Opening an “escape” for your opponent: When the mighty Mongols fought for world supremacy they often made use of brilliant battlefield tactics that enabled them to crush almost all their opponents. Sometimes they would surround an enemy and subject them to terrible pressure with their mounted archers – then when the moment was right, they would create a small opening in their perimeter that must have looked like a miraculous escape opportunity to their beleaguered opponents. The trapped army would be wary of such a ruse. The Mongols would let a few escape, then a few more, then a lot. The trapped army now saw it as a way of salvation – they immediately rushed for the opening – throwing down weapons to run all the faster to the opening, losing all decorum and cohesion. As they sprinted they would form a line to run through the narrow gap until they rushed out and through into what must have seemed like a miraculous escape. The Mongols would watch and wait until there was a long line of running, incoherent, defenseless opponents and then ride up alongside the line, easily overtaking the running men on their horses, and shower the defenseless line with arrows until there was no resistance. Exactly the same ruse can be used in Jiu jitsu when operating from dominate pins. Sometimes you get much better results by releasing pressure in one area – allowing an opponent to move into what appears is an escape – when in fact it's just a worse situation – usually a submission. Here, Nicky Ryan gives space from too mount Sinai that an opponent can turn to an elbow escape – and then makes his opponent turn further than he wanted to convert the mat mount in to the rear mount with additional arm control that will make strangulation easy. Next time you have a powerful pin on your opponent but are struggling to finish – think about controlled RELEASE of pressure – on your terms – so that you can direct him into a better finishing position
