When you tap somebody, sometimes they’ll say something like, “Oh I was trying something.”1
It could be the old favorite, “It was more of a crank.”
Typically, it’ll be someone ranked higher than you.
Another common one is, “The choke wasn’t under my chin. It was just uncomfortable.”
Well, first of all, tucking your chin to defend a choke is like blocking a punch with your face. It doesn’t work. You can choke (strangle, to be precise) someone through their face. And if not that, you can dislocate their jaw or bloody their mouth.
Second, then why didn’t they escape instead of tapping?
Don’t let them discredit your submission.2 Ignore the excuse and take the win to stay motivated. Because if you can stay motivated, you’ll keep going. And if you keep going, you’ll eventually get to the point where they won’t make any more excuses.
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They might actually have been just experimenting and got caught. But from my experience, the ones that are purposely putting themselves in a bad spot to work out of aren’t worried about saving face, so they wouldn’t bother saying anything at all. ↩︎
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That said, don’t be the guy that brags about submissions. That’s lame and no one cares anyway. When’s the last time you were impressed when someone told you they tapped anyone? ↩︎