This week is back escape week. I decided to focus on one simple escape from back and break it down into parts. This teaching method is the part method. It’s where you teach something one piece at a time. The advantage of this method is that it allows you to focus in on each individual part of the technique in a way you couldn’t if you taught the whole thing at once. I was able to do this because there aren’t many effective escape techniques from this position. In fact, I use exactly two. The one I use most is the one you’ll see here. My hope is that because I taught so much detail from each part of the position that students will understand it conceptually instead of just as a series of movements that build a technique. If you understand the fights and objective of each part then it’s easier to troubleshoot when something goes wrong.
Step 1 Survival
The first step in escaping back control is survival. You have to understand the objectives of the other guy. You need to be able to survive comfortably for enough time to build an escape. If you can’t survive intelligently then escape is not going to happen. Survival begins and ends with hand fighting. The first video is me blabbing on about the class and what we’re going to cover. I introduce an initial drill. The second video is talking more technique about hand position and hand fighting.
Video 1 Introduction
I usually start with a drill to see where people are and what they already know with regard to the topic for the day. It allows me to better tailor the teaching and gives me a before and after test I can use to see if they actually made improvements over the course of the class.
Video 2 Details of Hand Fighting
A Few More Hand Fighting Details
Step 2 Building Posture
Once we feel pretty good about hand fighting and we an survive here we can begin to build an escape. The escape that I show is almost all I ever use to escape the position. If you learn this one well it’ll be your go to technique. Initially I’m looking to trap the underhook arm and fall to that side. I’ll build the escape from there.
Video of Initial Escape from Back
Adding a Few Details and Drill
Step 3 Improving End Posture- Adding Leg Fighting
I purposely separate this out and teach it after students can come up into guard effectively. In a live roll you’ll sometimes end up in cross sides top. Sometimes though you’ll get half guard or full guard top. You have to be prepared for any of these. Here’s a video of how to leg fight and end up in cross sides top instead of guard top.
Hi Cane,
One of the best back escape discussions/explanations I’ve ever seen! Excellent theories, very well thought out and put across.I particularly liked the way you highlighted the 3 main hand positions for the guy at the back – as basic as it may seem, this is something most instructors miss off and this makes a big difference to how you start you defence. I will definitely be adding this to my game.
Awesome stuff, thanks Cane. We have been working this exact same thing at our gym. Thanks for the details and all the hard work.