Tap early Tap often or know your limits?

[watty31]

I say hold out, your not helping your training partner if your tapping when your not in the choke properly. It will help him to relise what he has to do in a real situation to choke someone out. Limb locks are a bit different, i always apply them slowly, even though i shouldn't, just in case some one gets hurt. I personally don't mind if he escpes, it helps me work on my control in the submission.

Last lesson I had a judo brown belt with a good 20lbs on me arm bar, he nearly snapped my arm off(or so it felt,) which i personally thought was a bit of a douche move. I also find I tapp too quickly when i'm very tired, which again isn't helping your partners technique.

[jzaccagnini]

know your limits is the right way to go. If you end up doing competition and somebody puts you in a submission your not gonna tap right away. Now if you have an injury or it's the day before a competition I would suggest tapping right away to reset just to avoid a new or further injury. In the end should just go out there and test your limits you need to know your pain threshold. Once a limb starts to hurt or you get dizzy tap but try to remember how long it took for you to tap or how much pain you felt before tapping, this will help you when it comes competition time

[Jay Chow]

If someone has me in an armbar and I cant defend it, of course I'll tap before it messes my arm up. However, if someone is choking me, I'll do everything I can to escape before I tap, even if it's completely on.

[Griffin Lambert]

Yeah Chokes are safe to wait out if you can some space or maybe a hand blocking it. I've had my knee reaped with heel hook a few years back and thats made me real cautious with any heel hooks/figure fours. Sometimes I think I might of tapped too early but better to restart than to have to rehab said knee right?

[Matt "Gumby" Glach]

I think it totally depends on what submission you're caught in. Personally, if I'm in a guillotine, as soon as they start to crank i tap... that's one submission that has JACKED my neck in training before and that is noooo fun. But RNCs I usually try to fight it out till I start to see black. Joint locks are trickier, just gotta pray you're rolling with someone who knows what they're doing.

[Mark Hax]

You are not doing your partner any favors by tapping when he doesn't have the submission. He will think he's doing it right when he obviously isn't. It's not a matter of being tough and hard to choke. It's a matter of having the hold properly. If its an armbar or ankle lock, I'll tap as soon as I realize I can't pull out of it. If its a choke, I'll hold out. If I have a choke on someone, and I'm squeezing in one position for more than 15 or so seconds, I'll try to change positions. If after awhile, I still can't get it, I'll ask my partner. He's in the best position to tell me if its a bad angle, if I'm on the jaw, etc. We are all here to learn, not to show how bad we are.

[Pete Daly]

I tap early on everything but chokes and pain moves. Some chokes take a little bit to take effect, same with pain moves, so you have some time to adjust and escape, but joint locks can hurt you in a hurry. If you're not competing, just tap if you're in a joint lock. What's the point, I mean you're risking real injury. That goes for every single joint in your body.

[Shannon]

my first tournament is comming up, and my view on it is, in spar training, as long as you are aware of your abilities and limits, test yourself and hold out, but with a joint lock, dont chance it much if not at all.

holding out for afew seconds and your opponent letting up could mean be the few seconds of placing 1st or just advancing.

[Ryan Cook]

I don't think there is one correct answer to this... my general rule of thumb is to wait as long as possible with chokes and to tap early to joint locks (unless it isn't in well or I trust my training partner enough to try the escape). So the caveat to this is that if you ever want to see higher level transitions, you have to defend the first attack. The swim move doesn't work unless you defend the belly down armbar. The pump and dump never happens if a pump and armbar from guard happens. Also, If you tap to a shitty arm triangle, your partner will think it's a good arm triangle...

[Max Hernandez]

i fight off chokes... but if anyone grabs a heel with a bit of pressure im tapping