No-Gi BJJ: Every contest starts on its feet. As a result, takedowns—particularly in No-Gi grappling—are a crucial part of BJJ. To become an expert at takedowns, you need to practise a lot. Even while it is not necessary to learn every takedown, it is important to master a handful that fit your playing style. Additionally, having practice with different takedowns gives you the knowledge to fight against them, making you a more challenging grappler to deal with. Five takedown defensive tactics for No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu will be discussed in this post.
5 No-Gi BJJ Takedown Defence Strategies
1) Underhook
The most common clinching hold to stop opponents from advancing farther in their takedown entries is the underhook, which is a basic manoeuvre. In order to gain the inside position necessary for an underhook, place your arms beneath the arm of your opponent. You can better control your shoulders and upper body by doing this. In contrast to a double underhook, which may result in techniques like the body lock, a single underhook is administered with just one arm while the other hand grips the opponent’s wrist or applies an overhook.
You can practise “pummeling” with a training partner to get better at swimming towards the underhook in a game. If you’ve never done this exercise before, try to aim for the chest-to-chest bump between the underhook transitions. By keeping the connection tight and denying your training partner simple access to the underhook as you get more experienced at pummeling, you may raise the level of difficulty.
You might also be interested in reading this: What is Japanese Necktie In BJJ? And How To Do It?
2) Sprawling
Two key takedown stuffing strategies are the underhook and sprawling. During grappling, the head acts as the first line of defence because it coordinates with body positioning since the body moves in unison with the head. The reason the arms are second is because they can be used to post up against the enemy. The sprawl is used as the key defensive against a takedown shot when the opponent comes to your legs.
Sprawling is accomplished by swiftly bringing the lead leg back while slamming the opponent’s head or shoulder with your hip. Remember to keep your upper body straight and twist your lower body to create the torquing action rather than just sprawling flat on the mat. Knowing how to get back up after sprawling is essential because it will put you in a fantastic position to launch a counterattack. Your rear leg rotates back up to get into the fighting posture as you rise from a sprawl, which is nearly like the high lunge.
Because the opponent is out of position immediately following a shot, sprawling, which is sometimes misunderstood in grappling, is not passive but rather aggressive. Maintaining a strong position that you can utilise to escape from any sticky situation is made possible by having a decent sprawl. With the sprawl, using heavy hips is a crucial component. Consider the sprawl to be a drop rather than a floating motion.
The sprawl is not a solid posture, despite the fact that it can successfully thwart an opponent’s effort to knock you down. As a result, you should practise your timing and sprawling technique before choosing your next line of attack.
3) Front Headlock To Choke
One of the most practical moves from this position is to apply the front headlock after effectively blocking the opponent’s takedown with a sprawl. You can employ front headlocks to surround your opponent or to execute several frontal chokes, including the Anaconda, Guillotine, D’Arce, and Necktie chokes.
Apply a front headlock to your opponent by sprawling, grabbing their chin with one hand, and putting your weight behind their neck. The other hand reaches over and pulls on their elbow. With your elbow kept away from your body, you want to put weight on your opponent’s neck while maintaining the front headlock. You may then start attacking with other chokes from there. The guillotine choke, which is the front headlock’s most common choke, is an effective move, especially when going up against wrestlers.
4) Throws
Throws are a great takedown defence, particularly against the single leg. You may build up throws with the underhook since getting inside the opponent’s position is essential to throwing them. Your underhook technique must be flawless if you want to incorporate throws into your game. Watch the example above to see how to combine the throw with the underhook.
If your opponent tries to take you down and you manage to secure a guillotine grip, you can use a different throw called the sumi gaeshi. The sumi gaeshi is a superb weapon for redirecting an opponent’s momentum from a takedown to an overhead throw. To avoid receiving a scramble or a pin, keep in mind that the sumi gaeshi is a sacrifice throw.
To increase your chances of success, execute the sumi gaeshi without hesitation, just like you would with takedowns. Risky as they are, sacrifice throws may be very effective, especially if you manage to catch your opponent off guard. Before experimenting with various sacrifice throw variations, first establish a strong takedown defence.
5. Practise Takedown Defence
Many BJJ practitioners neglect their standing skills, which is the main cause of how quickly they are taken down. The ruleset is one important factor in this. Many Jiu-Jitsu practitioners prefer to play guard and have no desire to engage in standup matches. This strategy could occasionally be effective, but it is always a good idea to be skilled in all positions.
Even though most individuals find it difficult to understand how to counter takedowns, it is an essential ability to have. You’ll undoubtedly benefit much from mastering effective takedown defence in circumstances including sports BJJ, submission grappling, MMA, and even self-defence.
Conclusion
The standup is an essential part of grappling regardless of the rules. Practise grappling while standing is the best approach to advance your takedown use, takedown defence, and takedown counter skills. Learning how to avoid takedowns as you move up the ranks will unquestionably enhance your grappling in general. Please have a look at these techniques and let us know if you find them to be useful.
5 No-Gi BJJ Takedown Defence Strategies. Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
