Top 5 Ultimate Ways For BJJ Turtle Escape

There is one concept that usually doesn't get a lot of importance and attraction. People often overlook it and don't find it interesting to learn, and that concept is about getting out of the BJJ turtle position. A complete guide about BJJ turtle covers how to attack the BJJ turtle position because it's like a target-rich environment.

You can do all kinds of locks, back takes, and all kinds of cool stuff from attacking the turtle. But how do you defend yourself from the BJJ turtle position, safely exit it, and get yourself out without getting choked and without getting on board? We will discuss this BJJ turtle escape in segments around the body's position because that's usually how we look at our attacks.

BJJ turtle is one of the BJJ defensive positions in which you are exposing your back to your BJJ opponent to avoid the BJJ guard pass. In this position, however, your partner can take your back or choke you.

The BJJ turtle position is where you are tucked in nicely and tightly. You want your elbows inside your knees and your hands to cross or kind of block because you are looking to shut off your BJJ opponent’s ability to choke you.

You want your elbows inside so it's closing the wedges under your arm. So, it will be difficult if they are trying to fish to get hooks inside or arms inside. You must have your hips pretty low to the ground and pretty low to your feet as much as your knees and hips allow so they cannot easily turn or topple you over.

This is a pretty interesting topic because whenever you learn typical BJJ turtle escapes from a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu guy, you learn classical BJJ escapes, mostly getting you back to some kind of guard position. When you learn BJJ turtle escapes from a wrestler, you usually learn about standing back up to your feet and using standing escapes to get out, and you learn classical wrestling moves.

So, our job as submission grapplers in our sport is to use what applies to wrestling effectively. Some things that are applicable in our sport aren't applicable in wrestling, and some things that are applicable in wrestling are things we can't use. There are different scoring criteria. There are different rules. The big thing for us is that submissions are involved when doing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

But if they have a rear chest lock, you can start going in and building up, and we can start going into different BJJ escapes. So the first thing you have to decide is whether or not there's a threat of submission; if there is, our defensive hands must address that first. 

The first thing we must worry about is if we get submitted in BJJ Guillotine and we don't address it, our opponent will take us down, and the match will be over. The second biggest thing is the scoring criteria and the rule sets. In our sport, we are trying to expose our partners back to us, so our whole thing is to expose our back to the floor and get on to our partner's back to finish them or go for a guillotine and fall to our back to finish our partner. In wrestling, the goal for the top player is to expose the bottom players back to the floor rather than to themselves. 

So the threat of submissions and the change in the rule set and the scoring criteria make a pretty drastic difference when you move from wrestling to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu when you are using BJJ turtle escapes. So our job is to take the things we can use from wrestling and use them in our sport combined with the classical Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu escapes that usually put us back into some form of guard.

When you learn from wrestlers, they're not used to getting guillotined. If someone locks a guillotine and sits the BJJ guard, they are not ready to give you the correct reactions to actually get out of that position. But if you work with a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu guy, they are not qualified to give you the correct reactions on thumb posting and arm dragging, getting up to your feet, and using traditional wrestling escapes.

So, we have to be able to look at the sport of wrestling and take things from wrestling that we can use and apply to our sport. If you get your BJJ guard passed or you get taken down and you BJJ turtle, there is no score, but then you are in BJJ turtle, and your back is exposed. You must be able to get out, stand up, or roll to guard or do something. 

You no longer need to be confused about effectively doing the BJJ turtle Escape. We have explained the top five ways to learn and master BJJ turtle escape.

Suppose your BJJ opponent is in a situation where they are in a backhand arm. You can't just come up and pop up right to referee position where now they just punch the hand underneath your neck, and you are getting strangled.

So the first thing is you always look to is defending the backhand arm. You should look to go into escapes. You can use classical Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu escapes where you sit to some kind of guard. You trap your BJJ opponent's leg, then roll to a situation where you are in the bottom position, and then you can recover.

If your partner has a tight waist, for example, just a tight waist and a hand on the floor, you can also use situations where you use classical wrestling escapes. You put your partner's hand in the back pocket and use it inside or outside, like stand-ups, to build a standing position to turn and face your partner. So the number one thing is defending the submission, obviously, so you don't get submitted, and then finding ways to expose your back to the floor like we see in classical Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu escapes. 

You have to roll and get some kind of re-guard or get to a situation where you can stand up, move away in these classical wrestling escapes, come in, face your partner, and then return to the standing position. It's similar when you look at it from the outside but very different in scoring and what we're trying to accomplish in either sport.

The first thing you should do is focus on the wrist. Depending on what grip your partner has, if you are in a position where you can be strangled, you have to put defensive hands in place. If you are in a front headlock, for example, and you're in a position to go into a guillotine, you have to address that. 

But if they have a rear chest lock, you can start going in and building up, and we can start going into different BJJ escapes. So the first thing you have to decide is whether or not there's a threat of submission; if there is, our defensive hands must address that first.

