The elite competitors and coaches who train at B-Team Jiu-Jitsu recently got together to pick out what they think are the most dangerous moves in BJJ, and some of the answers might be surprising. Although Jiu-Jitsu is a sport that’s known for devastating submissions, two of the three techniques that they named as the most dangerous aren’t actually submissions at all. With input from some of the best competitors in the world like Ethan Crelinsten, Nicky Ryan, and Nicky Rodriguez; it’s pretty safe to say that this would qualify as an expert opinion and they probably are right in picking these 3 techniques in particular.
The Most Dangerous BJJ Moves According To B-Team
The Z-Lock
The first suggestion for one of the most dangerous moves in BJJ actually came from Jacob Rodriguez and Ethan Crelinsten, and they agreed on the Z-Lock. It’s not an overly-common submission but it is one that appears every now and then and has been seen on the biggest stage in the sport, ADCC. The Z-Lock is one of the most devastating leglocks there are, as it requires you to completely control both of your opponent’s legs. From there, the opponent has very little movement available and cannot really compensate for any of the pressure that’s being applied to their knee. Although leglocks aren’t inherently dangerous, the Z-Lock in particular offers the ability to apply immense pressure into the knee laterally and it can cause a huge amount of damage as a result.
Jumping Closed Guard
Guard pulling is something that’s incredibly common in the BJJ world and there’s dozens of different ways to do it, but one variation in particular is very dangerous. A lot of people complain about pulling guard and although it’s something that serves a purpose in BJJ, jumping to closed guard isn’t something that’s really necessary. Not only is jumping to closed guard one of the most dangerous moves in BJJ, it’s actually banned at the beginner level under most rulesets. This was suggested by Damien Anderson and Nicky Rodriguez, and it’s one that very few people would disagree with really. Jumping to closed guard results in completely uncontrolled falling body weight on an opponent’s lower body, so it often causes catastrophic damage to the knees.
Kani Basami
The third and final technique that the B-Team competitors selected as one of the most dangerous moves in BJJ was Kani Basami. This is almost universally regarded as an incredibly risky technique and it’s often banned in the training room as a result of how easy it is for it to go drastically wrong. Along with jumping to closed guard, Kani Basami is one of only 3 things that John Danaher bans in his training rooms. The technique involves leaping into the saddle from a standing position and against a standing opponent, so the element of uncontrolled falling body weight comes in to play again. More importantly with Kani Basami specifically is the fact that it’s often executed poorly, bringing the opponent forwards instead of backwards, and it ends up causing injury to the trapped leg.
The full video of the competitors from B-Team Jiu-Jitsu picking the 3 most dangerous moves in BJJ and demonstrating each of them was uploaded to the team’s official YouTube channel:
