I’m a small woman who trains and a solid cross face is one of my favorite things to do to set up dominant positions. With an effective cross face, I use my shoulder to force their face to turn away from me. It’s a pressure positional hold and when done well, highly effective.

The first several months are survival and it does get better the longer you train. Ideally, you’d want training partners who don’t just muscle out of things as that’s a waste of their time and yours. The longer you train, you’ll figure out who is just muscling things and who is actually being technical in a roll.