“When i was a blue belt, i asked Royce how to escape the triangle. He said don’t get triangled. Just like the meme says. Pissed me off. Then many years later i realized he was right.

Greg and Spenser taught the stack pass all the time. We learned it and practiced it, but i was always looking for a different answer. Then the seminar that i got my brown belt Royce taught the stack pass. Challenged anyone in the room to triangle him.

That was the day i decided that i had to get good at it!”
– Black Belt Jake Whitfield
(http://graciegoldsboro.com)

I’m not saying not to learn advanced techniques or don’t prepare for contingencies (“what if”s).

But, if you master solid foundations and basic principles then that solves most of the problems you’ll encounter.

A good example is in last night’s class, I told my students that if they keep their hands up and elbows in then that will solves 90% of your problems.

You don’t have to learn how to defend all the headlock variations if your hands are already in a position to intercept the headlock attempt.