The new trendy and cool thing to say is that tapping is a good thing and is instrumental to your progress in BJJ.I don’t disagree with this belief but the statement is shallow and subject to interpretation.
Tapping is instrumental to all of our progress and I will explain why.We are much more motivated by failure than success in BJJ.How many fighters win a fight and then ask what they could have done better.Unless you are Bill Belichik, you are probably happy with your performance after winning a big game.
Of course some of you are thinking that you have healthy enough egos to not fall into this category.I’m not only writing about your conscious but rather your subconscious as well.
BJJ is all about small battles and we strive for small victories.When you get caught in a submission, refuse to tap and then escape, you reinforce in your conscious and subconscious that you did something right.When you get caught in a submission and tap, you consciously and subconsciously punish yourself for making a bad decision.This is extremely reinforcing!
If you hate tapping, then all the more reason to tap when you get caught.There are plenty of opportunities to practice escaping submissions.Also, keep in mind that your partner in class is not trying to break your arm while you are refusing to tap.Therefore, you are not playing fair and you’re reinforcing a bad decision based on your phony success.What do you think will happen to that arm when you get caught in a single elimination tournament against a guy that just cut weight, traveled three hours and paid $150 to compete?
