Introduction

Takedown Defense

Sprawling 101

How do you prevent takedowns? If you do get knocked down in a fight...how do you get up without being hit or kicked? When is the right time to get up? In a fight, we obviously have many factors dictating whether, or not we can stay on our feet. Preventing falls, slippery surfaces, our opponents momentum/forces, or our own trip ups, are all factors that can land us on the ground. For these, we’ll need to know how to properly deal with what happens once we find ourselves on the ground, and how to safely get back to our feet.

However, if we can prevent our opponents takedown attempt in the first place, then we are already ahead on the curve.

Let’s start with defense against the two most common types of takedowns we are likely to face. This is a simple response against not only some of the simplest, but the most common types of takedowns we’re likely to face in a real world scenario. Why are they the most common? Because any novice can pull one of these off.

Takedown & Ground Defense Training
Mission 1 - Takedown Defense

This mission is designed to be repeated as many times as you feel necessary. If using as a review, perform less reps.

1. Choose a Warm-Up before proceeding with this training mission.

2. Single leg sprawl - standing - Perform 50x.

3. Single leg sprawl - hip drop - Perform 50x.

4. Double leg sprawl - Perform 50x.

Ground Defense

The Technical Get-Up

You may have seen this move in the jiu-jitsu basic training course. This is a crucial movement to get down for what we do next. if you haven’t been practicing these, now is the time to get started.

The Seated Shrimp

Takedown & Ground Defense Training

Mission 2 - Ground Defense

This mission is designed to be repeated as many times as you feel necessary. If using as a review, perform less reps.

1. Choose a Warm-Up before proceeding with this training mission.

2. Technical get-up - Perform 4 sets  20x (switch sides between sets).

3. Seated shrimp - Perform 10 sets of 10 (switch sides between sets).

4. Next level - Perform 3 seated shrimps, fall back and put up your foot shield, sit back up, and repeat this sequence 30x

Mount Escapes

The next piece we’re going to want training, is this basic mount escape movement. There are many situations and positions to get stuck in, but this is one of the worst (see further down). It’s a good idea to train this one as we’ll need it if our opponent pass our foot shield and gets to the top mount position on us.

The Nitty Gritty

Now we delve into the nuances of this dynamic position. Follow along as we show the good things to do, and the bad ones that will get us destroyed.

Let’s Recap

The following are all skills we want to have in our wheelhouse for this phase of a fight.

• Sprawling

• Technical Get-Up

• Hand Shield

• Foot Shield

• Seated Shrimping