⚠️ SAFETY: Can Opener targets the Cervical spine and neck muscles. Risk: Cervical spine compression. Release immediately upon tap.
The Can Opener is a neck crank technique applied from within an opponent’s closed guard, primarily used as a guard-breaking mechanism rather than a finishing submission. The technique involves interlacing fingers behind the opponent’s head and driving the forearms into their neck while pulling the head forward and down, creating intense pressure on the cervical spine and neck muscles. This compression submission is banned in most Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitions under IBJJF rules and is considered a controversial technique due to its high injury potential. While it can be effective at forcing an opponent to open their guard to relieve pressure, the Can Opener carries significant risks including neck muscle strains, cervical spine compression injuries, and potential disc damage. Modern BJJ practitioners typically learn this technique primarily for defensive purposes - understanding how to recognize and counter it - rather than as an offensive weapon. The technique’s effectiveness comes from the mechanical disadvantage created when the defender’s own guard restricts their ability to posture away from the pressure. However, higher-level practitioners develop strong defensive responses including grip fighting, posture control, and guard adjustments that significantly reduce the Can Opener’s success rate. Understanding this technique is essential for comprehensive grappling education, but its application should be severely restricted or avoided entirely in training environments.
Category: Compression Type: Neck Crank Target Area: Cervical spine and neck muscles Starting Position: Closed Guard Success Rates: Beginner 15%, Intermediate 25%, Advanced 35%
Safety Guide
Injury Risks:
| Injury | Severity | Recovery Time |
|---|---|---|
| Cervical spine compression | CRITICAL | 4-12 weeks or permanent damage |
| Neck muscle strain | High | 2-6 weeks |
| Intervertebral disc herniation | CRITICAL | 3-6 months or surgical intervention required |
| Cervical ligament damage | High | 6-12 weeks |
Application Speed: SHOULD NOT BE APPLIED - This technique is banned in most competitions and carries unacceptable injury risk. If demonstrated for educational purposes only: EXTREMELY SLOW - 7-10 seconds minimum with constant partner communication
Tap Signals:
- Verbal tap (primary due to restricted movement)
- Physical hand tap on opponent’s body
- Physical foot tap on ground
- Any distress signal including verbal stop command
- Immediate cessation if partner shows any neck pain signs
Release Protocol:
- Immediately remove all pressure from neck by releasing hand clasp
- Simultaneously posture upward to remove forearm pressure from throat
- Allow partner to slowly extend neck naturally without assistance
- Check for neck pain, dizziness, or numbness before continuing
- Wait minimum 2-3 minutes before resuming any activity
- If any pain persists beyond 5 minutes, stop training and seek medical evaluation
Training Restrictions:
- NEVER apply this technique in live training or competition where banned
- NEVER use this as a primary guard-breaking method - safer alternatives exist
- NEVER apply to training partners with pre-existing neck injuries
- NEVER apply sudden or jerking pressure to the neck
- NEVER continue pressure after partner indicates discomfort
- Only demonstrate with cooperative partner for educational awareness
- Always prioritize learning legal and safer guard-breaking alternatives
Key Principles
- Neck compression creates intense discomfort forcing guard opening
- Interlaced fingers behind head provide structural control
- Forearm pressure against throat amplifies compression effect
- Opponent’s closed guard creates mechanical disadvantage for escape
- Defensive awareness and early counter-measures are more important than offensive application
- Legal and ethical alternatives should always be prioritized for guard breaking
- Understanding this technique defensively prevents being caught by less experienced or unethical opponents
Prerequisites
- Opponent has you trapped in closed guard with legs locked
- Your posture is compromised or broken down
- You have achieved hand position behind opponent’s head
- Opponent’s guard is tight enough to restrict your movement
- Your forearms can reach opponent’s neck area
- Opponent lacks grip control preventing your hand positioning
- Training environment explicitly allows demonstration of banned techniques for educational purposes
Execution Steps