If you are in a front chest lock, where your BJJ opponent has two hands over your arms, there's no threat of submission, so now you can work freely with your hands. You can go and start peeking out. You can do all those things if they are behind you and have a backhand arm. If there's a threat of the submission, you must address this.

The first thing we look at in this second way is if your BJJ opponent can get around your trunk. You are going to go under the arms first. So this is the first basic one. In this one, we are gonna look at a sit-out. A sit-out is where you will look to peek your head out to one side. Pick a side to go for and look to post on one elbow. Keep one hand hidden inside their leg, and you will use that in a minute. Post your leg out. Wing your arm back because you have to try to get above their elbow, and as you do that, you peek your head up.

Your goal is to get the back of your head up toward their back. Sit out so your hips are high and not touching the floor, and your hands are still inside. Swim over in one direction and turn your cornerback. So now you have replaced the position. Suppose they are around your arms. 

Look up and out to the corner. The hand is inside to help you pivot on your elbow. Your head goes to their back. Get your hips nice and high. Swim back and get that hook over in their hip. So you can turn yourself around and get to the back corner of them and their internal position.

If your BJJ opponent doesn't let go or switch things up, keep them committed to the grip so that you don't just peek your way out and do a sit-out. But instead, you reverse and turn them over. You will still look to sit out to the side but will take your hand. Reach across to their cross-side arm. Pull it deeper since you have the key. You can use the sleeve, or you can just grab the wrist and pull. Take their arm and wing it to the side.

You can reverse your leg and take it in one direction whenever you post it. You must be careful not to over-rotate so they keep spinning and rotating you. Instead, you land your weight off in one direction, so their grip will be very difficult if they try to bridge you because all your weight is centered over your shoulder. You can start to try to break the grip and go for some attacks or just split that grip. Come across, and then you will have the top position.

Now, things have changed a little bit. Whenever your BJJ opponent has one over, one under, and they are more around your neck, which one do you decide to take? Then, typically, you will go to the next side. So they are around the neck. Immediately, you have to address the possible threat that they have not only good control over your shoulders but also a possible threat of a choke, anaconda, a guillotine, or a D'Arce choke.

From there, you will do the same thing. Look toward the elbow and peel the elbow back and down. Rather than going out and back, go out 360 degrees, so once you go, peel, pick up, and then circle. Now you have changed the grip on your BJJ opponent to where they were in the same position. 

So, you have replaced their position with yours, which is the same. You want to post. You want to hug your BJJ opponent’s elbow. This way, you are pulling it down. You are looking up and trying to get the back of your head up and then back over. So whenever you make that replacement, you are safely out of danger for the choke and have swapped positions where you are in the dominant position now. 

In this third way of BJJ turtle escape, you will do a granby roll to escape yourself from your BJJ opponent. A granby roll is a roll in which your BJJ opponent has your back, and you roll to escape from that position. Now, if your BJJ opponent is more in their back corner, you should do a granby roll instead of a typical roll because if you do a typical roll, your BJJ opponent will stop you and can stop your momentum. A granby roll typically goes across shoulders, i.e., from shoulder to shoulder.

In this step, you will take your hand, the one nearer to your BJJ opponent, and take it between your legs. Then, do a granby roll so that you will end up facing your BJJ opponent. This brings you and your BJJ opponent in front of each other; thus, the BJJ turtle escapes. Then you are back in the scrambled position, facing each other in a more neutral situation rather than them being on your back anymore.

You are using their body kind of as a support beam. So whenever you do Granby roll, you don't necessarily have to have balance. But you want to be explosive with it whenever you come out. So if they are back, then hit the granby roll. You don't need to waste any time doing it, and then once you are done, you are back in that scramble-type position.

Suppose your BJJ opponent is in the back quadrant like we were just talking about, where you will use the granby roll. But this time, they have the other side's leg up, and there are different reasons why they might want to do this. There are different kinds of opportunities they set for different control points. So if that's the situation, though, you will use that as an opportunity for yourself to take your leg on the inside and hook that behind theirs. So bring your leg inside. Your ankle is in between or in the back of the knee.

You don't need to waste any time here because they can use this as a BJJ pin position, depending on what kind of control they want to establish. But from here, if you can get that kind of pulled down, reach through on the other side. If you have the pants, you will get the grip. If not, you will just hug the knee and use this as an opportunity to swivel around to replace your guard.

You can come back up to a butterfly guard position or possibly to some kind of high-low guard or k-guard as long as you turn and face them. Now you are with all your weapons at your disposal instead of them being on your back. So again, that's when one leg is up. Hook behind it and reach through. You are bringing your leg back. So now we're at very least in some kind of knee shield position.

You get a nice tight grip on it whenever you come through and hook the leg. Take your one hand to reach through to block on one side. Take your other hand to reach back and cut under their armpit toward their lap. So that whenever you come over to your side, you collect the leg inward and pull them across. Now, you are in a good position to start going for knee bars. You can also possibly, with some adjustment, sit up and go into the saddle position to attack for many different varieties of foot locks and everything else.

