Every grappler needs to have a basic understanding of takedowns. You don’t want to be so uni-dimensional that you have no idea how to take somebody down.
But the problem is that not every takedown you learn from Judo or wrestling will work on someone a lot bigger and stronger than you. In fact you can get pretty badly hurt if you try the wrong throw on someone and they collapse on you, pile-driving you into the mat.
In our brand new DVD set ‘How to Defeat the Bigger Stronger Opponent, Series 2‘ Brandon Mullins and I spend quite a bit of time going over throws and takedowns that are ‘big guy proof’. By that I mean that they’re techniques you can use even when the other other guy is 20, 50, or even 100 pounds bigger than you.
(I’m about 80 pounds heavier than Brandon. I can vouch for the fact that when he hit these takedowns on me I had absolutely no choice but to go down!)
Here’s a video with Brandon’s very favorite takedown. This is a very versatile takedown: you can use this technique on people your size or a lot bigger than you, and it works great both with and without the gi.
You’ll probably want to watch ALL of this 5:19 video because we’ve included some pretty cool competition footage to show what this technique looks like at top speed against a fully resisting opponent.
Additional Resources
That video clip came from the Top Position Gameplan volume in the How to Defeat the Bigger, Stronger Opponent Series 2, with Brandon Mullins.
This is an absolutely incredible resource for grapplers, especially for smaller practitioners who have to deal with being manhandled and overpowered on the mats. It’s available as both as a series of apps for your phone or tablet, or as a professionally replicated 5 DVD set.
