Here’s a question (mainly for beginners):
Have you ever wondered why your brown/black belt training partners seem as if they know WHAT exactly you are going to do and WHEN you are going to do it when you guys spar together?
It’s because they are reading your mind. For the most part, they do indeed know what you want to do and use this knowledge to their advantage.
There are two possibilities about how they are reading your mind.
Scenario 1:
They probably guided you into doing the exact move you were thinking of doing. They were a few steps ahead of you and set a trap to catch you.
Scenario 2:
They read your mind via the physical cues you gave them. These cues are present in your action/reaction. Your opponent read such cues and acted accordingly.
Now you know what your senior training partners are doing. You can start thinking about how to manage your cues. You could give less. Or you could give away misleading cues to trick your opponent.
And start looking for such cues from your training partners. Learn to read them and see if you can take advantage of them. It’s mostly about using your hands, arms, legs, or feet as your sensors and sensing your opponent’s movements.
It’s not jiu-jitsu related, but here’s a GREAT example of how to read physical and someone’s mind.