Tapping out people better than you in BJJ is tough and almost never happens. The reason for this is that there is almost no luck in BJJ when compared with other sports. In American football, you can get a fumble, strange bounces, and tipped footballs that go right into the hands of an opposition player. During a BJJ roll, you will almost never have anything like this with almost every spar being decided by an individual error or a series of mistakes.
It’s for this reason that a white belt tapping a black belt almost never happens. Unless the black belt is giving a white belt various positions and trying to escape fully locked submissions, it is almost impossible.
With that being said, white belts can tap blue and purple belts, it just requires catching them off guard. In almost all cases a purple and blue belt should have a positional and logical understanding of BJJ that gives them such a huge advantage against white belts that it is insurmountable.
It should be noted that there are some exceptions to this rule such as a day one white belt ex-college wrestler against a 45 year old hobbyist bue belt with a full-time job and 2 kids. As you would expect, perhaps the hobbyist blue belt may have a greater knowledge of submissions and escapes, but experience and athleticism will equalize almost all of this.
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Why You Should Not Try Sneaky Or Gimmicky Submissions Against Higher Belts
Although this article outlines how to tap higher belts by catching them off guard, there are a lot of drawbacks as to why you shouldn’t really be doing these things.
Firstly, many sneaky submissions are from either negative or neutral positions. As a white belt, it is important to learn fundamentals from these positions since these are the building blocks you will use to improve in the future. Through bypassing these and getting a quick tap from an unexpected position leads you to not learn these fundamental rules since the roll then resets.
Secondly, if you have some short-term success with a sneaky submission, it can lead to developing bad habits. For example, if you are constantly trying to Ezekiel someone in their closed guard, it will become very obvious, very quickly. Granted it might work one, or even two times, but after this you will be found out and have no more success with it. In short, sneaky submissions cannot be repeated time and time again since they are not fundamentally sound. This is very different from solid jiu-jitsu that will see you through years of training.
Lastly, it should be noted that there is nothing morally wrong with attempting or tapping a higher belt with an unusual submission. They should appreciate that you caught them off guard and that there was a hole in their game which is now closed.
Sneaky BJJ Submissions To Hit On Higher Belts
Ezekiel In Closed Guard Or Bottom Mount
Perhaps one of the lowest risk submissions when inside a closed guard is the Ezekiel. For many BJJ beginners, closed guard can be a confusing position, since it is the person on the bottom who is in the dominant position. If you’ve only watched competitive MMA, obviously the polar opposite is true.
Mostly effective in the gi, the Ezekiel choke is often unexpected, especially from inferior positions. Most famously, UFC fighter Alexey Oleynik (shown below), pulled bottom half guard on himself to finish a no-gi Ezekiel during a fight.
As Ezekiel chokes require two arms around the neck of your opponent, experienced BJJ practitioners may give this up to you accidentally by searching for underhooks of their own. When this happens, it is a great opportunity to choke a higher belt.
Footlock From The Back
A very low percentage submission, but also low risk. Almost everyone knows that if you cross your ankles whilst on the back of an opponent, there is always a chance that they can footlock you. Whilst pressure can be relieved by simply pushing the footlocker’s head away from your own body, it can often be too late and cause a tap.
You don’t give up too much from attempting a footlock whilst your back is taken, although you do prevent yourself from escaping. Instead of trying to remove the hooks of your opponent, when attempting a footlock, you are more than happy for them to be fully inserted.
Overall, this is a submission that has a very low success rate and hinders you from improving the position. 99.9% of the time it should not be attempted, but there is always an exception to every rule.
Baseball Choke From The Bottom
Made famous by Gorilla hands himself, Magid Hage was able to perform the baseball choke from bottom side control against a variety of high level black belts.
Therefore this choke is not low percentage like almost every other submission on this list but is very high risk. The reason why you don’t see the bottom side baseball choke at elite level very often is the fact that if you fail, you’ve given up 3 points and are now in side control. Not only this, but your nearside arm is also in a crushed position, giving your opponent a very advantageous position.
The upsides of the sneaky baseball choke are obvious. On the whole, people don’t see it coming since they’re not concerned about a hand in their collar whilst passing guard until it is too late. This is why so many people get put to sleep with the baseball choke – they think they are safe and struggle to escape before falling unconscious.
Dropping Back For Footlocks
Anyone who understands the IBJJF ruleset will know that dropping back from an open guard position is generally a terrible idea. All the original guard player needs to do is stand up and they will be awarded 2 points. Therefore in a competition setting, you almost never want to drop backward for a submission unless you are badly losing on points with a short amount of time remaining.
However, if a higher belt has an un-passable guard and is vunerable to footlocks, this is a completely legitimate way to tap them. Granted, it is a little cheap and will certainly hamper your passing skills in the long run. Therefore, falling back into a footlock should only be used in hail mary situations.
Standing Wristlock
The standing wristlock is a very low percentage submission but has almost no drawback when it goes wrong. When sparring from stand up, almost every sequence ends up in a takedown or guard pull. Whilst everyone is aware of standing submissions, they happen relatively infrequently to be concerned about.
If an opponent gets a poor and low lapel grip, they are somewhat vulnerable to a standing wristlock. There are various different wristlocks you can perform, such as wrapping the wrist in the gi by ducking under an arm, or simply controlling the elbow and pulling the opponent in to your own body. These techniques are best explained by video and also don’t work most of the time. You will however have a small amount of success with wristlocks when the opponent is unprepared.
Americana From Bottom Side Control
An extremely low percentage submission that is also sneaky enough to catch people off guard. Strangely enough, people are very conscious about their arm positioning in BJJ until they pass guard, as this point they feel safe. This is true for 99% of cases, but it is the 1% where things can go wrong.
If you’re able to fully control the head-side arm of your opponent, you will be able to get an Americana grip and force them backward. This will cause your opponent to fall onto the mat and should reverse the position at the very least. It can end up with a tap since it is so unexpected and causes a lot of pressure on both the shoulder and elbow.
Much like other sneaky submissions, this will not work most of the time and can end up putting yourself in an even worse position. It does give you the chance to tap a higher belt though.
