Take The Back And Choke From Closed Guard

Watch Gregor Gracie Take The Back From Closed Guard

When you think of some of the most accomplished competitive grapplers on the planet you think of the Gracie family. Gregor Gracie is no exception to this. He truly is one of the all time greats. Even when faced against some of the highest level BJJ competitors such as Marcelo Garcia, he has risen to the occasion and proved just how dominate his skills truly are.

Gregor Gracie is infamous for approaching BJJ with strong fundamentals at an incredibly high level. Take for example some “basic” positions such as knee cut, half guard, and closed guard. When you learn the basics from someone like Gregor Gracie you are going to learn that these basic positions can become extremely advanced, and incredibly powerful.

In the BJJ instructional video below Gregor Gracie shows up a back take from closed guard. And although this is probably something that we have all seen before, Gregor has a ton of high level detail that is vital to doing this well. Check it out.

Ready to learn how to attack the back like some of the best in the world? John Danaher, and the DDS are known for their back attack submissions against some of the top BJJ and MMA competitors in the world. Stop just getting back, start learning how to finish from the back.

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From what we learned in the video above, Gregor has many key details that need to be addressed when taking the back from closed guard. The very first thing he mentions is the always important way he breaks the grip. Gregor Gracie makes sure he grabs the sleeve of the gi immediately after he breaks the grip. He prefers using his palms to peel away at the grip. Without this method, breaking the grip may prove to be too difficult.

Once Gregor Gracie has broken the grip he will open up his elbows so that both palms are facing his opponent. Then Gracie will drag the arm across the body. His opponents posture is broken by the use of his legs. It is very important to get your knees up to your chest at the same time you are dragging the arm. These two moves work together in conjunction, which is what makes this technique highly effective.

Now that the grip is broken, the arm has been captured, and the opponents posture has been broken, Gregor Gracie will immediately hug the lat of his opponent. By hugging the lat or the arm pit Gregor is able to keep that arm isolated and across their body. This makes it very, very difficult for the opponent to properly defend.

After these three steps you should be able to take the back. Gregor Gracie has a great perspective on what it takes to finish a back take. By straightening his back he can move away from his opponent. With his hooks already secured he will come up to his knees. This is the final step in securing the back take from closed guard.

When you think about it for long enough, this back take is absolutely incredible because it is very high percentage. And if the back take does not work, you have many other options available to you at this point. It is a great position to transition into other moves. It is important to look at the details of a move and think about how they me be applied conceptually. The concept of the arm drag can be taken much further, as it is useful in some many different positions.

The Danaher Death Squad guys keep racking up choke victories from back control against some of the best jiu jitsu fighters in the world. John Danaher’s team has tapped out champions like Yuri Simoes, Romulo Barral, Vagner Rocha, AJ Agazarm, and Luiz Panza, all from the back!

The funny thing is that the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu point system was created so that control positions are awarded points in ascending value - Back Mount is considered one of the best, if not THE best position to submit from in BJJ.

Yet if you go to any BJJ class anywhere in America and when the class works on back attacks, you'll see a bunch of studetnts failing to get anything close to a rear naked choke - John incredulously refers to this situation as "A Complete Disaster..."

Stop being a complete disaster in your Jiu Jitsu class when it comes to attacking the back, and learn from one of the masters of back attacks: John Danaher

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