If you’re playing contact takedown sports like mixed martial arts or vale Tudor, you’ll know that knowing how to take down an opponent in combat is essential if you want to ensure victory.
Knockdown seems simple at times, but the truth is that it is more complicated than it may seem at first glance. Many people mistakenly believe that you can only take down your opponent using brute force, but this is not the case.
Anyone who knows anything about fighting will know that taking down an opponent in combat is a matter of knowing how to take advantage of the levers, centers of gravity and the strength of some parts of the body such as the hips.
If you learn all this, you will be able to take down your opponent much more easily, even if they double you in size. It will also help you learn to defend yourself when they try to take you down, which will give you even more of an advantage in combat.
What do you need to take down an opponent in combat?
- A partner to practice.
- A place to practice if possible with soft ground (mats for example).
Instructions for knocking down an opponent in combat
- Lead leg tackle:
This is one of the most basic takedowns out there, but one of the most effective. First of all, we are going to place ourselves at a close distance from the opponent in a guard position, and then support the knee that we have in front on the ground. As we fall, we must grab the opponent by hugging him at the knees and stick our ear to his belly so that he cannot take us away. Now we are going to take advantage of the power of the hips by bringing forward the leg that we had behind and get up a little using the legs. Now we will only have to use our body to unbalance the rival by throwing him to the ground. To do this we are going to rotate the body towards the place where we want to knock it down, while squeezing its knees and falling with it. - Takedown defending ourselves from a kick:
If we are fast enough, we can easily takedown an opponent in combat by grabbing their leg and throwing the other. When he throws the kick at you, be aware and catch it, the moment you have it, move the supporting leg with the foot inwards and use your arms to pull him to the side of his leg(if he hits you with the right you throw to the right and vice versa). You must also use the strength of the hips to be able to throw properly. - The wheelbarrow:
I call this takedown mode the wheelbarrow because we are going to attack it in a similar way to when we grab a wheelbarrow on the ground. To do this, we must simply bend over and grab his legs below at the knees. Now we must pull forward with our body while we pull the legs up. In this way we will place ourselves on top of the rival and we will be able to finish it off. - Using our weight:
Another takedown that I really like to use is the one to directly use our weight against the opponent. First of all I warn that for the inexperienced in fighting on the ground, it leaves you in a somewhat disadvantageous position. To do it, we are simply going to jump over the rival, in such a way that we cross our legs at the height of his hips and grab his back so that he falls down. If you see that he does not fall, grab him from the back of the knee to unbalance his center of gravity and finally fall to the ground easily.
Tips for taking down an opponent in combat
- Defend against facing takedowns: To avoid this takedown, the first thing we must do is prevent the rival from leveraging us. To do this we are going to separate his face from our body and use our head to push his face away. In this way, you will no longer have the advantage of the lever and you will only have to push your leg down to release it completely. You can then choose to either counter with a takedown, strike, or walk away.
- Defend yourself from forklift demolitions: We must be attentive to possible sudden and fast movements of our rival. When we see that it tries, we will quickly move back and push its head down so that it hits the ground and does not do anything against you.
- Defending yourself against leg grab takedowns: its simple here, improve the quality and speed of your kicks so they don’t grab you by the legs. If they manage to grab you, quickly stick to the opponent and use the takedown to use your weight to take them down.
- Defending against the takedown of using your weight: To defend against this one, you have two options. If you are skillful, you can release his legs so that he falls to the ground. You can also choose to use your weight forward to drop on top of your opponent and stay in an advantageous position.
