Old School Back Take Sorcery with Vinicius “Draculino” Magalhaes

 

All BJJ players owe it to themselves to have a strong understanding of the closed guard and to be able to use it effectively. The closed guard is one of the most recognized positions in all of the sport and its deceptively effective, especially to the untrained eye. It would appear that we are not in good position in the closed guard, being that we are on the bottom of the exchange but as we eventually come to learn, the guard is a very dangerous place for a top player to be and its utilities are many.

The guard provides us with the ability to be on the bottom of a fight and still win. This is unique to the position and something to always keep in mind. In a legitimate altercation, the guard could quite possibly save your life. There are plenty of reasons to make your guard efficient and dangerous and there are certainly thousands of methods of doing so. With the gi, the opportunities become even greater in number, with the addition of lapels and a myriad of different grip sets. The gi truly is a dangerous and effective tool against the guard passer, so it would serve us well to make use of it. 

Vinicius “Draculino” Magalhaes is responsible for the suffering of hundreds if not thousands of guard passers over the span of his incredibly illustrious career. He has an old school approach to the guard that’s incredibly effective and simple to comprehend. He makes smart use of the gi and all of its components to create scenarios that stifle even the best guard passers. 

In his new instructional with BJJ Fanatics entitled, Effective Old School Guards to Neutralize New School Passes. Draculino imparts his unique and experienced wisdom on the BJJ masses with a collection of his best guard work to combat the modern passing of BJJ. In this sneak peek from the series Draculino demonstrates a back take from the closed guard using the threat of the sweep. This combination is tried and true. The sweep and the back-take go hand in hand and many times where there's smoke there’s fire with this famous coupling. Using these two ideas in combination from the closed guard can yield some great results and provide you with the ability to advance. Check this out! 

 

This technique is derived from a previous sweep. It’s important to remember here that the sweep is the first method of attack and to take advantage of these secondary attacks we must fully sell the sweep to command the proper reactions. Here, Draculino has managed to break the posture, loosen the lapel, and pass it under the armpit to his opposite hand. He’s now in perfect position to begin attempting the reversal. 

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Draculino begins by placing his left foot in his partner’s hip and begins to create a pretty extreme angle, becoming perpendicular with his partner. From here he can easily secure the leg closest to him by simply hugging it with his arm. If he continues to remove his head and achieve more angle, he’ll create a situation where the reversal and the armbar are possible, but instead, being stuck and unable to advance toward these techniques, he finds a pathway to the back. Draculino pops his head free near his partner’s head instead of near the hips, which gives him access to begin his transition. It’s important here that he also achieves a good grip on his partner’s upper sleeve of the near arm. This will ensure that as he begins to attack the back his partner cannot come toward him and reestablish a closed guard position.

With the grip on the lapel still intact, Draculino can pull his partner close here and relock his guard. By Pulling the lapel and pushing on the arm, Draculino begins to rotate his partner’s body, exposing the back. In combination with the push pull tactic, he also uses his top hook to secure his partner’s hip and to help drag him into the back position. Now on the back, Draculino relinquishes his grip on the lapel for an under-hook style grip on the shoulder which will keep his partner from sitting up and defending. He pairs this with continuing to push on the bottom arm to keep the alignment he needs to establish the back position. 

If you’re looking for closed guard efficiency and effectiveness, Draculino is your man. Few have the level of experience that this man possesses and he’s seen it all. You should see the techniques in the series leading up to this back take.  Effective Old School Guards to Neutralize New School Passes is absolutely phenomenal and Draculino provides a great blueprint to set you up for success. Create a more dangerous closed guard today!

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