Turn Shots Into Back Points With Henry Cejudo

What is better than shooting a shot and getting the takedown? Well how about shooting a shot and putting your opponent on their back. The more knowledgeable you get about wrestling, the more you will start to learn ways of stringing moves together seamlessly. Using one move to set up another is often called chain wrestling and it is highly effective. When you take someone down, the time they are most vulnerable is often right when you finish the shot; before they have time to build a base and defend. 

Henry Cejudo was an Olympic gold medalist in 2008 and is currently a two weight champ in the UFC. One thing he does very well is to string movements together. Here are two different ways you can use a shot to put your opponent on their back. 

Double Leg to a Turk

One great combination you can use is a double leg to a turk. In this video, Cejudo uses a cut back double to set up a turk and score back points. Check it out.

There are a couple of key points that you need to know in order to hit this successfully. The first key point is the double leg. You will notice in the video that Cejudo isn’t hitting a standard up and in double leg. Instead, when he feels the pressure on his head, he is doing a windshield wiper motion with his ankles to get an angle and doing a cut back finish which when you finish the shot, puts you in the perfect position to hit the turk. 

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Once you have the takedown secured, it is important that you go immediately into the turk so you opponent does not have time to build a base on the bottom. With the top arm (the side that your head is on) elevate your opponent's top leg and step your leg between their legs. Now from here, many people just try to scoop the leg and elevate it. The problem is, you will be too far down on your opponent's leg and they will be able to belly out. 

So to prevent them from bellying out, instead of just trying to scoop the leg, step the leg up even further and rock the knee forward to eliminate space and get in even tighter. Then you can scoop the leg and secure it. As you can see in the video, you should now have the leg locked above the knee. In fact, the further you are above the knee the better, and make sure you have your opponent's leg secured with a “figure 4” lock. This will keep your opponent from bellying out and will give you a huge advantage in leverage and when you elevate the leg and put your opponent to their back. 

Now that you have locked the leg and elevated it, now it is time to attack the head. Although there are a couple options at this point, Cejudo shows attacking the head and opposite arm, almost like a headlock position. In a live situation, your opponent will be trying to fight off their back. Be sure to keep their leg elevated to prevent them from turning into you, and be sure your far arm is ready to post on the mat in case they try to roll you. 

Single Leg to a Hip Toss

It is really important to have a couple of great throws in your offense. One of the issues with throws is often times, people try to hit them when they are down by a bunch of points in the third period of a match. If you do this, your opponent knows what you are trying to do and most of the time easily defends against it. With this single leg to hip toss, you are using an outside sweep single leg to set up the toss and if you do it correctly, your opponent won’t see it coming until it is too late. Check out the video of Cejudo demonstrating how to properly hit this move.

In order to hit this move, you need to be able to hit an outside sweep single and a hip toss. If you can’t do one or both of those, this probably isn’t the best attack for you at this time.

When going for this throw, one of the most important aspects of the move is to really sell the outside sweep single. You need to really shoot in as if you are hitting it for real to sell it. If you don’t, a good wrestler will probably pick up on the fact that it is a fake shot and won’t react to it in the manner that you want them to. One additional point to make about the single is to notice that Cejudo stays heavy on the arm the entire time, he does not drop it down to the leg.

Another key point is to not stay on the knee when you take a shot. After you take the shot, you must immediately start driving your feet into your opponent and come up because you can’t hit a hip toss from your knees. Once you are back on your feet, take a step between our opponent’s legs with your outside leg. There should be a space for you to take a back step and rotate to get your hips all the way through. If you did it correctly, your bodies should be almost perpendicular to each other and your opponent’s full weight should be on top of you. At this point let them fly!

Before you go out and start trying to hit this in competition, make sure you drill it in practice. You don’t want to down by four points with 16 seconds to go in a match trying to remember how to do this set up and throw. If you have never done a hip toss with a back step, be sure to practice just the back step on your own. Then grab a partner and a crash mat and practice the hip toss. Once you feel like you have the hip toss down, then start to practice setting it up with the outside sweep single. This is a great throw with a great set up that can score you a lot of points.

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