Dorian Olivarez is a young phenom in submission grappling today. At only 17 years of age he has some of the more impressive wrestling in the sport.
Here we see a great principle at play when passing the open-guard: not selling out.
We see Olivarez do a lot of work to clear the legs and get to North-South, but his opponent gets his guard just a bit too quickly. Rather than forcing it and risk getting caught in a submission or swept, Olivarez transitions to a knee-cut while prying open the guard to get into side control.
Its easy to think “Well why didn’t he just knee cut from the start?”
The opening for the knee cut would not have appeared had he not done the work to pass the open guard initially. Its easy to get caught in sunk-cost fallacy of “I did so much work to get here, I have to get it!”, when in reality this is a silly way to play the game.
The most effective options are often those that trick the opponent, achieved by lacking the hesitancy to switch gears on a moments notice. Don’t force it if its not there, and keep trying things. You might find your new favorite entry this way.
Bonus points if you name the song
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