- Establish head control: From within closed guard, swim both hands behind opponent’s head while they attempt to break your posture. Focus on getting deep hand position near the base of their skull rather than shallow neck contact. This requires timing when opponent momentarily releases collar grips or attempts to adjust their guard. (Timing: Initial setup phase - 2-3 seconds) [Pressure: Light]
- Interlace fingers: Lock your fingers together behind opponent’s head creating a strong structural frame with your arms. The finger interlace should be tight with palms pressing against the back of their skull. This grip must be secure as it provides the foundation for all subsequent pressure. Position your elbows to point outward creating a wide base. (Timing: Grip establishment - 1-2 seconds) [Pressure: Light]
- Position forearms against neck: Adjust your arm position so the bony portions of your forearms contact the sides and front of opponent’s neck while your hands remain locked behind their head. The forearms should frame their neck creating a compression structure. Ensure your arms create an inverted V-shape that will drive downward pressure through the neck. (Timing: Structural positioning - 2-3 seconds) [Pressure: Light]
- Pull head forward and down: Using your interlaced hands, pull opponent’s head toward your chest while simultaneously driving your forearms into their neck. The motion combines forward pulling with downward compression. Their own closed guard prevents them from creating distance, trapping them in the compression. This creates the characteristic ‘can opening’ effect on the cervical spine. (Timing: ONLY IF EDUCATIONAL DEMONSTRATION - 3-4 seconds minimum) [Pressure: Moderate]
- Drive elbows together: Narrow your elbow position while maintaining the pull, creating a pinching effect that concentrates pressure on the neck. This increases the compression force while limiting opponent’s ability to create space. The combined forward pull, downward pressure, and inward elbow drive maximizes discomfort forcing guard opening. (Timing: ONLY IF EDUCATIONAL DEMONSTRATION - 2-3 seconds) [Pressure: Firm]
- Maintain pressure until guard opens: Continue the compression until opponent opens their guard to relieve neck pressure. The moment guard opens, immediately release all neck pressure and transition to a legal guard passing position. Never maintain this pressure longer than absolutely necessary, and never use in competitive or live training contexts where it is prohibited. (Timing: RELEASE IMMEDIATELY upon guard opening or any distress signal) [Pressure: Moderate]
Opponent Defenses
- Strong collar and sleeve grips preventing hand positioning (Effectiveness: High) - Your Adjustment: This is the primary and most effective defense. If opponent maintains proper grips, Can Opener setup becomes nearly impossible. Cannot effectively counter strong grip fighting.
- Breaking attacker’s posture down to chest level (Effectiveness: High) - Your Adjustment: When posture is fully broken, your arms cannot generate the mechanical advantage needed for compression. Opponent’s defensive posture break neutralizes the technique completely.
- Opening guard immediately and transitioning to different guard (Effectiveness: High) - Your Adjustment: Smart opponent opens guard voluntarily before pressure builds, moving to open guard, butterfly, or scrambling position. This achieves your goal of opening guard but maintains opponent’s defensive control.
- Framing against hips and creating distance (Effectiveness: Medium) - Your Adjustment: Opponent uses frames on your hips to push away creating space that reduces neck pressure. You can counter by sitting back and maintaining hand position, but effectiveness drops significantly.
- Hand fighting to break finger clasp (Effectiveness: Medium) - Your Adjustment: Opponent reaches up to peel fingers apart or strike wrists to break grip. If successful, entire technique structure collapses. Maintaining grip becomes primary battle.
- Angle change and hip escape (Effectiveness: Medium) - Your Adjustment: By angling body and shrimping, opponent can reduce compression angle making technique less effective. Creates opportunities for them to establish better guard position or sweep.
Test Your Knowledge
Q1: Why is the Can Opener banned in most Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitions? [SAFETY-CRITICAL] A: The Can Opener is banned because it targets the cervical spine with compression forces that carry unacceptable injury risks including disc herniation, vertebrae damage, and nerve impingement. Unlike joint locks that have clear joint range limits, neck cranks can cause catastrophic injuries before the defender recognizes the danger. The technique provides minimal technical development while creating significant liability, leading organizations like IBJJF to prohibit it at all belt levels.
