Tapping people out is, you could argue, the very essence of BJJ. After all, you’re here to learn how to control and submit as many training partners as possible, right? So, getting those taps is important, to say the least.
However, as important as it may be, there are 4 other things that matter a lot more than this does in Jiu-Jitsu.

LEARNING AND GETTING BETTER > TAPPING SOMEONE OUT

If you’re focused too much on tapping people out… Especially your training partners, then there’s a good probability that you’re sacrificing your potential to get better in BJJ!
That is, being too focused on „winning“ when you roll means that you’re not as focused on learning new techniques and improving in the ones you already know, as much as you could be.

Learning new techniques and improving in them matters much more than tapping someone out in BJJ. Try to shift your mindset from wanting to dominate the entire round, to the learning mindset; one in which you’re trying out new stuff, without the need to make it immediately successful.

By giving yourself space to experiment with new stuff, you’re going to improve much better. You’re going to refine your techniques. And, in the long run… More submission knowledge = more submissions!

WORK ON YOUR DEFENSE!

Getting overzealous with tapping out your training partners means that you’ll probably forego your defense. And while this may work against those who are approximately the same rank as you are, you’re going to get crushed by upper belts and in competition.

If you want to impose your submission game with success in competition, and with reasonable likelihood against upper belts, then you have to work on your defense.
Practice those escapes with proper technique, as much as you possibly can – maybe even more than submissions for a while!

If you know how to defend yourself and escape with skill, then your BJJ game will be more rounded and longer-lasting.

In this video, John Danaher gives a brilliant analogy on why you shouldn’t view every roll as win or lose.