One of the concepts that tends to go most against peoples instincts is power generation. The power has to come from the legs first, and arms last.

Most people tend to start off wanting to throw a punch from the shoulder, even leaning forward into it, but doing so will never generate a great deal of power. The punch ends up turning over, then going out, with the elbow flaring out to the side. It looks kinda like a one arm bench press with the person leaning forward.

What you need to generate force on a punch is similar to what you need to generate force on a push. If you are trying to move something heavy, such as pushing a car, what do you do? You bend your knees, get your elbows in front of you, dig your toes in and drive from the legs. If you tried to push with your elbows out it doesn’t matter what your legs and core do, you can’t get more force then what your arms alone can generate do to the angle. If you bring your elbows in arm strength is no longer the weakest link in the chain as your skeletal structure can support more weight and let your legs and core drive first and add the arms on top of that.

The power on the punch, or push, comes from the back leg. In the same way you wouldn’t generate much force standing on only your lead foot and pushing something, you can’t generate a great deal of force doing the same thing while punching, the power behind the motion needs to start from the ground up, through the leg, core and into the arm.

So what should happen straight right is the punch goes out with the elbow in, only turning over at the end of the punch so that the elbow never flares out to the side. You should “sit” down into the punch and drive from the back leg, the lower you are, the more you can use the ground and your leg for power. If you are too upright you can’t get that support from your lower body.

Good punching takes time, and it takes patience. Whenever you change a technique from what you are doing you often lose power and it feels awkward for a little while, but better technique means a higher plateau in the end. It also means slowing down and correcting the form as a regular part of development, as oppose to always trying to throw for power.

Any technique can be broken down into basically 3 distinct pieces:

1. The Setup
2. The Technique
3. The End Game

In the context of a submission this means securing the setup, locking in the submission, and being able to maintain control and pressure so that you can force a tap.

Now each of those steps has a number of things that can happen to throw you off your path to completing the submission. There are ways your opponent can block what you are doing, their are attacks that the opponent can be performing, and their are ways your opponent can reverse or escape based on what you are doing.

For each of the 3 stages you need to ask yourself some questions:

- Given what I am trying to do, what attacks are most available to my opponent?
- How can I shut them down?
- What ways can my opponent block my attack?
- How can I work around it?
- What can my opponent do to reverse / counter / escape what I am attempting?
- How can I prevent or counter those?

Each of those questions is likely to have at least 2-3 answers each, for each of the 3 stages of the technique. Which means to know a technique, you are looking at a lot of separate pieces of information. But when you can answer them all (and act on them all) your technique will be something to worry about for your opponent.

If you know 20 different attacks from guard, but can’t answer most of those questions for any of them, chances are you aren’t going to tap many people out with them. But if you only know one attack, and can answer all of those and act on them you will see much more success.

So here is a exercise:

Pick your favorite techniques, from each of the major positions and consider the above questions. Then, while rolling, work out the following for that technique:

Position: ________________________ Technique: ________________________

Setup

What are the most common blocks / counters / escapes or other problems I currently encounter when doing this technique:

1. _________________________________
- What do I need to correct to prevent this:




2. _________________________________
- What do I need to correct to prevent this:




Execution

What are the most common blocks / counters / escapes or other problems I currently encounter when doing this technique:

1. _________________________________
- What do I need to correct to prevent this:




2. _________________________________
- What do I need to correct to prevent this:




End Game

What are the most common blocks / counters / escapes or other problems I currently encounter when doing this technique:

1. _________________________________
- What do I need to correct to prevent this:




2. _________________________________
- What do I need to correct to prevent this:

For some there might be one, for others two, don’t try to go more then that yet though, just pick the one or two problems that occur for you the most.

Now you have a list of things to fix, and instructions on how to fix them, it might take some time to work out all the details on the sheet and don’t be afraid to ask for help with pieces if you aren’t sure what to do or what’s going wrong.

Once you feel you have corrected enough things that the list is no longer accurate, start fresh. Look at what the current problems are, write out how to fix them and repeat. Your favorite techniques may change, your setups may change. But any technique that is part of your main arsenal, as well as you back up arsenal, should be subject to this process. Do it mentally, write it out, whatever works for you, but these are the questions you should be asking about your technique to take them to the next level.

In training the tendency is to find something that works and use it for a while. But then the rest of the class gets wise to it and it stops working. At this point many people simply switch to something else, developing something else that works for a while and then switching it up again when their training partners figure it out.

This is a good method for learning a wide range of skills to a proficient level, but the problem is you never really take any of those skills to the point where you have mastered them.

Over time everyone gets hit with everything, and the advanced guys will have seen pretty much everything thrown at them and be able to defend it. So if you take everything just to the point of being proficient eventually you will reach a point where you can catch beginners at will, with pretty much anything, but have a hard time catching experienced guys with any of it.

The next time you find your go-to techniques no longer working on your training partners, don’t switch to something else, stick with them and figure out how to make them work again. After the cycle has repeated a few times, of you making them work and then your training partners figuring out how to defend and then you making them work again you will have a solid go-to system.

As you progress your “A” game should get both simpler, and more complex. What you want is to be able to control the situation, control possible actions by your opponent, and be prepared for each option available to them. The key thing is it all has to fit together in a logical and deliberate way, rather then a collection of random techniques. Know exactly where you want to go, what the paths leading there are, and how to get back on the path as your opponent tries to knock you off it.

Once you know that path inside and out, know every twist and turn, every point where you might fall of it and how to recover, then you will be a very dangerous competitor.