Can opener

[lonecoyote]

One time I was taking a grappling class and we had some wrestlers come in and try out the class, we were rolling after class, and one man had me in the guard, I stacked him, got a little off balance and I got triangle'd. They were friendly guys and he said I could have gotten him by moving my other hand up and doing the can opener. As they were teaching it to me, I looked up and saw the instructor with a dammit kind of look on his face. The can opener is not real welcomed by most grappling instructors. If a guy is trying to hold a closed guard, not opening it, and you can stand up, and move your weight over him (stacking) reach behind his head with both hands, grab the back of his neck real tight, keeping real tight on top of him,and do a real fast sit out, that is don't just lean back on your heels, sit out, slap the mat with your butt, like the wrestling drill. As you do this, pull the head forward hard. It hurts, but takes a certain amount of power to pull off. Not sure why its such a hated movement, you can do just as much damage with any number of techniques that are freely taught in most grappling classes. Why the problem with it?

 

[Andrew Green]

Neck cranks in general are often frowned on, at least at lower levels. To many injuries, lots of people just try to tough it out and end up unable to move thier head the next day.

Some people tend to consider it poor technique as well, and just a muscle move. I think you'd find it very hard to catch a more advanced grappler with a good guard with this.

 

[WilliamJ]

Can openers are frowned upon for a few reasons. It's a muscle move that inflicts pain and on inexperienced people it can cause injuries. It doesn't work against skilled grapplers as anything other than a guard opener and it will NOT get you out of a good triangle. In fact extending your arm is a good way to get armbarred while you are in the triangle. And lastly, against a good guard player a can opener can get you armbarred. Basically there are alot of better options available.