The Architecture of Correction

Before you can guide, you have to see movements clearly.

Every exchange has layers of detail, and beginners often give you a full constellation of errors to sort through.

Prioritization

Not every mistake is equal. You might spot five things going wrong, but only one is the real culprit. The rest are compensations—the body’s improvisations around a single failing point.

Once you’ve found the weakest link, your feedback must match the student in front of you. Guidance generally comes in two forms:

Prescriptive — Tells them exactly what to do next. It’s direct, positive, and specific. Ideal for beginners who need clarity more than critique. Even if the movement is far off, you focus on the correction, not the errors.

Descriptive — Only names the error. Experienced practitioners don’t need you to fix the problem for them. Tell them what happened, and they’ll handle the solution.

An Example

A novice attempts an elbow–knee escape from mount. Five errors show up at once:

• frames collapse,

• elbows flare,

• hips go straight up,

• The knee never enters,

• They try to bench-press the person off.

It looks chaotic. But look closely.

All of it often traces back to one issue: an initial lack of control of the inside space.

Fix that foundation, and everything reorganizes. Frames stabilize, elbows stay tight, the bridge drives in the right direction, and the knee entry becomes possible. Four symptoms dissolve by addressing one cause.

For a beginner, prescriptive feedback works:

“Pin your forearm to their hip—own that space.”

For a purple belt making the same mistake, descriptive is enough:

“You need the inside space.”

A Reminder

Through all of this, never lose sight of the only metric that matters: transfer.

Improvement in drills means little if it doesn’t survive resistance. Escapes must work against someone trying to hold you there. Guard retention must withstand someone intent on collapsing it.

Gains must show up in reality. Precision, speed, pressure, timing—none of it matters unless it appears under stress.