Efficient Way To Take The Back by Mike Palladino

Taking the back can be one of the most difficult tasks.  Sometimes we can get so close to solidifying the back and then our opponent can escape.  One of the most common positions to take the back from is the turtle.  Turtle is one of the most popular positions in BJJ because in point tournaments if the opponent is about to get their guard passed they can turtle and points will not be awarded. 

The turtle is a difficult position to attack if your opponent is defending well.  Some people are very good at playing turtle, for example, Eduardo Telles is one of the best competitors and he is infamous for playing turtle.  Although this is one of the least popular positions to play if your opponent is good at it, this can a very frustrating thing. 

So how can we attack the turtle?  Today, we are going to look at one of the best ways to attack the back from the turtle position with Mike Palladino.  Mike is one of the best competitors in the no gi circuit and he just released his DVD “Killer Turtle Attacks.”  This DVD set is also available as a digital download.  Mike is strait and to the point and always has an answer for attacking the back from the turtle. Let’s look at this attack below and then we will do a breakdown.

Kickstart Back Take by Mike Palladino

 

Breakdown of the Kickstart Back Take by Mike Palladino:

So as you can see with this position it is very difficult for your opponent to defend.  This is because your opponent will have no arms to defend.  Mike is going to use his legs to attack his opponent’s back.  He is basically going to use his free leg to take his opponents leg that is closest to him and make space to put a hook.

When someone is turtled one of the most difficult things that you can encounter is getting a hook in.  Typically, getting the first hook in is the problem.  They will be shelled up like a turtle and leave you no space to work.  The technique that Mike is using above will allow us to straiten our opponent’s leg and make space for our hook.  He just kicks his leg out like he is revving and hops over the back to put in a hook.

To finish the back take there are two ways to do it.  You can either pull them back to the side that your hook is one and try to get the second hook in or you can roll all the way through. The more efficient way to finish this position is to use your momentum to continue to take the back.  Since you are already climbing over your opponent it will be easy to continue to take their back.  This is because you are using momentum. 

Mike has some other sneaky ways to take the back from the turtle check out this video below where he uses a twister hook or a truck to take the back.  This method of back taking was popularized by Eddie Bravo.  The twister hook is essentially just your first hook of back control and you can use it very well with the back take that Mike demonstrated above. People tend to over complicate the twister and it is nothing special.  Just think about it as your first hook.  Check out the video below.

In the video above Mike actually shows a calf crank from the twister position but you can use this to do a number of different submissions.  You can use this position as a calf lock or just to take the back.  If you notice when he was demonstrating it he was starting with one hook in much like when he did the other back take above.  Mike loves to use this first hook to start setting up many of his attacks.    To learn more about his system check out his new set called “Killer Turtle Attacks.”  There is no shortage of technique here.