Forward

Rules matter a lot.
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BJJ is the way it is partly because of the current IBJJF rules.
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Even though BJJ has the same roots as Judo, these two grappling systems emphasize different things.
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So, most players in each style are inclined to learn what’s the best thing to do according to each style’s respective rules.
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You can’t spend much time on the ground in a Judo match. So, naturally, you need to make some quick and explosive action when a BJJ counterpart in a BJJ match can take a step-by-step approach to turn someone over, for example.
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A modern leg lock game in grappling is another excellent example as well.
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Since many BJJ players who prefer gi aren’t really used to heel hooks and such, you may be able to catch them with some basic heel hook, even if you are a blue belt in BJJ and your opponent is a black belt or something.
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The way we think is often influenced by the rules we follow in many cases.
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I’ve been thinking about takedowns lately and what might be a reasonably good path for someone who doesn’t want to spend too much time learning Judo or wrestling…
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And, yes, the best would be to learn wrestling or Judo properly. I’m happy to continue learning more about wrestling and fine-tuning a bit of Judo skills I have (I have decent Judo experience, though it’s not particularly remarkable… and I hardly mention it for that reason).
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But I want to find a lazy-enough way as well 🙂
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One solution that I think might work is to focus on bringing your opponent forward… like snapping them down and making them get into the turtle/all-four position.
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Sure, it’s not easy to do this against an experienced Judo player or wrestler, but I feel like this is a legitimate way that not many people think about… because the rules we play BJJ or Judo by don’t count such a move as a proper takedown.
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I don’t know about the scoring system in wrestling, but I suppose that just bringing someone forward and to the turtle position doesn’t really count either.
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For BJJ or grappling, though, even if you don’t get points for doing this, you will be able to expose your opponent’s back… which is pretty significant. You won’t have to deal with passing their guard.
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I mean, the point of passing the guard is to reach the mount or the back position anyway… and you can bypass all the process of getting there simply by bringing them to the turtle position.
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Or you could catch your opponent by guillotine, anaconda, or d’arce after snapping them down as well.
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I’m not really here to tell you HOW to do it, but I’m just sharing that this is one of the things I’m working on at the moment.
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Keep your mind open and keep learning 🙂
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p.s. Not many people seem to explicitly talk about this “bring ’em to the turtle position” kind of “takedowns”, but some top BJJ players like Lepri and Rodolfo have used a variation of seoi nage to drag their opponents down and expose their back.
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If you know people who explicitly talk about the benefits of “forward” takedowns, please let me know about them. I’m curious!