Over budget: It seems every time we go buy something or invest in some project, the initial price you were given is replaced by a new higher price that leaves you more financially stretched out than you had planned on. Submissions are similar. Whenever you go for a submission hold you will need to control the entire limb that you are attacking. Your opponent will be trying to extract that limb from your control. As a result there will often be cases where your initial clamp on the limb proves seemed adequate for the task, but as your opponent began to resist it proved insufficient and your opponent escaped. My advice is simple – always over budget with limb control. If you are attempting an arm bar – exaggerate the connection of your hips all the way up to the shoulder. If you're attempting a heel hook, exaggerate your connection all the way up to the opponents hip. This way when the inevitable resistance comes you will have so much of the limb under your control extrication in the time available will be very difficult indeed. If you need a minimum ashi garami connection fifteen centimeters (half a foot) above the knee to be effective, aim for more than thirty centimeters (one foot), on the assumption that your opponents resistance will strip away much of that and leave you with the minimum. If you had settled for the minimum connection length as a starting goal you would have failed after resistance had been factored in. Factor in the effects of expected resistance from the onset and you will do much better in tough matches. Here I focus on an ashi garami connection all the way up at the hip in case an opponent goes to slip his leg free – this will give me a surplus of connection that will reduce the effect of resistance
