Pressure: The single greatest determinant of victory or defeat in grappling is the ability (or lack of) to apply PRESSURE OVER TIME on an opponent. Remember always that the opponent you face in the first minute of a match is not the same person as you face in the tenth minute of that match. Pressure wears us down, makes us poor decision makers, makes us settle for acceptable outcomes rather than optimal, makes us incapable or unwilling to perform moves we are capable of. The more pressure you impose upon an opponent the more dramatic will be the degrading of the opponents abilities over time. The skill of pressure fighting is to be able to CONSTANTLY KEEP YOUR OPPONENTS WORK rate HIGHER THAN YOUR OWN OVER TIME AND ULTIMATELY HIGHER THAN WHAT HE IS CAPABLE OF SUSTAINING FOR THAT LENGTH OF TIME, WHILE KEEPING YOUR OWN WORK RATE WITHIN ACCEPTABLE LIMITS. Learning and expanding your repertoire of techniques is your first goal in Jiu jitsu but as you progress you will find it becomes more and more about the ability to take what you've learned and apply it with pressure over time.
