Importance of Transitional Escaping

At the fundamental level, positional escapes are paramount. As skill increases and belt levels go up understanding how Transitional Escapes work become front and center in one’s training. Let’s look a few examples.

Do you know what to do when your Guard is being passed? Not when they are still working through your legs, but when they are moving from inside the “headlights” to outside? This is where having a solid grasp between when to Scoot and when to Shrimp comes into play.

How about when your opponent is sweeping you? Every sweep has a moment in time when you can transitional escape and not end up on your back. Do you have at least one method of transitional escaping that can possibly get you out of a bad sweep situation? What do you do vs a Scissor Sweep? A Hip Bump Sweep? A Tripod Sweep? Or how about when you have a dominate position, such as the Mount, and suddenly find your opponent reversing that and you ending up on your back?

Finally, and this happens to every grappler, transitional escaping against being forced to Turtle position. Understanding the basic methods of protection and timing to escape when being put into the bottom of Turtle (or All-Fours Position) during a transition is something you should have a firm grasp of.

Learn. Drill. Roll. TRANSFORM!