Bad position? Stance first – escape second: We all know that when you get caught in a bad position in Jiu jitsu the onus is on us to escape. Escape takes time however; and in that time, a good opponent will use that position to attack us with submissions. Therefore your first responsibility in bad position is not escape, but rather, STANCE. You must adopt an appropriate defensive stance that reduces the possibility of an opponent submitting you and which facilitates your eventual escape. Initial Failures in defensive stance make it almost impossible to employ the escapes you know and make it much more likely you'll be tapping rather than escaping. When caught in a bad position start by getting your hands, elbows and knees inside your opponents hands, elbows and hips to the greatest degree that you can. Off balancing an opponent with bridging, bumping and kipping helps this a lot. Once your arms and legs are inside your opponents you will find escape is considerably easier and there is a lot less danger of getting submitted. Here, Gordon Ryan finds himself in a bad situation and has immediately positioned his left arm safely. His right elbow however, is still trapped outside his opponents hip. Before he can even think of escape he will have to off balance his opponent a little and pull that elbow inside to a position of safety from where he can start his escape. next time you're in a bad position – start with recovering your defensive stance – only then will the escapes you've been working on prove effective
