Necessary Conditions

Here’s a quick tip that can help you improve your offensive and defensive skills.
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For any BJJ move to be executed, there are multiple conditions that need to be met.
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This may sound ridiculous, but if you want to go for a guillotine choke variation (for example), you have to somehow control your opponent’s head and wrap your arm around their neck.
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Depending on which variation of guillotine choke you’re going for, there are some other extra conditions specific to each variation.
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Your job as an attacker is to make sure that you satisfy these conditions of the guillotine choke.
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If your opponent is going for the guillotine choke and you’re on the defensive side, your job is to make sure that they will not complete all the pieces they need to finish you with the choke.
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The more of such pieces you take away from your opponent, the less effective their move will become.
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But keep in mind that even some of the necessary conditions can be ignored if the person executing the move is much stronger or quicker than the person on the receiving side of the move. (i.e., Incorrect/poorly executed techniques can still work, even though that’s not the point of learning BJJ.)
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Whether you’re attacking or defending, if you ask yourself, “OK, what needs to happen now for this move to work?” …
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You will understand your options better and start becoming more successful in your offense/defense.