Grip-fighting. Grip-fighting is the essence of grappling. If you aren't a good grip-fighter, the options for different techniques that you're able to use are going to be extremely limited. On the flip side, if you are able to learn to grip-fight well, you can make yourself much harder to deal with despite not being as high-level as your opponent.

Submission defense. If you're hard to finish, you're harder to beat. Also, as a beginner, this is something that's really easy to work on because you're going to be spending your time defending anyway. Work on escaping pins and submissions and before you know it, you'll stop getting put in pins and submissions.

Strength and conditioning. This is your weekly reminder that if you want to reach your potential in Jiu-Jitsu, you need to be following some sort of strength training program :)

Base. The best way to exhaust a guard player - but what if you're not actually good enough to pass the guard yet? The answer is easy - base. Become hard to takedown, sweep, and knock over. Develop a base like a rock. All high-level grapplers have incredible bases.

Flexibility. When paired with strength training, flexibility is the tool that allows you to do all of these things better. Flexibility makes you harder to submit, harder to score on, and more exhausting to deal with. Flexibility is also key for longevity on the mat. It should also be noted that strength training does NOT make you inflexible.