A lot of times, when you are in a BJJ turtle position, one of the big threats that you will see is that your BJJ opponent may start looking initially for the BJJ clock choke, which can be a really dangerous threat. It is a very good technique. If you are not using that already, you should be. 

But you need to know how to defend against and exit it if they start trying to set it on. Try to block out. You are doing the best that you can, but they are in a really strong controlling position. They get the grip inside. You typically have to apply a little bit of a rule of thumb on chokes with the BJJ collar choke. 

You don't have to necessarily turn and look at the grip. Instead, you should turn and look at the elbow. Just kind of the opposite; if it were a rear naked choke, and they were not using the grip, you would turn and look at the connection of their hands.

Look at their elbow, take your outside hand, and try to reach for and get a hold of the material. So that will at least buy you a little bit of time. So you are not immediately getting choked. Next, you should take your hand from the inside and get your BJJ opponent’s knee to the floor. It's not that difficult. If you try to push it straight down, that's difficult. But if you grab it instead and pull it forward, getting it to the floor is easier. So use that idea.

So, let's put that idea into practice. Turn and look toward the thumb. Pull their knee forward and then lift your hips. Roll across, and your opponent will still be on your neck once you get there. But make sure that you have established a strong position. Then, you should turn and relieve the pressure of that choke. Your BJJ opponent will no longer be able to get it from the bottom with that kind of grip orientation.

The fifth way for BJJ turtle escape is simple but depends on timing. You have to be quick and precise to follow this way of BJJ turtle escape. So, suppose you are in a headlock position against your BJJ opponent. Your opponent has hands around your head. They will go near the side and try to connect their hands across your seat belt. That is the moment when you have to make a transition and prevent your BJJ opponent from doing so. You cannot allow your BJJ opponent to connect their hands with the seat belt, or you will lose the scramble.

Rolling is how to escape from this and prevent your opponent from having your seat belt. Starts rolling just after your BJJ opponent goes to the near side of you. Roll and use your feet to push your hands away and avoid them from connecting to your seat belt. So, to make this way effective, you have to make sure of two things. First, you have to be fast enough to roll before they get your seat belt. Second, you have to be precise. If it starts rolling late, they will get your seat belt; hence, you can't do BJJ turtle escape. The big problem is that people wait too long in the BJJ headlock position and then the person gets back.

Whenever it has the bottom line position, you should see if you see their arms around on the back of your elbows. All you have to do is lift simultaneously as you sit through it. What is going to happen is they are not going to keep holding because they are going to fall around to their head. Use your elbow to pull, scoop forward, and go around. So these are very classic ways that people do a lot.

Conversely, your BJJ opponent doesn't have your padlock; they have your body. So you will step, take your knee off the mat, push your elbow, and sit through. From here, grab the hip and go around the back. This works well and is amazing. 

That's a handful of ways we use for BJJ turtle escape. Avoidance is usually the best thing. Once you get to the turtle position, there are plenty of reasons that you may want to defensively wind up in the BJJ turtle position for a short period. Then, you may have those exit strategies depending on what kind of position your BJJ opponent takes with you. A lot of other ways that we can get out of it depending on what you are doing, how they are attacking, and what kind of spaces you have. All these different factors, but these explained in this article, are a pretty good handful you can use in various situations. These will help you out in BJJ turtle escape.

BJJ turtle is one of the BJJ defensive positions in which you are exposing your back to your BJJ opponent to avoid the BJJ guard pass. In this position, however, your partner can take your back or choke you. The BJJ turtle position is where you are tucked in nicely and tightly. You want your elbows inside your knees and your hands to cross or kind of block because you are looking to shut off your BJJ opponent’s ability to choke you.

This is the easiest and simplest way for a BJJ turtle escape, but it depends on timing. You have to be quick and precise to follow this way of escaping the BJJ turtle. So, suppose you are in a headlock position against your BJJ opponent. Your opponent has hands around your head. They will go near the side and try to connect their hands across your seat belt. That is the moment when you have to make a transition and prevent your BJJ opponent from doing so.

You cannot allow your BJJ opponent to connect their hands with the seat belt, or you will lose the scramble. Starts rolling just after your BJJ opponent goes to the near side of you. Roll and use your feet to push your hands away and avoid them from connecting to your seat belt. So, to make this way effective, you have to make sure of two things. The big problem is that people wait too long in the BJJ headlock position and then the person gets back.

Some things that are applicable in our sport aren't applicable in wrestling, and some things that are applicable in wrestling are things we can't use. There are different scoring criteria. There are different rules. The big thing for us is that submissions are involved when doing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

A granby roll is a roll in which your BJJ opponent has your back, and you roll to escape from that position. Now, if your BJJ opponent is more in their back corner, you should do a granby roll instead of a typical roll because if you do a typical roll, your BJJ opponent will stop you and can stop your momentum. 

A granby roll typically goes across shoulders, i.e., from shoulder to shoulder. In this step, you will take your hand, the one nearer to your BJJ opponent, and take it between your legs. Then, do a granby roll so that you will end up facing your BJJ opponent. This brings you and your BJJ opponent in front of each other; thus, the BJJ turtle escape.