To me the two things I wish I would have worked more initially was truly believing in the concept of framing. In addition, keeping your arms tight and your knees in and focusing on good defense when I'm bad spots instead of working so hard on forcing escapes. 
The importance of the original self defence curriculum, how effective it is when trained properly and how useful it is when rolling especially with strikes 
BigEyedFish -
Straight footlocks ok but if someone is doing a toe hold on a brand new white belt, Id ask some questions...
Single front hand chokes can damage the windpipe. Lapel chokes when done properly are artery constrictors and painless/no damage.
thank you for your response.... a white belt with a known reputation...my partner and i had the first two mma shows in s.il, many years ago...so if purples want to use toe holds its okay...just shocked me...and i go out of my way to be mannerly in my friends
dojo...so i will only talk and ask some questions on here....hopefully everyone underdtands.
on a underground smartass tone.....
do you know how to make blue belts look shocked...
have a new white belt roll them around...after class tell them...oh he has some previous training...you might have noticed:)
Posture when standing to pass the guard. Struggled with what it meant to keep hips forward when you stand. Even had Helio show me how to do it at the GTA when I was a blue belt. One of those things I had to do wrong 10,000 times, then one day it clicked.