You can't close all the doors…and neither can your opponent: A big part of what makes Jiu Jitsu so fascinating, so frustrating and so uplifting; is the fact that our job is to shut down our opponent's ability to move – TO CLOSE ALL THE DOORWAYS TO escape SO TO SAY. So if an opponent is using an under hook to escape, we can close that door by pommelling in our own under hook. If he is turning his head inwards to begin an elbow escape we might close that door with a strong cross face – and so it goes on – the better we get at Jiu Jitsu, the better we get and closing off all the routes to escape – closing each door as our opponent tries to open them. Understand however, that you can only shut so many doors at once – YOU CAN NEVER SHUT THEM ALL SIMULTANEOUSLY. As you focus on shutting down one area, ANOTHER DOOR MUST OPEN SOMEWHERE ELSE. This means that NO MEANS OF CONTROL IN JIU JITSU CAN EVER BE COMPLETE. The ramifications of this are deep. It means first, that we must move on from control and actual finish opponents, because you can never hold a skilled opponent for ever as eventually they will find an open door. Second, if you are the one being controlled, NEVER LOSE hope. There is an open door there somewhere no matter how hopeless the situation might seem – you just have to find it. This simple insight of the impossibility of closing all the doors of escape is both a source of frustration and hope. Frustration because you can never completely shut down an opponent's ability to escape your control (and so the onus is on you to go forward without delay to the finish). Hope, because no matter how shackled you might feel, you always know that somewhere there is an open door for you to walk through.
