Scorpion to Back Take
Half scorpion back take — top player ducks and drives hips up to defend the sweep, exposing the back for the bottom player.
Adapted from InGrappling, Scorpion to Back Take. System Games did not invent this curriculum.
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The scorpion to back take is the second exit from the scorpion dilemma. Where the scorpion sweep is the response to a top player who holds their position, the scorpion back take is the response to a top player who ducks forward and drives their hips upward to defend the sweep. The duck exposes the back, and the bottom player transitions from the sweep attempt directly to back mount.
This is not a separate technique so much as a continuation — the same scorpion position, the same initial drives, but a different read of the top player’s response and a different exit. Practitioners who train only the sweep leave the most dangerous weapon in the position unused. The back take is typically the higher-value exit of the two because back mount is a more dominant and submission-rich position than side control.
This page should be read alongside its companion: Scorpion Sweep. Both exits belong to the same dilemma, documented on the Scorpion Position page.
INV-G04Invariant "Destabilising the top player to their hands removes their ability to pass and creates submission opportunities. Forcing a hand post is the transition from defensive guard to offensive guard."
Why it works hereThe scorpion sweep threat is the destabilisation engine — the top player either posts to defend or ducks the head and drives the hips forward to escape the tip. The duck is itself a forced posting reaction: weight committed downward and forward to find a base ahead of the bottom player. Once that hand-or-shoulder post is committed, the top player is no longer passing — they are bracing — and the back take is the offensive option that opens behind the committed weight.
See full invariant page → The sweep threat does the destabilising work. When the bottom player drives the scorpion sweep, the top player’s instinctive response is to lower their level — duck their head and drive their hips forward and up to prevent being tipped. This duck is itself a destabilisation in the context of the back take: the top player has moved their head away from the direction they need to defend and placed their back in the line of the bottom player’s forward movement. The back take uses this destabilisation immediately. The sweep threat created the opening; the back take exploits it.
INV-11Invariant "The side of the body with the underhook controls the hip on that side. Hip control determines directional movement."