The Snapdown
Takedowns are often the least trained concepts in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu schools, but are some of the most important in both competition and real life scenarios.
The two key factors in a takedown are getting the best grip and being the person in the most dominant position.
Often a takedown focuses on just one of these details to start, but a snapdown allows you to achieve both in a quick and efficient takedown that is relatively easy to learn. The goal is to get your partner’s head below yours, with their body misaligned so they have a harder time using strength to fight back. In general, all takedowns are attacking posture and body position; However, most open up a variety of defensive submissions or positional attacks if you miss a step.
Adam Wheeler Can Show You How To Easily Out Grip & Take Anyone Down – Without Having To Shoot At Their Legs
The snapdown goes after your opponents base and body posture, opening up multiple different submissions for you. It can be used as a total takedown on it’s own, or as a way to enter into a different takedown once you are able to gain better control over your partner.
The first step in a snapdown is get a good grip on your opponent. If you are wearing a Gi, this involves a cross collar feed deep into their lapel with one hand and the other either grabbing fabric by their elbow or their wrist. Most commonly, a collar tie grip on the head and a hand on the bicep is used. This variation can be applied in both Gi and Nogi situations, making it a more widely used grip.
Once you get into a position that allows for a snapdown, what do you do? There are a myriad of options, but we’ll go over two today. The first is a head snap down by Adam Wheeler, where he shows a variation on the grip by feeding one hand under his partner’s chin and around to the outside of the arm, pinning it to their body.
The other hand pushes the head down, but rather than only use those two points of contact he also uses his hips to keep the head straight ahead and low. After achieving this position, walk forward into your opponent to make them back up and get their momentum going in one direction before quickly changing your stance in a sprawl-like manner, which will snap your opponent down to the mat. The arm under the chin and around the arm will still be in place, opening up a back take if you like that pathway or an arm-in guillotine.
The next variation we’ll talk about today is the side-to-side snapdown by John Danaher. Rather than the backward and forward motion that was used in the previous version with Adam Wheeler, this technique rocks your opponent in a “washing machine” motion to get them off balance. The initial grip is to swim on the inside of your partner’s arms and grab both biceps so you have them in a steering wheel-like position; From there, you can move your partner around the mat to start getting their stance off kilter.
Next, take one hand and grab an inside collar tie around their neck before pulling them to that same side to bring the head down and towards your elbow. If you’re lucky and they don’t react you have the perfect set up for a headlock, but most likely they are going to posture up again to defend. Once they do that, reverse your grip
and rock them towards the other side. Perform this side-to-side motion a few times before reaching one hand under their chin in a headlock-type fashion and getting an underhook on the other to pull them forward and down to the mat.
These are only two of numerous variations and finishes for the snapdown technique. Practice different entries into the start position and finishes once you hit the mat. Being comfortable with this method gives you the upper hand during the standing portion of fights, since you will be able to gain the dominant position quickly and maneuver your opponent without much energy.
Use The Safest Yet Most Effective Takedowns That You Will Ever Need For BJJ: From An Olympic Medalist and Black Belt Masters No Gi World Champion
Adam Wheeler Can Show You How To Easily Out Grip & Take Anyone Down – Without Having To Shoot At Their Legs
Adam is a 2008 Olympic wrestling bronze medalist AND a black belt masters division world champion
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