Position over Submission

In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, one of the most common concepts coaches reinforce is ‘position over submission’ which fundamentally means, work on control before trying to win. It’s a core tenant of the sport, and becomes more visible the further into your BJJ journey you travel.

I’ve been thinking about this over the last week, following belt promotions in my gym. A number of friends received promotions (a ranking system using belt colour, common in many martial arts).

For many, this has been their first experience with martial arts. It’s been amazing to see the shift as they move from lacking confidence and being reactive, to being calmer and responsive; linking movements together.

They’ve moved from always chasing submissions, to being focussed on position – looking to reduce risks from the opponent, and gradually work towards the submission.

In security speak, position is posture.

With that in mind, here are my top 5 notes on position over submission.

• Submission hunting is risky. When/if it fails, it exposes vulnerabilities. It’s a form of over-extending.
• Maintaining position (posture) supports integrated thinking and pragmatism. Position is a framework (Patching, IAM, Asset Management)
• Position is pressure. It’s possible to pressure the opponent into submission through persistence – attrition through the relentless application of structural integrity. See the animal world for excellent examples of this.
• Securing a dominant position is far more valuable and will create options for submissions. In BJJ, this is called ‘cooking’ the opponent – forcing mistakes and not giving any room to think or move. In cyber, this kind of pressure is visible in high-friction environments (like MFA, JIT, Zero Trust, and micro-segmentation) By prioritising position, it’s more than simply defending; it’s dictating the terms of the engagement.
• Position is maintained and built upon until submission becomes inevitable.

In BJJ, prioritising position over submission reinforces knowledge and learning to stay calm in volatile situations, it builds patience and an unbreakable mindset by learning to see opportunities to attack and submit earlier.

In cyber, it’s moving from breach paranoia to cyber resilience. There’s an acknowledgement, that while no every move can be stopped, the position is strong enough to recover and counter.