Fuji Analysis

I went to the Fuji tournament in Raleigh this weekend, and got to watch what the nearby gyms are doing. The biggest thing I saw was people conceding to play their opponent's match. Time and time again I saw people accept being pulled into closed guard with minimal effort. Once they had been pulled in to closed guard, they were insistent on trying to grab the head of their opponent and made no effort to pass in a conventional manner. The first thing is no one should be able to pull, not jump, pull you in to a full closed guard without effort. After that, should they be able to pull you into guard, their head is of minimal importance in a 0-0 points tournament situation. Whether you like the idea of points or not, if you sign up for a points tournament, come to play the game. Fundamentally posture is important to guard passing, in a full closed guard grabbing the head has done your opponent's work for them. So don't accept closed guard in a tournament, and if you end up in closed guard, work from a postured position. These are not absolutes, but the success rate for people who followed this advice was much higher.
Have a game plan- The people who went out with a plan for what they were going to do and knew what their coaches were going to tell them did quite well. If you know what your a game is and you have a plan to execute, in the local level of tournaments you can find success. I look forward to the next Fuji to see if there is a change in strategy, as these things were prevalent across many of the matches I saw.