Special study: The Snap Down - The Jab of Standing Grappling - The Purpose of Snapdowns

The snapdown is going to be the most simple setup when standing.

Your opponent’s stance is the most important thing they have. SO breaking their stance is the goal, and the snapdown is one of the most direct and easier ways to do this

Some of the goals of snapdowns:

• Make your opponent take steps toward you

• Bring their hands to the mat

• Bring them into a front headlock

• To make them reach

• To fatigue your opponent over time

They can be used on the hands and arms to reset to a neutral position.

Snapdowns should be done towards the line that’s perpendicular to the line between their feet:

We can achieve this by moving them or moving ourselves

Snapdowns will always work better if our opponent pushes us. We need to generate push-back reactions.

The best way to do this is to fake shots. They will need to defend by pushing with their hands.

In order to generate the most amount of kinetic power with our snapdowns it is advisable to push with our forearms and head and create space between our hands and themselves like so:

Another point to be careful with is not pulling them down to our legs when we do a snapdown.

We never want to snap them right down into our body. We need to always get out of the way:

Another important detail is to follow their body down with your head to prevent them from being able to make contact with your hips and legs:

The most important Snapdowns for you to learn:

Rear hand Snap

Not the most dangerous, but the easier and safer to use.

Post → Snap → Rotate

Lead hand Snap

It makes you as vulnerable as any position when you reach with your lead hand. Use it responsibly.

Reach and Snap as you move away from the center

Multi Snaps

Combination of the previous two snaps in unison to bring our partner’s head down and fatigue them. Most of the time they will pull back and posture up, opening entries into various takedowns:

Head Pass Snap

The main idea is to transfer a snap from a pull into a push to create angles:

Collar and Tricep Snap

For when they react to previous snapdowns by controlling our tricep:

Collar and Forearm Snap

From a symmetrical head and tie position.

The most important force is the one we generate into their arms and not their head. So the most important detail to understand is that we need to make sure we go super deep with the wrist that will snap their arm down. Do not use your hand, go wrist deep:

Overtie Snap

Danaher’s Favorite.

The most important element is that our head must come down with the snap. Just arm strength will not do.

Single and Double Tricep Snap

Pump Snap

Great for fatiguing our opponents

After a couple of tries, your opponent will get tired and start standing straighter, opening opportunities for takedowns

Underhook Snap

Look at the setup, the fakes, and the head position.

2 on 1 Snap

Can use it Russian Tie style or figure four style

Kouchi Snap

Attack the lead leg with a Kouchi Gari - Not as a sweep but to break their balance.

I know this is a lot to process, but since the best use of snapdowns is by mixing and linking many kinds, I thought it was necessary to include them all.

Please reply to this email with any suggestions on what positions, fighters, fights we should analyze and cover in the future.

Thanks!