Nick Rodriguez is one of the fastest-rising names in the grappling world today. He transitioned from being a wrestler to defeating many esteemed elite BJJ black belts with just a few years of Jiu-Jitsu training under his belt, earning the nickname “The Black Belt Slayer.” In this article, let’s talk about how to grapple like the No-Gi star Nick Rodriguez.
Nick Rodriguez’s Background
Nicholas Pete Rodriguez, widely known in grappling as Nicky Rod, was born in New Jersey. Nick started wrestling in high school and continued through his first year of college. With only a few months of training in 2018, Nick competed in the IBJJF World Championship as a blue belt and submitted all of his opponents. Seeing his potential in grappling, his coach, Jay Regalbuto, suggested he train under multiple teams.
In 2019, Nick became part of the Danaher Death Squad and qualified for the ADCC World Championship. His performance in the ADCC catapulted his fame, defeating top heavyweight grapplers such as Mahamed Aly, Orlando Sanchez, and Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu, earning a silver medal in the toughest submission grappling tournament at that time as a blue belt. After his spectacular performance, Nick was promoted to purple belt.
Currently, Nicky Rod has since earned his black belt and trains out of B-Team, a notable team out of Austin, Texas composed of other famous grapplers like Craig Jones, Nicky Ryan, Ethan Crelinsten, and his brother Jay Rodriguez.
The Nicky Rod Blueprint
As a wrestler, Nick’s initial approach to Jiu-Jitsu is the wrestle-jitsu type (wrestling-dominant grappler). This archetype is basically someone with a strong wrestling-heavy base coupled with a solid BJJ game. He’s dominant on his feet, excels at controlling and taking his opponents down, and submits them with a choke once he finds his way to their back. Some of his favorite passes are the body lock and cartwheel pass. Before we proceed, it is important to note that Nicky Rod’s game is still ever-evolving, but for the sake of this article, we will go over many of his preferred techniques from his colored belt days up to now.
Heavy Head Snap Downs
As the saying goes, where the head goes, the body follows. In the stand-up, controlling the opponent’s head with a collar tie is critical. Doing so enables you to control the distance and their body and posture, allowing you to set up different takedowns. Snapping the opponent’s head down is a great way to achieve misdirection and create angles, especially when grappling against bigger opponents.
When setting up the snap downs, you always want your opponent reacting towards you; a stagnant opponent is much more difficult to move than an attacking opponent with momentum. As Nicky sets it up, the snap-down can be done by moving around the mat and pushing and pulling the opponent to create a reaction. Once the opponent pressures forward, that’s the time you do the snap down to catch them off-balance.
Low Single Leg
Aside from the set-ups coming from the snap downs, a part of Nicky Rod’s A-game is his takedown arsenal. The low single leg is Nicky’s signature takedown. He shoots his attempt at the single leg while kneeling on one knee, leaving his opponents startled. Nicky sets it up by gauging the distance between him and the opponent by posting on their head while kneeling. He then follows up by grabbing their ankle and using his head to block behind the opponent’s calf as he gets behind them and reaches for their far hip.
Body Lock Pass
The body lock pass is a wrestler’s friend in BJJ. Nicky normally does the body lock by forcing the opponent into a supine position. Typically, after forcing the opponent into a supine, they will try to go seated and wrestle up. What Nicky does is perform a high step to get beside the opponent’s hip line. The opponent usually defends by pushing their knees away, which allows him to kneel in front of the opponent and trap one of their legs. From there, Nicky locks both his hands at the lower part of the opponent’s waist while using his head to flatten the opponent’s upper body on the mat. He then uses his free leg (outside leg) to slide up the opponent’s hip line, transitions his body lock grip to a head and arm, and finishes with a knee cut to land on the side.
Being a physical specimen, Nicky is naturally athletic. However, being genetically gifted shouldn’t hinder grapplers from trying exciting guard passes like the cartwheel. In his early grappling competition days, Nicky can normally be seen passing his opponent’s guard with the cartwheel. He typically does this when the opponent is doing a seated open guard. A good balance makes a grappler difficult to sweep.
Nicky does the cartwheel pass and hardly ever sabotages his position because of his great balance upon landing. He does the cartwheel pass by controlling the opponent’s wrist and having his lead leg upfront on the same side. His other hand posts on the opponent’s shoulder or behind their head as he uses his other leg to push and execute the cartwheel to land behind the opponent.
Mat Strength
More than just for aesthetics, Nicky is keen on working on his mat strength by developing the muscles mainly used in grappling, such as the arms and back for pulling. John Danaher, while running through some of his back attack system details, has noted Nicky’s saying: “If I can lock my hands anywhere below your eyebrows, I’m gonna strangle you unconscious,” after beating well-known grapplers one after another.
The idea that anywhere below the eyebrows can be a target for a rear-naked choke or short choke grip is a legitimate way to make your opponents quit — either from the pressure, suffocation, or strangulation. This can especially be true by having the strength built on and off the mats through countless hours of rolling and lifting weights, strengthening the muscles in the arms and back, and making your squeeze and grip tighter.
Conclusion
Nick Rodriguez is one of the most entertaining grapplers today. His style of athleticism, partnered with technique, makes him a threat to any elite grappler today. While wrestling is a vital aspect of No-Gi grappling, give yourself time to train it at least once a week and see how it improves your overall game.
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