”. The legendary football coach Vince Lombardi had a great quote about this…”Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” In time, I hope you develop at least five to six submissions that you can attack from anywhere on anyone. But never lose sight of a fundamental truth in grappling. The ultimate submission is not a hold per se, it is fatigue. If you can physically and mentally break an opponent with fatigue they will submit with their mind first and then with their second. A big part of your skill set has to be the skill of wearing down and exhausting an opponent so that all the submission holds are easy to apply and which an opponent will gladly surrender to. In the world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, this is also called “cooking an opponent as well. There are ways to control and manipulate grips, stance and pace that are heavily in your favor so that an opponent is working at two or three times the rate you are. If you can maintain this, the result is inevitable. An opponent who is looking for an excuse to quit,  your submission hold provides that excuse. When you put hands on an opponent your constant underlying goal should be to create a disparity in work rate skewed in your favor that opens the door to submission later in the match.