BJJ / Grappling Back Take Tips: The Secret to Successful Armdrags

Commitment is very important in martial arts in general and especially so in BJJ and grappling. Coming to BJJ from the "one-punch-one-kill" mentality of Karate, every BJJ coach / instructor I've learned from has stressed upon me that in grappling, moves are never a one-off and combinations are the key to success. Nonetheless, you must commit to each individual technique, have full faith in it and never do it half-heartedly. This is never truer than in the example of armdrags.

The heart of armdrags (irrespective whether from closed guard, open/butterfly guard or even standing) is in the first two moves:

1. Clearing the arm to the side
2. Reaching your arm across his back to the opposite lat.

What you do from here depends really on where your partner’s weight is and your own preference really… Christian Graugart gives a very nice breakdown of a few options on his blog. Above all, however, nothing will work unless you completely own that arm, and that is achieved by hugging/clinching tightly.

Leave behind the false notion that pure technique involves no muscle exertion. That is a misunderstanding! The art is pitting your strengths against your partner’s weaknesses: Your two legs against their neck (triangle) your hips and back against their biceps (arm bar) and, in the case of the armdrag, your clinching musculature against an isolated lat and rear deltoid! Once you get the arm past your centre line, you own it. Maintain a tight hug while you advance to the back (or any other option).

In the words of Beatrix Kiddo: Those of you lucky enough to have your lives, take them with you. However, leave the limbs you've lost. They belong to me now.

BJJ / Grappling Back Take Tips: Successful Armdrags and the way Roger Gracie takes the back

One of the newer BJJ enthusiasts at the Labs comes from a Karate background. The particular style of Karate he had trained featured an important aspect in their sparring called Sabaki.

Sabaki (捌き) simply means management or handling but it's often translated to "movement". The reason I like "management" is because it indicates movement with an intent or purpose. In modern Karate, Sabaki* aims to take you out the opponent's line of fire and into a position where you can attack with less/no chance of getting hit back. I was having a short chat with my new friend and the more we talked about Sabaki the more it reminded me of this article I wrote a couple of years back on taking the back with an armdrag.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Tips: Balancing Control and Mobility

Put a basketball on the ground. On it put:

A. A plank of wood.
B. A wet towel*.

Sometimes in BJJ / Grappling you need to be the plank of wood (projecting gravity through a small contact area with them which frees your limbs for mobility and attack) and sometimes you need to be the wet towel (maximizing friction, minimizing your own efforts, unifying both masses into one). Leverage hunters will master the plank version (constant pressure from the side control, half guard and mount top which can be tiring for both) and muscle-heads the wet towel version (constant closeness, perfect tight control but don't dare attack fearing the well-timed escape).

High quality Brazilian Jiu Jitsu players I've rolled with fluidly switch between the two almost without working up a sweat. It's not that they smother the submission out of you, which is still a valid grappling strategy, but rather the submission seems to come when you least expect it. They don't chuck you out of the frying pan into the fire. You walk into it voluntarily. That's BJJ.

*The Wet-towel analogy came to me from an excellent Roy Harris article on using Space in BJJ.

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BJJ / Grappling tips: Rolling with Beginners

I taught Saturday's No-Gi session at the LABS, covering for Anna. Traditionally, these sessions have a free sparring portion even though some beginners come to them and it's a great chance to roll with complete newbies. I showed two techniques to transition from side control / Reverse Kesa Gatame to mount and the Kimura option if the hand presents itself.

During a roll with a very tall, strong beginner I got to mount using exactly the techniques showed earlier, except he reached up and got me in a headlock. I made sure I thank him after the session and here's why. Only a beginner will do that.

Anyone with a few months of BJJ / Grappling / MMA under their belt will know not to. Which means if you never roll with complete beginners, you'll never work your headlock counters from the mount. Even if you're not training for self-defence, you need to know what to do when someone bigger and stronger puts you in one with full intent to reverse you. Enter Mr Beginner. Thanks!

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