BJJ Fundamentals

Lesson 1 – Closed Guard Arm Drag

Warm Up (5min)

1. Line Drills
   • Sliding Hip Escape
2. Partner Drill
   • Knee Pull

Lesson (25min)

Back-Take – Arm Drag

1. Start in closed guard, with uke gripping both of your lapels in one hand
2. Take a cross grip on uke’s sleeve and reinforce it by threading your other hand under uke’s arm (grabbing your own wrist)
3. Break uke’s grip by pulling upwards over your head
   • Use the strength of your knees to break uke’s grip and off-balance them forwards
4. Drag uke’s arm across their chest
   • Use a pushing action to keep the arm trapped, not a pulling action
5. Shift your hips out to the side and grab onto uke’s far side lat to lock in the position

Back-Take – Finish

1. Continue from the arm trap position
2. Come up to an elbow to keep your head position higher than uke’s head
   • Come up by bringing your arm around in a circle, so that it’s easy to get up
3. Lock on to uke’s far side lapel
4. Unlock your guard and come up to a knee on the mat
   • Put your weight on the leg that is on top of uke, so that your lower leg becomes light
5. Get behind uke and finish the back-take by setting hooks and a seat belt grip

Back-Take Defense

1. Continue from the arm trap position (uke is now the person on bottom)
2. Post your free hand on the mat to reduce the angle that uke has created
3. Bring your head to the center of uke
4. As uke attempts to hip out to an angle again, keep your head above their head, forcing them back to a square closed guard position

Flower sweep

1. Continue from the ‘square’ arm trap position (uke is now the person on top)
2. Reach over uke’s back and reach their lat muscle
3. Plant your foot against uke’s knee to block their leg
4. Without hipping out, kick diagonally into uke’s armpit to sweep them onto the shoulder of their trapped arm
   • Do not kick directly sideways into uke; the sweep is to the front corner
5. Use your leg to hook onto uke’s hips as you knock them down, then come up to mount