For beginners in Jiu Jitsu being on your back while being attacked is very common in the early stages of your BJJ training. This side control fundamentals video will help you develop the basic moves and tools needed to escape from the bottom and put yourself into a better position to attack your opponent .
Shrimp Drill
Escape with cross up
Flow Drill - Cross Up - Back and Forth
1) Drill - How to break grips in the guard and make sure we keep posture.
2) Sitting Guard Opening - knee up the middle - pass to side control (2 ways).
3) Standing Guard Opening - to knee on stomach pass.
Once a beginner gets to a mount position they will need to learn how to react to the opponents movement when they try to escape the mount.
In this video we will anticipate a possible trap and roll bridge (basic move - not trapping the feet here) and counter the movement with a lapel choke and a basic arm bar.
1) Bridge Drill - Warm Up.
2) Bridge To Side Mount - Lapel Choke #1.
3) Bridge To Side Mount - Opponent blocks the lapel, my counter attack is the armbar.
4) Want to learn the escape for the armbar (#3 above)? If so, click here >>>>>>>>>
The first partner drill is focused on making sure we get our elbows to the mat prior to the arm bar attempt by the person attempting the arm bar. This drill will get the beginner used to getting their back the the mat and sucking in their elbow in tight on the arm that is being attacked.
The second drill focuses on the details of escaping the arm bar while you are being attacked and the attacker is stepping their legs over the head. The key here is that after we block the opponents attempt to put the leg in front of the head, we make sure we get our back on top of the leg of the leg of the person attacking the arm bar. Once we escape the arm bar we can turn into the guard and work to escape the guard rather than the mounted armbar we had been in previously.
If this series we teach the beginner how to attack the turtle position by threatening the back position which is the most dominate position in Brazilian jiu jitsu. If we cannot maintain the back position because our opponment attempts to escape we address what we need to do in this video.
1) Turtle Position Back Take - “Cowboy Stance / aka Horse Stance”. Once you have the seat belt grip (under-over) on your opponent who is turtled-up in a defensive position we will stand with both legs and chop our bottom hook as we take the back. This is also a great technique for mixed martial arts.
2) Back Loss To Mount - Once I have the opponents back I need to make sure that I stay of his back however if he/she escapes my back position I do not want to give up the top position, in other wards end up in my guard. If anything I need to stay on the mount position. This drill teaches us to stay on top if we lose the back.
3) Flow Back Loss To Mount - Here is a drill that we can do what will help the beginner learn how to move with their partner in this fundamentals flow drill.
The back control is the most dominate position in jiu jitsu so this position is addressed immediately when we introduce beginners to BJJ. Not only does the back control carry the most points in BJJ tournaments but it is also where we prefer our practitioner end up (on someones back) if ever threatened in a self defense scenario. In practice, and in rolling it is very important that once we get to our opponents back we maintain control of their back until we get the submission, usually with a choke from behind.
It is possible that our opponent will escape or at least try to escape the back so it is also important to understand the important of maintaining a top position (like side control or mount) if we do lose the back control. In other words, we don’t want to end up on our back (on the ground) after we lose the control, we need to maintain the top position.
This video covers three drills and techniques which will introduce students to “the back” without having to worry about chokes too early in their journey, as well as develop good habits by maintaining a top position if they lose control of the back.
Leg Drill #1 (Warm Up): This first drill you will do in this practice is our “hook warm up” drill. In order to maintain our back position when the opponent tries to escape our “hooks” (aka the legs in jiu jitsu)
Drill this on the clock for 1, 2, for 3 minutes each and use multiple partners to get a feel for different body types.
Maintain Top Position W/ Back Escape Drill:
Opponent escapes from the Back, we keep control and make sure we stay on top (Side Control) when he tries to turn in and re-guard.
Back Escape Drill (No Chokes) -
Hold your position on the back while the opponent looks to escape the control, but with no submissions.
It is important that we maintain the back position once we earn it (the most dominate position in jiu-jitsu) however a good jiu- jitsu player will always try to fight out of your back control so we always need to be ready to defend our position.
To start this series of moves we will begin with an over and under seat belt grip and both hooks in around our opponent.
Back Escape and Retention As Opponent Turtles:
Once our partner initiates the escape by passing over our hooks then we will follow them to their turtle guard while re-inserting our hooks and keeping control of the back.
Repeat this for drilling purposes,
No Choke Drill - hold the opponent on the back with no submissions:
This is a great way to begin back drills for beginners who are just learning the back position without worrying about getting choked. Instead the focus is 100% movement and taking the time to learn how to escape the back.