You NEED this to complete your BJJ game!

Jiu-Jitsu is a game of knowledge and anticipation: the person that knows more and can predict his opponent's next move is the person who will win more often than not! Accumulating the right knowledge can prove difficult as there is an infinite range of techniques and possibilities in Jiu-Jitsu. You simply can't master everything. As such, your main goal in training should be to increase your specific knowledge and learn to pull your opponents into your particular areas of expertise. If you are also using unfamiliar movement patterns, your chances of forcing your opponents into making mistakes increase will SURGE! 

Surprisingly enough, one of the techniques that many Jiujiteiros don't use correctly is the Lockdown. They tend to believe that the Lockdown is only made out of the leg connection, established at the bottom of the opponent's foot... And that it can only be done in No-Gi.

But this is far from the truth. There are 4 main components of a successful Lockdown in the Gi – the so-called Lotus Lockdown: leg connection, upper body control, as well as the under-hook and the over-hook game.

THE LEG CONNECTION

Sure, the leg connection might be the Lockdown's most obvious trademark, and thus most beginners to this technique tend to focus exclusively on it. However, this is a mistake. To just figure-four your legs and hook the opponent's ankle isn't enough! You have to think about the ways that are most effective in keeping your opponents stuck in place. And if your hook is just "laying there "passively, not doing anything, you're going to have a difficult time as they free their leg and pass your guard.

A good rule of thumb for preventing this from happening is flaring out your knees – like a Lotus flower and pinching the opponent's knee to the mat.

UPPER BODY CONTROL

This is where the way that the Lockdown is usually viewed becomes turned upside-down. Just as we've previously mentioned, it is generally seen as a technique that involves only the use of legs. However, even if you did establish an excellent leg connection as described above, your opponents will still have plenty of escape options – simply because their upper body is free to do whatever it wishes to!

With that in mind, you have to make sure that you're controlling the upper body as well. As you're using the technique in the Gi, you'll find that it allows for much more control than No-Gi does; as you can now grip the material, the lapels, the collar, and even the belt.

UNDERHOOKS AND OVERHOOKS

If you're going to control the upper body and use that for setting up the numerous attacks available from the Lotus Lockdown, your best bet is to go for the under-hook. As the 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu's Magnus Hansson describes, you should always aim for the under-hook! However, this doesn't mean that just getting an under-hook is enough; you have to make it tight!

But if you can't get an under-hook, well, then you can always take the over-hook as your second best choice! As instructor Hansson emphasizes, make sure that it's tight as well by pinching your elbows and by aiming to feed the lapel to your over-hook hand. This way, their arm will be stuck in place... And you will be able to sweep and submit in more ways than one!

For more details on how to use the Lockdown effectively, as well as other techniques, visit https://www.grapplinginstructionals.com/store