Turtle Position
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This position is a purely defensive position, and is usually achieved when the person on bottom istrying to recover from a worse position. Players typically don’t want to be in this position for long, as it does not have very many options for sweeps or submissions. Occasionally a high-ranking or larger opponent will “Turtle up” against a lower-ranking or smaller opponent as a way to 1) frustrate them or 2) give them an opportunity to work from the top without sacrificing much in their position.
This is a fantastic position when used in transition, especially during self defense. Most people fear it and thus avoid it when it is the best position for them. There is a reason this is the only instinctual position—hundreds of thousands of years of testing have shown that people who protect their face, stomach, and other softer parts from damage survive better than those that don’t. That’s how it became an instinct!
Turtle only protects you for a very short time. You can probably take one or two strikes, and the position delays a grappler for a moment. That gives a little space to use three or four limbs to get back to your feet (best) or re-engage with a better position (second best; think turning into the attacker and getting a kneeling double leg on the attacker), or if you can’t do anything better, you can recover guard. The only thing worse than recovering guard is staying in turtle because it gives a striker or grappler the one or two seconds they need to identify your weak spots and really make you pay.
Bottom line: if your guard is being passed, abandon guard, turtle up to close your vulnerabilities, then immediately go for something even better than the guard you had!