Brazilian Jiu jitsu is fun game of strategy. You need to be fluid, relaxed and be able to respond with in a fraction of a second. Your responses are not always set for the immediate submission. Sometimes you are setting up a move that is two, three or four moves ahead. Having the skill set to Take the Back of your opponent is worth putting in the time to develop.
Once you have established the back control of your partner, it is difficult for him to defend. You will have the upper hand giving you multiple possibilities to move forward with a submission.
To start developing this skill the first thing you should do is practice how to control the back position. Always look for good control before you go for a submission. I see people get greedy all of the time and as soon as the take the back, they go for the submission and their opponent immediately escapes.
If you learn how to establish good solid control first then the submission will appear and you can take advantage of the opportunity. Your training partners will have a difficult time passing the back control if you take your time and learn good control.
Once you have learned how take the back and establish good control. The next step will be to find different ways to get to the back from other positions.
Take the Back Drilling
When teaching students I like to give them one possibility from every position. For example:
1- Take the back from the guard.
2- Take the back from side control
3- Take the back from the mount
4- Take the back from the quarter or turtle position
Once they have a few basic ways to get to the back now they can work on these transitions while establishing the correct control as they are getting to the back position.
If you are teaching a class you can have your students learn your favorite techniques for taking the back from each of these four positions. Once they have all four techniques memorized by doing enough repetitions of each, then it is time to drill.
Drilling for repetition and conditioning
One way of drilling techniques I really like and is great for conditioning is the round up drill. I learned this from Master Rigan Machado.
Have the class jog around the outside of the mat and then call out “Technique 1.” They grab the closest person to them and each do the technique 1-3 times then back up and jogging around the mat again. Then call out “technique 2” etc… Every time they do the technique it is with a different partner.
You can have them do this for 20-30 minutes it will reinforce the techniques well and they will have a great work out along the way.
For you those of you who are teaching out there remember the three things you want to give your students in every class are:
1- A good work out; Make them sweat.
2- Learn something to improve their technique.
3- And make sure they are having fun.
I hope this gives you a few ideas. Have fun and train smart. If you are in the Portland, OR area and are looking for classes, come check us out at NWFIghting.com.