In this lesson, we’ll look at the easiest way to bring your partner to the ground — and how to avoid being taken to the ground.
The double leg takedown is one of the most effective takedowns because you’re able to use all of your muscles against both of your opponent’s legs. It’s quite an intuitive takedown.
We see it all the time in the kids class: grabbing both legs and squeezing is something that children do naturally when we tell them to try to knock each other over.
The double leg only works if you keep your posture strong, so when you’re working on this technique, it’s important to try to keep your back straight and your chest up. This allows you to use your legs and back rather than your arms and shoulders to finish the movement.
The sprawl, on the other hand, is less intuitive.
It’s a defence against the double leg; in the sprawl, we try to drop our hips all the way to the mat in an effort to move our hips away from our opponent, but also as a way to break their posture as they try to finish the double leg.
You can practice sprawls by yourself by staying nice and low and trying to drop into a seal position. The better you get at sprawls, the better your takedown defence will be!
You can learn these two techniques below: