The theory of alignment in Jiu-Jitsu was innovated by Rob Biernacki of Island Top Team. Alignment is a framework intended to describe all mechanical aspects of Jiu-Jitsu.
Alignment has three components:
Every technique should be evaluated based on how well it preserves your alignment, and how well it breaks your opponent's alignment.
Here’s a great podcast on alignment I cannot recommend enough:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/243161/15154544
Here’s two mini episodes from the same podcast that are much shorter about alignment:
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/mini-ep-4-alignment/id1448833161?i=1000657259236
https://www.buzzsprout.com/243161/15154544
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/mini-ep-5-the-alignment-scorecard/id1448833161?i=1000658018914
https://www.buzzsprout.com/243161/15202951
A quick way to evaluate a Jiu-Jitsu scenario is to "score" each participant's alignment on an "alignment scorecard." Identify whether a participant has effective posture, structure, and base, and assign him/her a point for each. Then do the same for the other participant. Each participant will have a score between 0-3. Whoever has the higher score has better alignment, and is in superior position.
The more dominant your position, the easier it is to break your opponent's alignment further. When your opponent's alignment score reaches 1 or 0, it's time to go for a submission. Attempting a submission earlier than that will often result in an escape or reversal.
Alignment example: bottom closed guard
As an example, let's consider the following scenario: you are holding bottom closed guard, your opponent is postured up, and no one has dominant hand grips. The score would be: