[BruinPride]

Not the Olympics, not the World Championships, not ADCC. If a guy gets you in a sub, especially a joint lock, just tap. Sure you'll be pissed that you lost, and lost $80 or so with it, but it's a hell of a lot better than losing PLUS the hospital bill and 2 months of recovery. It's just a tournament.

[shaftoe]

Wise words, Zankou.

[Gsoares2]

Experience shoudl tell you when your caught or not.

I can tell if i try to do hitchhiker escape and my arm doesnt turn that im caught. If i try to rock up after and cant im saying TAP and tapping at the same time..

Struggling to not tap for one tournament victory is a waste of your body.. save it for more training, vacations, and general health

[Will_N.O.]

Originally Posted by Zankou

I tap right away. Instantly. I'm an amateur, and I don't give a damn about the last 2% of resistance. If you have an arm extended, you've already totally fucked up. Why pretend you haven't? Maybe if there are seconds to go in the Pan Ams or Mundials championship round would I fight it.

The tap is just a formality. The BJJ leading to that point is what matters, and whether you tap or not, you got pwned.

Wow.

Nobody adds more intelligence with fewer words to this forum than Zankou. Thanks, man. Great advice as always and maybe even saved me an injury one day.

[Matt Majorz]

Originally Posted by Zankou

I tap right away. Instantly. I'm an amateur, and I don't give a damn about the last 2% of resistance. If you have an arm extended, you've already totally fucked up. Why pretend you haven't? Maybe if there are seconds to go in the Pan Ams or Mundials championship round would I fight it.

The tap is just a formality. The BJJ leading to that point is what matters, and whether you tap or not, you got pwned.

Yup, took me one "pop" to come to the same realizations. I will try an escape while my arm is still bent, but the second it even feels like it's being straightened out, not only do I physically tap, I am yelling it as well.

[UrbanSavage]

Unless I really feel like there are a whole of holes in their technique and I have room/time to escape, I'm a quick tapper once a sub is fully locked in. I've only had to tap for a choke in competition, and it was right after I had picked up gi training after training nogi for a year so I wasn't then comfortable with gi choke defenses but I held on right until I was passing out, I don't really remember tapping for it. If it had been an armbar, though, I'd tap quick as fuck.

I've rolled with some guys who roll to win, and there's a HUGE difference between an armbar where someone is training and an armbar someone applies with malicious intent. I've only had one time where I felt like my arm was a second away from popping, probably one of the scariest feelings I've ever felt.

[Tony Manifold]

Originally Posted by codemonkey76

i would think that allowin 1 or 2 clicks/pops is not the best strategy... don't you think those noises mean something?

it could be the severity of the injury, but it is still injury

I didn't do it on purpose. I heard it click twice and I tapped. Sometimes in theheat of competition you think, "i am almost out, if I can just hold on a little longer...." It was one of those moments.

Wow, I have never heard that. In my last comp my elbow popped exactly 3 times before the guy let go and started apologizing profusely. I was definitely very lucky he was such a nice guy.

I have done that a few times in training. If I hear a couple of clicks, I let go. i don't even care if he keeps fighting or not.

[Tony Manifold]

I should add that the one time I have been choked in a competition, I tapped so fast and so hard, I was doing the funky chicken trying to tap. Fucking gi chokes.

[txfighter13]

with something like an armlock you are going to tap if it is locked it. however, a choke you can hold off a little longer in a comp. if you are defending correctly. if you are truely got you have to tap.

[judofarmerbob]

i tell people who bitch about tap time the same line i give the dudes who find out i've banged their girlfriend:

"that's a 'you' problem, not a 'me" problem."

if your girlfriend's sitting on my face, that's your problem.
if you didn't tap fast enough, that's your problem.

i absolutely respect the tap, 100%, and in practice i don't even lay it on hard, but you have to explain to the kids that it's not about the pain, it's about the lock.

as far as competition goes, whatever. i had a dude kimuraed twice and he still didn't tap, and i couldn't bring myself to snap his shoulder. 30 seconds later he's back in my guard, arm straight across my body, and i kick over for juji. you'd figure he'd tap, but you figure wrong. so, eleventy billion pops later, he figures it out. has to bow out of the tournament and spends the rest of the day in a sling.

i felt bad. almost.