How To Develop The Best Back Attacks In Your Gym│Part 1
Take the back, retain the back and finish on the back.
¿Want to increase your submission rate x10? ¿Want to be able to take the back from anywhere? Aren't you tired of taking the back and losing it when you try to attack? Today I'll show you how I developed my back attacks from exposing the back, attacking the turtle position, securing the back, using your legs and arms to control your partner's movement, and finishing on the back.
Gordon Ryan, Marcelo Garcia, Roger Gracie... they all have one thing in common: they are masters of the back. If you want to improve, learning from the best is a good idea, right?
My success from the back has skyrocketed in the last few months, and now I'm pretty confident in my ability to take anyone's back and even finish from there. The last few days I have surprised myself with my ability to hold on even when I lose my hooks. Also my hand fighting into RNC is something I'm very proud of. You can get so good at it as well that it will put you miles ahead of the rest of the people in competition or in your gym.
The goal of this article is to turn you into a high level back taker, retainer and attacker. I want to make you a submission artist.
Disclaimer
I'm not going to do the work for you. I'll give you a roadmap, but you're the one who has to go forward. If you just read this and keep doing the same thing, it might help a little bit, but if you really want to see changes in your game, you want to work on the things I'm going to show you.
I will give you task-based games to develop the skills for each scenario, so you will need to play those games if you want to improve. You can also just focus on the objectives and play the game by yourself every time you find yourself in these scenarios. But if you don't do anything, nothing will happen.
Finally, it's going to take time. You will see results in the short term, but the difference will show up after months of training. So be paciente and keep working on it.
That's all, have fun!
Exposing The Back: If You Can See The Back, You Can Take The Back
You can take the back from any neutral scenario. You can also take the back from almost any positive scenario (like top mount or attacking leg locks). Finally, you can take the back from bad scenarios, and some of them are harder than others.
But all of them have things in common. So instead of learning each technique to take the back from different positions, learn these invariants that will allow you to work more effectively from multiple situations.
Every time you want to take the back, you need to get behind your opponent's elbows. There are two main ways to do this: you can go around the elbow (i.e. an armdrag) or under the elbow (i.e. a duck under).
So here's your first task to focus on: try to get behind your partner's elbows and connect your ear to his back. To do this, you'll try to get your opponent's elbow across the center line to go around it, or try to separate it from the ribs and get into that space.
This can be done from a variety of positions and scenarios. If you want low variability (which is good to start working on a new skill), knee shield half guard is a good option. You could also do the same thing from close guard, butterfly guard, or standing. The choice is yours.
Once you get behind your opponent's elbow by going around or under it, you need to catch the far hip. This will slow down your opponent's rotation so he can't turn towards you and allow you to take the back later.
So this is your job from now on:
Get behind the elbow and go around (get the elbow past the center line) or under (separate the elbow from the ribs and go under).
Get your ear back and catch the far hip with your hand.
You can always look for this in sparring, but you can also play it as a game. Just pick a position (like half guard) and consciously try to achieve those goals. Play with time and intensity.
Attacking The Turtle Position
Once you expose the back, you will most likely end up in a variation of the turtle position, so it's critical to be able to control and attack from there to take the back.
There are 3 main variations: turtle, four point stance, and rear body lock. You need to be able to break all of them. Fortunately for you, the way you work from these positions follows the same principles. Your job as a top player is to destabilize. Let's get into that.
Your partner will try to face you in any way he can. Some will try to get back to guard, some will try to get back up, and some will just accept side control. Your job is to keep your chest in his back and keep him down while you stay on top.
So your first job is just maintenance. Stay on top and hold your partner down while maintaining chest to back contact (it can be chest to lower back or chest to upper back, I'll talk about that in a moment). Also try to keep your opponent between your knees at all times.
While doing this, you are not allowed to connect your hands. You can use your hands and feet to connect with your partner in any way, but you are not allowed to close your hands. You are also not allowed to use hooks while doing this. These restrictions will force you to find ways to stay on top while holding your partner down, which will be critical to your development in the entire back attack system.
Now let me break down the turtle position a little bit for you. This will help you achieve your goals more easily.
Your partner can create movement with his hips and shoulders as in any pin. So you have to control hips and shoulders at the same time. Depending on the situation, you will emphasize one or the other. The position of your chest is also important. Chest to lower back puts more weight on the hips, while chest to upper back puts more weight on the shoulders. The problem with the latter is that it can cause you to fall, so I recommend staying chest to lower back and using your hands to control the shoulders in any way you can. You'll also need your hands and legs to control your opponent's hips. Do whatever works for you, there's no right way.
Most opponents will try to get back up. If that's the case, your job is to keep them down. Keep them on their knees and elbows. If they go to a four-point stance, take them down again. When they get back up, bring them back to the mat. Remember, you can't close your hands at any time.
Once you can hold your partner in the turtle, you'll work on breaking the turtle.
Your task is simple: do the same as before, but now work on bringing your partner down to one hip while staying behind the elbows chest to back. Now you are allowed to connect your hands, but you still can't use hooks.
Breaking your partner into a hip makes him the least athletic and will allow you to take his back later.
How do you break your partner to a hip? I don't care, just do it. Again, there's no one right way to do it. But one cue that can be helpful is to force your partner's chin into his chest. Again, this is not the only way to break your opponent into a hip, but it's a good place to start.
Now, finally, we are going to take the back. Now your goal is to cover the hips with both legs. This can be done with two hooks, one long hook that covers the hip line and foot to foot contact, or a body triangle. If you can do this, you win.
You still need to stay on top and hold your partner down, and while it's not a requirement, breaking your opponent into a hip will make your job easier. You only win if you get your legs in with chest to back contact and your hands connected around your opponent's torso in any way you can.
A tip I like is to keep your own back out of the mat. If your back is in the mat, you have less mobility and you get stuck and lose the back. So try hard to keep your back out of the mat until you reach your goal.
That's it for today. The next one is going to be about maintaining the back, which is a precursor to finishing on the back. Stay toned for this.