Where would you go from here? You enter ashi garami – your opponent immediately begins to contest your foot position to weaken the hold – what would you do? Remember this – it's easy to learn a move. It's pretty easy to apply it successfully against untutored resistance – but it is difficult to apply a move against knowledgeable resistance. Unfortunately this difficult task of applying known moves against knowledgeable resistance is exactly what you will have to deal with for the rest of your time in Jiu Jitsu. The higher you go, the more this will become your biggest problem to overcome. It is absolutely crucial therefore, that for all your favorite moves, you have pre-planned ways to circumvent the more common lines of resistance as fluidly as river water moves around rocks and boulders on its path downstream. There won't always be time to think and puzzle things through, so having the major routes worked out in advance is a big help. You already know what your favorite moves are – now you need to go further and know what the main forms of defense to them are and what you will do to bypass them. As you mature this can lead to long decision trees starting with each of your favorite moves and ending with what we can't be sure – this is the path to victory.
