What does it mean to secure dominant position/pin

To be pinned is to have your hips and both of your shoulders stapled to the ground against your will. "Position before submission" means to achieve a "pin" in some capacity first before going for the actual finish. While a pin only gets you points, there is a reason why settling into a dominant position still gives you points yet.

I also mentioned that you can either "apply direct force or simply maneuver the opponent's the legs and arms in such a way that their hips/shoulder blades respectively immobilize themselves." Unlike how one does not simply walk into Mordor, if you get my drift.


Applying direct force: this is easy. You use gravity, your own body weight, etc. Speaking of body weight, there are smart ways to apply it, though.

• If you tripod up on your tippy toes and bend over, your weight balance shifts dramatically toward your head. Now you can use your own head to drive in like a ram/deer/wrestler/etc. This is particularly useful for leg lace/leg weave pace, the over-under pass. and the long step pass (the last part of it).
• If you tripod up on your tippy toes and jut your hips forward while keeping your head up, your weight balance likewise shifts dramatically. Now you can use your hips to make your opponent bear the brunt of your weight. This is particularly useful for the single under pass/old school stack pass and the double under pass.
• You can purposely spread yourself wide, smothering the opponent all over like a wet blanket. This is useful for side smash pass.
• Cross-facing: apart from flexing your own arm muscles a little, you are also channeling gravity and body weight such that your opponent's head turns away from you.

Indirect ones are more subtle, and they can feel "flimsy" in a sense. However, many excellent guard passes use indirect control.

Suppose that you are lying on your right side.

• Pull yourself up by your right arm, taking care to grab the right triceps with your left hand. Your right shoulder blade will eventually start to come to contact with the ground. Then, your left shoulder blade will also touch the ground. You effectively flattened out your shoulders on the ground. This is particularly useful for the (cross) knee slide pass after you get your knee past their leg. All of the mainstream counters against the knee slide require shoulder mobility, so if you are a knee slider, take note.
• Pedantically speaking, you can apply a similar logic, pull yourself up by your right leg, and notice your hips flattening out.  
• Grab your left inner thigh with your right hand, and push. Duh, your hips get flattened out, as well as your shoulders, but wait, there is more. Make sure to keep the left leg bent, with the heel pressed against the thigh and completely lifted off of the ground. Not only do you maneuver the hips flat, but you are also killing any possibilities for shrimping off of the left leg. "Killing the shrimp" like this is widely useful for many different passes.
• Pedantically speaking, you can apply a similar logic for the shoulder blades: push your left biceps with your right hand, and your shoulder blades touch the ground. This can be seen in the leg drag pass.
• Keeping one or both of the legs splayed one way against the opponent's will is a great way to help immobilize the hips; this can be seen in the side smash pass, leg drag pass, leg lace/leg weave pass, and to a limited degree, the over under pass and the knee slice pass.
• Press on your left shoulder, and you are flattened out, duh. This can be done with body weight (side smash pass), or the head (leg lace/leg weave pass).