Green Lanterns vs. Sinestro question

Something I’ve never quite understood: if in the classic version of the Green Lantern Corp their rings don’t work against anything yellow, then why aren’t they all utterly and completely helpless against Sinestro’s yellow power ring?

AIUI, the GLs dealt with fighting Sinestro by dodging his yellow energy blasts, using their rings to drop things on him, create environmental effects, etc., as going head-on against him didn’t directly work.