Gordon Ryan’s Securing the Score Scrimmage Course for No-Gi Transitions
Our buying assessment
This page contains affiliate links. BJJ University may earn a commission if you purchase through them.
Check current price at BJJ FanaticsBased on the seller’s curriculum and cited product sources, checked 2026-10-19. This is a researched guide, not a firsthand review. Study recommendations are our editorial assessment.
In this guide
What it teaches
This course is organized around the “scrimmage”: the unstable transition immediately after a takedown, sweep, or positional exchange, with an emphasis on securing points and stabilizing position before the opponent escapes or recovers guard.
The curriculum addresses takedown follow-through, opponent falls, heists, turtle, single legs, double legs, chest-to-chest takedowns, chest-to-back takedowns, and rolling commentary.
Curriculum overview
Scrimmage theory and habits
Scoring theory, takedown categories, opponent fall patterns, controlled versus non-controlling pins, drills, and habit building.
Study this if: Builds a framework for recognizing when a transition is actually secured.
Minimally connected takedowns
Covers light-connection finishes, falling inside or outside the legs, ankle and foot control, far wrist, heisting-leg control, claw, and tight waist transitions.
Study this if: Helps prevent opponents from escaping when the finish does not land cleanly.
Turtle and heist reactions
Develops follow-ups when opponents heist, turn, or turtle, including far-hip rides, half guard concessions, knee slide to back, front headlock, and leg rides.
Study this if: Turns defensive turtle reactions into continued top control or back exposure.
Single-leg aftermath
Maps head-inside, head-outside, low, and high single-leg finishes against butt, knee, hip, turn-away, heist, crackdown, double-switch, and cross-body ride reactions.
Study this if: Clarifies what to do after the single leg hits the mat but the score is not stable yet.
Double-leg landings
Covers head-position variations, conventional and circular doubles, bodylock follow-ups, half guard forcing, claw, tight waist, crossface, switching sides, and back chasing.
Study this if: Addresses the common gap between finishing a double and earning a stable top position.
Chest-to-chest control
Focuses on landing inside the legs, half guard and closed guard outcomes, underhook prevention, elbow or knee lifts, backsteps, scoop-grip counters, and whizzer heists.
Study this if: Keeps top pressure from becoming a guard recovery or underhook escape.
Chest-to-back rides and breakdowns
Works front and back chest-to-back scenarios: grips, knees-down theory, peak-out counters, cradles, armdrags, four-point/turtle interface, back crucifix, doubles, and Granby follow-ups.
Study this if: Improves control when the opponent builds to hands, knees, turtle, or four-point positions.
Rolling and commentary
Includes rolling rounds and commentary segments with multiple partners to show the scrimmage ideas in live movement.
Study this if: Connects the decision tree to timing, resistance, and chained reactions.
Who it is for
Competitors and serious no-gi students who already initiate takedowns, sweeps, or scrambles may find this especially relevant because the product is framed around keeping the position after the initial exchange.
It may also suit wrestle-up and mat-wrestling learners who want more structure around pins that count in grappling rulesets, because the course explicitly compares ADCC and wrestling rules and includes pins, takedown categories, singles, doubles, and turtle follow-ups.
Prerequisites
A useful baseline is familiarity with common wrestling and no-gi positional language: single legs, double legs, front headlock-style chest-to-back exchanges, turtle, half guard, underhooks, whizzers, far-wrist control, and tight waist control all appear in the lesson list.
Beginners can still extract concepts from the opening theory and drills, but our suggested expectation is that this is easier to study if you can already recognize takedown finishes and top-control reactions in live rounds.
Format and rules context
The supplied brief verifies the format as no-gi, and the course text repeatedly situates the material in competitive rule contexts including ADCC, IBJJF, and hybrid rulesets.
The product page lists ten volumes, including a final volume of rolling and rolling commentary; the source also describes the main instructional as a 9-part system, so readers should treat the tenth listed volume as application footage rather than a separate technical part unless the seller clarifies otherwise.
Strengths
The strongest curriculum feature is breadth across the scoring aftermath: it does not stop at the takedown entry, but follows singles, doubles, bodylocks, chest-to-chest landings, turtle, four-point positions, and back-chase scenarios.
Another strength is that many lessons are organized around opponent reactions rather than isolated moves, including falling to the butt, knee, or hip; turning away; heisting; locking a crossface; pushing the head down; and following a Granby.
Limitations and research notes
This is not presented as a complete guard, submission, or standing-entry course; the supplied curriculum centers on securing position after takedowns, sweeps, turtle exchanges, and scramble reactions.
Our research is limited to the seller-supplied page and comparison excerpts. We did not verify video quality, depth of explanation beyond the listed curriculum, or whether gi-specific adaptations are included; the supplied brief only verifies no-gi.
Suggested study order
Our suggested study order is to begin with the theory and habit-building material, then study minimally connected takedowns and turtle before moving into the longer single-leg and double-leg sections.
After that, consider isolating chest-to-chest and chest-to-back scenarios, then use the rolling commentary to connect the decision tree to live movement.
Alternatives to consider
Creating Scrambles From Everywhere by Achilles Rocha is the closer alternative if you want a broader scramble-creation theme rather than this course’s narrower focus on securing points and stabilizing after the exchange.
The Upside Down: Inverted Attacks by Jon Blank is a different lane: it centers on inversions, bottom-position attacks, north-south and side-control offense, and EBI-style tactics, while Gordon Ryan’s course centers on takedown follow-through and scramble stabilization.
Purchase guidance
Consider buying this when your main problem is not entering takedowns or sweeps, but keeping the score afterward: the curriculum repeatedly addresses landings, opponent turns, heists, half guard stabilization, tight waist, far wrist, claw, crossface, and back-chase options.
Buy less urgently if you need an introductory takedown course, gi-specific gripping instruction, or a submission-focused attacking system; those are not the main emphasis shown in the supplied curriculum.