My takedown gameplan system
Most Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners don’t train takedowns. This means if you train a little bit, you are already ahead. I am going to show you my takedown system in a flowchart style and describe my journey to make the first step to learn takedowns. This comes from a guy who had absolutely no takedown knowledge over a year ago. I have been a purple belt for a year and a half at the time of writing this article.
Disclosure:
- This gameplan is in constant evolution and it is based on my knowledge at the time of writing.
- They are based on my own experiments, trial and error, troubleshooting and feedback from experienced BJJ team mates.
- One size doesn’t fit all. This may not suit your style. You should find what works for you.
Do I need to learn takedowns?
My time in blue belt was all about playing guard. There were times in competition where I pulled guard, swept and deliberately gave my opponent space to stand up so I could pull guard again. When I received my purple belt, I found the need to learn the top game including takedowns. We usually drill ippon seoi nage, Osotogari and eri seoi nage once a week. However I wanted something less risky than turning my back to take down. In addition, I needed something that works in No GI too.
My first step to learn
The first thing you need is to change your fixed mindset and acknowledge you need to learn takedowns. If you think the way we train positions in BJJ, most of the time your goal is position B and position A is just a setup. For example, I go for Armbar but thinking of Omoplata as my strong position. You always execute a sequence of positions, to confuse your opponent. With this mindset, I started to experiment the same approach for takedowns. So I started with Ouchi Gari to Double/single leg in Gi and Arm drag to Kouchi Gari in NO GI. After some time, I included Tai Otoshi, Kataguruma, Colar drag and most recently foot sweeps.
The gameplan just like a flowchart
I built the above gameplan using https://bjjnerd.now.sh/. There is a lot more than just the graph. It include notes, youtube videos linked to each position and a detailed description of the gameplan. The gameplan is public, however you’ll have to create an account to be able to see it.
I constantly re-visit all my gameplans to add more details, variations or if I learn something new. I have all my guard gameplans published at https://bjjnerd.now.sh/.
Summary
The first time you do a position, it doesn’t feel natural. After a lot of repetition, the hard moves become easier. This is the same with takedowns. Again, you need to train and train a lot!
It is never too late to fill in the gaps in your game!
