Start · Core concept

How to shrimp (hip escape) in no-gi grappling

The shrimp, or hip escape, is the most important movement a beginner learns — it creates the space to escape bad positions. Here is the step-by-step version.

How-to guide Core concept Parent-safe

If the breakfall is the most-used safety skill, the shrimp — or hip escape — is the most-used movement. It is how you create space underneath someone and turn a bad position into a chance to escape, and almost every escape in the sport begins with it. Here is the beginner version; drill it slowly and under a coach before adding any resistance.

The steps

  1. Lie on your back in a frame. Start on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the mat, and your hands framing in front of you. This is your base for creating and using space.
  2. Turn onto your side. Turn onto one side and bring that shoulder off the mat, framing against your imaginary opponent so they cannot follow you. The escape happens off your side, never flat on your back.
  3. Push off your feet to move your hips. Drive off the foot of your bottom leg to push your hips away from the opponent, sliding your backside along the mat. The power comes from your legs and hips, not from pulling with your arms.
  4. Recover your guard. Now that you have made space, pull your bottom knee through into the gap so you can reframe and bring your legs back between you and the opponent. The space you just created is what lets you get your guard back.
  5. Reset and repeat down the mat. Return to the framed position and shrimp again, travelling down the length of the mat. Shrimping in both directions until it is smooth is the single best use of early solo-drill time.

Why it matters so much

The shrimp is the physical expression of a core principle: escape mechanics require creating space before moving through it. You cannot escape a pin by force; you make a gap, then move into it — and the shrimp is how you make the gap. It is the engine behind nearly everything in the escapes family, and it is why “get your hips out” is the most common instruction a beginner hears.

Drill it

Like the breakfall, the shrimp pays off only when it is automatic, so it belongs in your warm-up every session — see the drilling methodology and the drills library. The Foundations path builds it in early, and the positions every beginner should know shows the bad spots it gets you out of.

Keep going