7 September 2026
Double-Leg Takedowns: Entries, Forward Drive, and Lifting
Double-Leg Takedowns: Entries, Forward Drive, and Lifting
Three related double-leg lessons from Modern Warrior Academy in New Westminster. The coach treats the takedown as a technique problem more than a strength problem, then shows a running, forward-drive entry and a pick-up variation.
Checked transcript
You don’t need to be strong to pick people up. The coach lines students up and has them pick him up in a double-leg.
He works through the room’s sizes — the partners he calls out sit roughly from the 120s into the 170s and 180s, and he puts himself around 185 — to make the point that the lift is about technique.
He pushes back on the excuse that you are not strong enough, and he points at how easy the pick-up can look when the mechanics are there.
Checked against the coaching audio and on-screen captions. This is a coaching argument from the drill, not a promise that every reader can hit the same lift.
The Coach’s Approach to the Double-Leg
The source file is titled “Anyone can Double Leg.” That is a filming label, not a guarantee. What he actually teaches is narrower: you do not need to be the strongest person in the room to pick someone up if the double-leg is done as a technique.
He makes the students line up and pick him up. He talks through size in the room — partners he places from around the 120s into the 170s and 180s, with himself around 185 — and he uses those lifts to argue against “I can’t, I’m not strong enough.” The clip is a pep talk with live proof of the mechanic. It is not a claim that every body type, every day, will finish the same takedown.
Entry and Forward Drive
Checked transcript
He wants the drive forward almost like a football.
When the partner comes up, he stays down and comes through with the hips.
There is aggression into the entry, and once you are in, you keep going.
Checked against the coaching audio and on-screen captions.
The running double-leg is the forward-drive lesson. The cue is to go forward almost like a football tackle — not to stand up with the partner. When they come up, he stays down and penetrates with the hips.
On camera you see a low change of level, the head into the side of the torso, and the arms wrapping the legs and hips as he runs through the entry. Some of the demos include a lift as part of that drive. Stay with what the clip shows: the job is to get in, stay down, and keep the hips moving forward.
The Pick-Up Variation
Checked transcript
You can try to knock them over. In this variation he steps in instead of being the one who gets knocked over.
At the point of the lift he describes the partner as weightless — easy to lift, so light — because the position is there.
The clip shows the entry and the lift with the partner off the mat. It does not show a slam or a finished landing.
Checked against the coaching audio and on-screen captions.
This is a different finish from a straight knock-over. The coach says you can try to knock them over; here he steps in and picks them up. At the moment of the lift he calls the partner weightless — easy to lift, so light — because the body is already loaded on the hips.
What you can see: a cinch around the hips and upper thighs, the head tucked to the side, and the partner coming off the mat. What you cannot see in this clip is a slam or a completed landing. Treat it as an entry-plus-lift demonstration, not a finished throw to the floor.
How This Relates to Underhook Entries
These three clips start standing, on a double-leg. They are not the underhook series. That lesson is already published as five underhook attacks, and one of those five is a double-leg from a clinch underhook. If you want the grip-first version, use that article. If you want the shot itself — drive, stay down, or pick up — stay here.
Ground control after the takedown is a different conversation. The gi position clips on kesa-gatame, gift wrap, and the position hierarchy pick up once you are already on the mat.
Train Double-Legs in Wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu
Double-leg takedowns belong in both rooms. Wrestling at Modern Warrior is where Coach Cody Osborn spends time on stance, level changes, and these kinds of entries. Adult jiu-jitsu is where the same shot has to survive a scramble and turn into mat work.
For the broader grappling curriculum, see the ground and grappling program overview. Then use the current schedule and book a class.
