Get outside your opponents elbows and you have a direct route to the back: There are many highways to an opponents back – all of them are important – but the simplest and most direct and the one you need to master first – is to get outside your opponents elbows. This can be done from standing, from top and from bottom. It can be done in many ways – arm drags, elbow posts, kata gatame etc. Make it a habit to constantly fight to get outside your opponents elbows and you will always find yourself in an advantageous angle that will give you access to the back. As an added bonus, if the opponent defends his back by squaring up to you, he will make himself vulnerable to many submissions performed from frontal positioning or attacks on the other side of his body – all because of that initial threat you created by clearing his elbow. The elbow will always be the clearest and simplest demarcation line between frontal and back positions. Remember always that the back is the single best attacking position in all of grappling – learn to navigate your way there from everywhere and by every means – but understand that beating the elbow will be the most direct path you can take. Here, Gordon Ryan – master of back attacks – beats the elbow of Lachlan Giles from a frontal mounted position and opens up a simple and direct avenue to the back that will result in a finish from back position at ADCC 2019.
