Joint locks – take your time,
Feel the relationship between joint, lever and fulcrum: When you get an opponent in a good joint lock is natural to want to close the deal as quickly as possible – you’re in a potentially match winning move after all – so why not seal it as quick as you can? If you just pull on the limb as quickly as you can you will have success up to a certain level. Beginners will panic tap to avoid injury. As you go up against better opponents they won’t panic and will skillfully defend themselves. As they move in defense the initial direction you are pulling the joint will almost always crease to be effective and you must shift to new directions to accommodate their defensive movements. This will require you to slow things down and use the lever of their limb against the fulcrum of your body to FEEL which direction you should be applying pressure. This is not the time for one simple pull on the limb, but rather, a time to see where they are going and feel what direction of pull will take their joint in a direction that it cannot bend. Next time you’re applying a joint lock, focus less on speed of application and more on the feel of the joint against the fulcrum
