28/07/2021 - Teaching | Closed guard | 2-on-1 grip break to back take

Teaching #962
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 28/07/2021

When they have the standard grips from closed guard, with one hand grabbing your collars by your chest and the other back by the hip, the two-on-one grip break is a good one to try. Gather their sleeve in your fist (i.e., a pistol grip), then your other hand goes underneath their arm, grabbing your own wrist. The positioning here matters: you want to get the sleeve grip with your arm on the inside.

With that configuration, you can either punch straight up to break their grip, or angle your hips away slightly. Make sure that you maintain your grip on their sleeve, straightening your arm. You want to push their arm across their body, while simultaneously pulling in with your knees. The intention is to collapse them on top of their arm. Due to the grip configuration, your outside hand can reach around to their far armpit. Hook your fingers in for a solid hold, then twist your elbow in firmly. Combined with your stiff-arming sleeve grip, that should rotate their torso and make it hard for them to turn back towards you.



If their head is on your chest, that's the time to go for the swivel kick sweep. If you've dropped them by your armpit, the back take is a better option. You can then shrimp slightly away from them, keeping your bottom foot in tight to act as your first hook. Make sure your chest stays glued to their back, while your hips move away to create a space to drop them into. If shrimping isn't enough, use the heel of your top foot to dig into their hip, spinning them into back control. Also be sure to leave enough space by the hips for them to drop into, while also staying tight with your chest to their back.

If for reason you can't complete the back take that way, you can also try coming up and swivelling around onto their back. Another alternative, from Andre Anderson's old SWEEP DVD, is to base out on both your hands. Walk those hands back, which will put you straight into technical mount. You already have the hook due to the previous position, which becomes the leg blocking their hip in technical mount.


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Teaching Notes: As ever, emphasise moving hips back as you're shifting away with your legs to get the back. You need to drop into that space, so have to create it with your lower body, while still keeping your chest tight to back. You don't want to drop them onto your leg. Could spend more time on tech mount switch, also swivelling to the back.