Understand where the danger is! And don’t be there!

This is a fundamental concept that is often overlooked. I remember being on the receiving end of this lesson, early in my BJJ development. My coach stood back, three or four paces from me and asked if I thought he could knock me out from there; I replied ‘no!’ He then asked me to clinch him tightly and asked again ‘can I knock you out now?’; I replied ‘no!’. He then asked me where he would need to be to have the best chance of knocking me out; I stood a couple of feet away from him and said ‘Around here’. He looked at me, smiled his little smile and said … ‘Don’t be there!’

Knowing where not to be, is as important as knowing where we should be. This works on and off the mat. There are basic things we just shouldn’t do - don’t play with lions, don’t pick up snakes, don’t swim in a raging river, don’t spend more than we earn and live on credit cards … yet weirdly, there are plenty of people who still do these things. They usually pay a high price for their stupid choices. Darwinian forces are, thankfully, there to sort things out for the rest of us. 

Basics people … basics!