Can you feel the tension? learning to read your opponents body is a key skill in all combat sports. At any given moment in a grappling match your opponent will be applying his strength at a certain intensity and DIRECTION. You must be cognizant of this at all times, for this is the best guide as to what you ought to be doing as the match unfolds. Understand that as an opponent strongly resists a given move, that resistance will be applied in a direction resistant to that initial move. That tension can be exploited in two ways. The first is to continue the move and power through the resistance. If you began strongly this will often works. In many cases you will feel a rapid rise in tension in your opponents body. This is like the tension being wound up in a spring. If you successfully break through the resistance you will often find that the resistance creates a spring loaded effect that redoubles the effect of the original move and the opponent literally flies with the move. Here, Nicky Ryan awards an opponent some frequent flyer miles as the initial resistance to his sweep creates a breakthrough point with considerable energy behind it that results in an ass over head double whammy effect – very satisfying. The second way is to suddenly change to a second move that exploits the opponents defensive reaction by going in the same direction as the resistance – this too can result in some quite spectacular sweeps and throws and flying the unfriendly skies. Keep alert to that tension and watch the amplitude of your sweeps double overnight!
