To tap early or not to tap early?

[Damian J]

I can't compare myself to Garry Tonon...or anyone near that level. To me it's just being in those positions 1000 times versus 100 times and really knowing your body.

[David Rosado]

It's not about whether or not the tournament "matters". Whether it's a white belt comp or black.

I get your point and I made that point too. But Jacare knew he wasn't getting out of that armbar and let Roger break his arm. He was not gonna tap. Vinny Mag pretty much said he wasn't gonna tap. The importance of the competition plays a role in these guys decision to tap or hold out a bit longer....or just let it break.

[Fraser Taylor]

In my opinion it's all about knowing the moves and knowing your body. If I am caught in a submission that i'm very familiar with it'll be harder to finish me with it, as I know what it takes to finish that submission and where I should be defending/moving/etc. If I am caught in a completely unfamiliar submission and all I know is that it hurts like fuck and it's getting worse, i'll tap early before I find out how bad it can get.

[Sean Gamble]

I think it also depends on who you are rolling with and what submission it is. For example there is a guy at the gym I sometimes train at, mma fighter, and pretty much a trained sprawl and brawler. and he only knows retard strength, and any time you let him get anything he will crank ti right away, which is why I dont roll with him anymore. Anyway when i did roll with him , I knew to tap quickly. On the other hand one of the guys i train with now, I have never tapped to him. he gets me in some tight tight chokes but I trust him to not go crazy and the same time he gets me in chokes which I feel super super comfortable defending.

While there are defninitely other facets of tapping at the right time, I think the opponent and type of submission are two of the main things that guide me to when I will tap.

I think ben hit it the nail on the head though. When you train the defense, you might be caught in a submission but the safe zone is a lot bigger. once the person is put in their danger zone, thats when the whole tapping early and tapping late occurs I think. and its subjective and people make mistakes all the time.

you could take a view of you can only tap on time or tap late. tapping is to stop injury so any tap that stopped you from getting injured is a good tap. if you think you could have gone for longer then why did you tap?

Sounds familiar, you're like a younger, less bald, less hairy Brian Ebersole.

[Marc Baker]

I tap early to things that can break me and I hold out on things that make me sleep. I PAY to train Jiu Jitsu, I get PAID to work. I need healthy limbs to get paid. My babies depend on me to tap early damnit!

This...

Having damaged a shoulder once I tap early to kimuras on that arm... But I'll wait until the room starts fading to gray before tapping to a choke...

[Kurzy]

I figure tap early in the laboratory for sure. (When training at your home club)
Tournaments are a different animal because of adrenaline.
Adrenaline can get you through some pretty aggressively bad spots, but it can also result in dislocations etc.
I have a bad left shoulder. The minute a guy sinks a Kimura grip and I know I can't defend it, I verbally tap. But that is because my shoulder is in bad shape. If they catch me in a triangle, I will struggle and resist and try to weasle out of it right up until things are starting to fade to black.

I rolled a guy in the last tournament I competed in, and got him locked up in electric chair twice. He refused to tap, based on adrenaline, and I lost on points.

The guy was all pissed off and shooting me dirty looks after our match because "I hurt his leg". Fuck him. He should have tapped. He robbed me of a legit sub, because of adrenaline and stubbornness, so I have no remorse for his injury BECAUSE once I had the "fit" for the sub (He was locked in), I knew he was not escaping and I put the pressure on slowly and in a controlled fashion giving him LOTS of time to submit. And he wouldn't.

Since that tourney I have been focusing on blood chokes.

[Joseph Hachey]

Since that tourney I have been focusing on blood chokes.

Chokes? You should be focusing on points, Kurzy! If you catch I guy with a sub, he can say it is a fluke. If you beat him on points, then he can't argue your domination. Therefore, always win on points.

[Mike Nall]

'Tap early' seems like a phrase that would be in jiu jitsu's holy text if one existed, and it's something I've been told many times before.
I understand the need to remind people to control their egos and not take rolling personally, and I also get the logic of playing it safe to avoid injuries but how do you practise fighting through adversity and surviving really tough spots if you tap early? I'm thinking of something like Tonon escaping Kron's armbar:

Do you drill these kinda things in situational sparring?
Is this something I'm gonna have a better feel for with more experience?
Do you always tap early?

Thanks for your input.

You'll get a better feel with more experience. With joint locks I always tap pretty early. I'd never do what Tonon did there outside of an event like ADCC or a paid MMA fight. With chokes it's a little different, and you can resist a lot of chokes for longer than you think. Some people think tapping early means as soon as you feel any pressure, and that can be frustrating as the person doing to move, because you want to be able to actually put some pressure on a choke or get some extension on an armbar. But then on that armbar example, in a competition it might be smart to tap as soon as your grip breaks, because they're going hard and if you wait until you feel pain your arm might already be getting injured.

I usually try to ride out chokes longer as a rule. And sadly I do probably fight off joint locks when I get caught by lower belts for longer than I should, but I still always tap before I get hurt.

Leglocks are tricky too because heel hooks and even sometimes toe holds don't always hurt very much, and the damage can even happen before you feel any pain. So when I get put in heel hooks I just tap. Catch and release style. I might resist heel hooks a tiny bit against black belts or people that I know won't injure me, but that list of trusted people is very small.

[Mike Nall]

Since that tourney I have been focusing on blood chokes.

Great idea. You'll not have to feel bad for hurting anyone, and if someone is stubborn they'll just go out and the match will stop, Check Jacare letting his arm break against Roger Gracie in 2004. Jacare let his arm break so he could escape and continue the match and he won the gold medal on points. if Roger had a choke on, and Jacare went to sleep, the match would've been over.