Sparring from the Turtle Position

Couple practising submission grappling techniques in the turtle position during a private class session.

29.09.2025

My couple clients are on the sixth hour of their new Submission Grappling/Ground fighting course. We are keeping our focus on attacking and defending from the turtle position. In line with the decisions made at the conclusion of last week's class tonight's training was all about gaining more experience sparring from this position.

Sparring Rounds

1. 5 minutes taking it in turns to attack me in the turtle position. This was an opportunity for me to demonstrate various counters, tactics and strategies from the turtle position whilst the couple each had a chance pin or submit me in a live scenario.

2. 5 minutes of me attacking the couple in their turtle position, demonstrating ways get hooks in and set up various submissions. Their focus was on defending the turtle position, looking for opportunities to throw, sweep, submit or pull guard.

3. 3 minutes of the couple sparring each other in the turtle position.

4. 3 minutes performing the same activity with the role reversed

5. 3 minutes again performing the same specific sparring with me actively coaching both attack and defender throughout

6. 3 minutes for the fourth time sparring each other

7. 5 minutes taking it in turns to attack my turtle position

8. 5 minutes taking it in turns to be attacked by me in the turtle position

As you can see round lengths were varied. I think this is a great way to balance urgency with experimentation, which are key areas in the development of this type of live sparring. We are going to continue along this route next lesson, although will look to develop some more specific games to address certain areas in their respective games.

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