BJJ instructor Rama Reddy knows more finishes for the single leg than many of us know total take downs. The Jiu-Jitsu Times asked Rama about his video demonstrating and naming 25 finishes.
He responded:
Wrestling coaches all teach The Single Leg. Statistically, it’s the number one takedown in wrestling. However, I would pose it’s number one because it’s a very broad family of techniques that are lumped together.
I started cataloging what I knew and arrived at 30-something variations. Once I asked Mac Hutchison (my partner in the video), we were in the mid 40’s. The tricky part was realizing when we were seeing the same positions repeatedly because they weren’t always differentiated or thought of as unique positions. By the time we actually shot that day, we came down to 33, of which 25 looked good enough to keep. My hope in creating this video is that practitioners have a better understanding of what’s going on between when the leg is actually secured and the actual takedown.
We have six positions in the video and 25 finishes, but there are still plenty more positions and finishes left. I hope to get those in the next video.
*Quote edited for clarity.
