The 10 Things Every Grappler Should Know; Part 3

3) How to counter a submission:
Familiarizing yourself with all the fine details involved in a submission will also give you clues as to how to best counter those submissions and recognize the critical moments to counter.
It's important to have at least two counters to each submission mastered if you are to be able to counter effectively. You'll also want to have developed proper technical skill in the positions that will prevent your opponent from mounting an offense and submitting you.
The best time to counter your opponent's offense is by maintaining superior defense when in bad positions.
There are too many grapplers who focus their training on offense and forget that if they get caught in a bad position they'll need to have solid skills and timing to counter their opponents offense.
It's important to make a list of the bad positions you can find yourself in, like bottom side mount, bottom mount, turtle, bottom knee on stomach, etc,... and list the options you have for escaping or countering your opponents.
Then work to perfect your counters while isolating the techniques, have your opponent start from that position or let yourself get into that position while rolling.
This is the way you'll develop rock solid counters and become very difficult to submit.