If somebody takes your back, you’ve got a number of ways to escape at your disposal. However, most of these setups don’t have much more other than the „escape“ itself in mind; that is, to escape into a neutral or a less lousy position.
In other words, most of back escape techniques will leave you in a reactive position yet again, not in a domineering one.

But we have a surprise! The great Andre Galvao has something special in store for you: a way to escape to Side Control immediately.

SECURE YOUR NECK

With his student having both hooks in and a Seatbelt Grip established, Andre has fallen to the side where the student’s arm is over his shoulder. To begin, Andre emphasizes that it’s – first and foremost – important to control the opponent’s choking arm.

To do so, you need to use one of your hands to either grip the opponent’s sleeve; or, preferably, to get your thumb into that sleeve and establish the grip like so. Your second arm needs to grab their sleeve as well, albeit a bit higher – right on top of their tricep muscle. When you grip the sleeve, make sure to pull down on it tightly; this will make sure that they can’t get their arm deep enough to choke you out.

TAKE OFF THEIR HOOKS

Now that you’re a bit safer, you can start off with the escape. Lift your knee – the one on the side which is closer to the ceiling – as high as possible towards your elbow. Then, in a swift motion, use your first hand to push their hook away, taking it off from your body. Get your hand back onto their sleeve and keep your knee up high so that they don’t insert the hook again.

From there, you need to use your „freed“ leg to free the other one! To do so, Andre demonstrates that you should simply use your leg to hook the opponent’s bottom one and lower it to the ground. Then, pull your other knee out and over the opponent’s leg – and you are that much closer to the escape!

TURN INTO THEM AND…

At this moment, you need to set yourself up to not just perform the back escape with success; but to do it so that you’ll end up in Side Control as well.

The first part of doing that is to, once you’ve escaped the opponent’s hooks, make sure that they don’t get them back in – nor that they choke you out… Remember: they still have control over your collar and upper body.
To evade that, Andre shows that you need to keep tight control over their sleeve (the „tricep“ one) and turn into them. Once here, you are just one simple move away from getting into Side Control.

… EXECUTE THE BACK ESCAPE AND GET INTO SIDE CONTROL!

And what’s the move? You’ll just flick yourself to the opponent’s other side. Andre emphasizes that a lot of people make the mistake of rolling over the opponent while doing this; if you do it like that, you’ll have your back taken again. Instead, you need to execute a mix of a jump and a cartwheel.
Andre says that you can focus on pointing your bellybutton towards the floor throughout the movement, as a way to make sure you’re doing the technique correctly.

All that is left to do now is take control over the opponent’s pants, scoot your backside towards their shoulder, turn your hips in – and you’re in Side Control!

Watch Andre Galvao demonstrate this slick back escape to Side Control setup below:

Get Out Of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu’s Worst Positions, Gi Or No-Gi, With Lachlan Giles’s Insights Into Escaping.
The 2019 ADCC Absolute Medalist Teaches How To Get Out Bad Grappling Positions With Narrated Live Rolling Of Him Performing The Techniques.