Q2: What is the most effective defense against someone attempting a Can Opener from your closed guard? [SAFETY-CRITICAL] A: The most effective defense is preventing the setup through proper grip control - maintaining strong collar and sleeve grips that prevent the opponent from swimming hands behind your head. If they begin to establish hand position, immediately break your posture down to your chest by pulling them forward with collar grips, eliminating the space needed for them to generate compression leverage. Breaking their posture down completely neutralizes the mechanical advantage required for the technique. Additionally, maintaining active guard retention with hip movement and angle changes prevents them from establishing the stable base needed for sustained pressure.
Q3: If someone applies a Can Opener to you in training, what is the safest immediate response? [SAFETY-CRITICAL] A: Immediately open your guard to relieve the pressure on your neck, while simultaneously using verbal communication to tell your partner to stop. Do not attempt to tough it out or wait for the pressure to build. As you open your guard, frame against their hips and create distance to fully escape the compression. After escaping, communicate clearly with your partner about gym rules and safety standards. If any neck pain, numbness, or restricted motion persists beyond a few minutes, stop training and seek medical evaluation. Never continue rolling if you experience cervical spine symptoms.
Q4: What makes the Can Opener particularly dangerous compared to other submissions? [SAFETY-CRITICAL] A: The Can Opener attacks the cervical spine which contains the spinal cord and controls vital nervous system functions. Unlike limb attacks where joint damage has clear anatomical limits, cervical spine injuries can result in permanent neurological damage, paralysis, or death in extreme cases. The compression force is applied to multiple vertebrae and discs simultaneously rather than a single joint, distributing damage across critical structures. Additionally, neck injuries often have delayed symptom presentation - serious damage may occur before pain becomes severe enough to tap. The technique also lacks the clear progression that allows defenders to recognize danger levels in attacks like armbars or chokes.
Q5: What legal and safe guard-breaking alternatives should you use instead of the Can Opener? A: Effective legal alternatives include: standing guard breaks where you establish strong posture, stand up, control the hips, and use proper leg positioning to open the guard; knee slice pressure where you drive your knee across to create opening leverage; toreando passing where you control pants grips and redirect the legs; and pressure-based breaks where you establish frames against the hips and drive forward with proper weight distribution. These techniques develop proper guard passing fundamentals, work at all skill levels, carry minimal injury risk, and are legal in all competitions. Investing time in these methods creates better technical development than relying on banned techniques.
Q6: Why is it important to learn about the Can Opener even if you should never use it? [SAFETY-CRITICAL] A: Understanding the Can Opener is important for comprehensive defensive knowledge - you need to recognize when an opponent is attempting banned or dangerous techniques so you can defend appropriately and communicate about safety standards. In training environments with less experienced partners or when visiting other gyms, someone may attempt this technique without understanding its risks. Knowing the setup allows you to prevent it through proper grip fighting and posture control. Additionally, understanding what makes techniques dangerous develops better judgment about risk assessment in all grappling exchanges. Defensive knowledge also allows you to coach others about why certain techniques are prohibited and how to train safely.
Q7: What should you do if you witness someone applying a Can Opener in your gym? [SAFETY-CRITICAL] A: Immediately intervene verbally to stop the roll, then inform both practitioners about the safety concerns and gym policies regarding banned techniques. Explain to the person applying it why the technique is dangerous and prohibited, and help them understand legal alternatives for guard breaking. Check on the defender to ensure they have no neck pain or injury symptoms. Report the incident to the instructor or gym owner so they can address safety standards with all students. Creating a culture of safety requires active intervention when dangerous techniques are used, even if this feels uncomfortable. The goal is education rather than punishment, but protecting training partners from injury must be the priority.
From Which Positions?
Expert Insights
- Danaher System: The Can Opener represents a fundamental misunderstanding of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu’s core principles - the technique sacrifices long-term technical development for short-term tactical gain while introducing unacceptable injury risks. From a biomechanical perspective, the cervical spine is designed for mobility and flexibility, not to withstand compression forces in the vectors this technique creates. The seven cervical vertebrae and their interconnecting discs can suffer permanent damage from forces well below what is required for other joint attacks. Systematically, there exist dozens of superior guard-breaking methods that develop proper passing mechanics, work against resistant opponents at all levels, and carry minimal injury risk. The standing guard break alone, properly executed with correct posture, hip control, and pressure direction, is infinitely more effective and develops fundamental passing skills that transfer across all positions. Students who rely on Can Opener techniques reveal gaps in their technical foundation - they lack the patience, pressure management, and systematic approach required for high-level guard passing. From a defensive perspective, understanding this attack is valuable only insofar as it teaches proper guard maintenance through grip fighting and posture breaking. The primary lesson is negative: recognition of what should be avoided rather than what should be developed. In any comprehensive training program, the Can Opener should be mentioned only as a cautionary example of techniques that violate safety principles while providing minimal technical value.
- Gordon Ryan: In competition, you will never see high-level practitioners attempting Can Openers because it is both illegal and ineffective against anyone with proper guard retention fundamentals. The technique is banned in IBJJF, ADCC, and virtually all major grappling competitions precisely because the risk-reward ratio is completely skewed toward injury rather than technical success. From a competitive standpoint, any time invested learning offensive Can Opener mechanics is time wasted that should be spent developing legal passing techniques that actually work in matches. When I break closed guard, I use standing breaks with proper posture and pressure management, knee slice entries with hip pressure, or toreando passing with grip control - these methods work against world-class opposition and develop the fundamentals needed for complete passing systems. Defensively, the key is never allowing opponents to establish the hand position behind your head in the first place through aggressive collar and sleeve grip fighting. If someone attempts this technique in training, it immediately signals they lack proper technical education and you need to either educate them about safety standards or decline to train with them. The moment you feel neck pressure from this type of attack, open your guard immediately and reset - there is zero benefit to testing your pain tolerance with cervical spine compression. In my competition preparation, I focus on guard passing sequences that create legitimate passing opportunities through angle manipulation, pressure application, and technical precision rather than relying on techniques that attack structural vulnerabilities in dangerous ways. The distinction between training and competition is irrelevant here because the technique should not be used in either context.
- Eddie Bravo: While 10th Planet system emphasizes innovation and exploring unconventional techniques, the Can Opener sits firmly in the category of attacks that violate our fundamental safety culture. We push boundaries with rubber guard, truck positions, and creative lockdown attacks, but everything we develop maintains the principle that training partners should be able to train hard consistently without catastrophic injury risks. The Can Opener fails this test completely because neck cranks can cause permanent damage before the defender recognizes they are in serious danger. From a practical standpoint, there are so many creative and effective ways to break closed guard that are both legal and safe - electric chair setups from lockdown, vaporizer entries, or rubber guard to mission control transitions all create guard-breaking opportunities while developing sophisticated position-specific skills. Innovation means finding new solutions within safety parameters, not reverting to crude force-based attacks that have been rejected by the broader grappling community for good reasons. Defensively, 10th Planet students learn aggressive rubber guard positioning and posture breaking specifically to prevent opponents from establishing the upright base and hand position required for Can Opener setups. If someone tries this technique against you, immediately open your guard and establish defensive frames - your ability to train tomorrow is more important than winning today’s training exchange. In our competition team preparation, we emphasize techniques that work within rule sets while developing transferable skills. The Can Opener develops nothing except a reputation as an unsafe training partner. The creativity in our system comes from position development, transition mechanics, and submission chains, not from exploiting dangerous attacks that risk long-term injuries. Respect your training partners by choosing techniques that allow everyone to train hard while staying healthy for decades of mat time.