Truck Position

Last updated: June 12, 2026

What is the truck position?

The truck sits between two of grappling’s strongest positions: side control and back control. One grappler traps a single leg of the opponent using both of their own legs, locked in a figure-four (one leg threads inside the opponent’s thigh while the other folds over it to lock the trap shut). The arms then grab the opponent’s far hip or far leg. With both hips controlled, the opponent cannot stand up or turn to face the attacker.

Eddie Bravo built the position into the foundation of 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu, the no-gi grappling system he created after receiving his black belt from Jean Jacques Machado. In Bravo’s framework, the truck is a checkpoint. From it, a grappler can climb into full back control, or stay put and attack the legs and spine directly.

The name comes up in UFC and grappling commentary because several recognizable submissions begin there, including the twister. Anyone watching a 10th Planet-trained fighter on the ground will hear it sooner or later.

How the truck works

Picture an opponent on all fours. The attacking grappler threads a leg inside one of the opponent’s thighs, wraps it around that leg, and sits back toward the mat while holding the opponent’s other hip with both hands. The opponent ends up with their backside held in the air, one leg tangled, unable to bring their hips to the ground.

Control rests on two anchor points. The figure-four around the trapped leg shuts down one hip completely. The arms (or, in some variations, a grip on the far foot) handle the other side. According to Jiu Jitsu Legacy, keeping the opponent’s hips elevated is the defining detail: once their backside reaches the mat, they can flip the position and end up controlling the attacker instead.

For viewers, the recognition cue is simple. When one grappler is lying back, wrapped around a single leg of an opponent whose hips are suspended off the canvas, that is the truck.

Where the truck came from

The position is older than 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu. Per BJJ Heroes, the truck and most of its entries trace back to the wrestling leg ride, a control wrestlers used for decades to break down a turtled opponent and expose their shoulders for a pin. Two of wrestling’s pins from the leg ride, the guillotine and the banana split, later became jiu-jitsu submissions.

Bravo learned leg rides as a high school wrestler. Training under Jean Jacques Machado, he started applying them in jiu-jitsu as a blue belt, chasing taps where wrestlers chased pins. After the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) distanced itself from spinal locks and twisting knee attacks, Bravo committed to the no-gi circuit and made the truck a pillar of his curriculum.

A parallel version grew in the gi world. BJJ Heroes notes that around the early-to-mid 2000s, Ryan Hall and others competed with a similar control Hall called the “rolling back attack,” used mainly to reach back control. The berimbolo era of the late 2000s, driven by Rafael and Guilherme Mendes, then pulled truck-style leg control into mainstream gi competition.

Truck vs. back control

Most confusion around the truck involves back control, since both attack an opponent from behind. The two differ in what gets controlled and what gets attacked.

	Truck	Back control
Leg control	Figure-four around one leg	Both heels hooked inside the thighs, or a body triangle
Primary targets	Legs and spine (calf slicer, banana split, twister)	Neck and arms (rear naked choke, armbar)
IBJJF points	None; it does not meet the definition of back control	4 points
Strongly associated with	10th Planet and no-gi grappling	Every style of jiu-jitsu

The point gap helps explain why the truck is rare in IBJJF gi tournaments and common in no-gi and submission-only events. A competitor playing for points has little reason to choose a position that scores nothing over one worth four.

Submissions from the truck

Three attacks define the position:

The twister is a spinal lock that bends the opponent’s head and upper body sideways against their trapped lower body. It started life as wrestling’s guillotine pin and became the signature 10th Planet submission. The IBJJF bans it at every belt level under its no-spinal-locks rule, though many no-gi and submission-only rulesets allow it.

A calf slicer works by compression: the attacker’s shin sits behind the opponent’s knee, and folding the trapped leg drives the calf into the bone.

The banana split, sometimes called a crotch ripper, forces the opponent’s legs apart in opposite directions, stretching the groin and hips. Like the twister, it began as a wrestling pin.

A grappler who loses one of these attacks rarely loses the position. The truck lets them switch between submissions or bail out to back control and hunt a choke.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who invented the truck position?

Eddie Bravo adapted it from the wrestling leg ride and developed it into a named position within 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu. Wrestlers used the underlying control for decades before jiu-jitsu adopted it.

Is the truck legal in BJJ competition?

The position itself is legal everywhere. Some attacks from it are restricted: the IBJJF bans the twister at all belts and limits calf slicers to brown and black belt divisions, while many no-gi events permit both.

Is the truck the same as the rolling back attack?

Largely, yes. Rolling back attack was the name Ryan Hall used for the gi-circuit version in the mid-2000s, with the emphasis on reaching back control rather than finishing from the position.

Does the truck work in MMA?

Yes. The position needs no fabric grips, which is exactly what the 10th Planet system was built around, and fighters from 10th Planet gyms use it to take the back or attack the legs in fights.

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Sources

1. BJJ Heroes. “The Truck.”
   https://www.bjjheroes.com/techniques/the-truck. Accessed June 12, 2026.
2. Elite Sports. “BJJ Truck Position: History, Setup, Entries, Attacks & Submissions.”
   https://www.elitesports.com/blogs/news/bjj-truck-position-history-setup-entries-attacks-submissions. Accessed June 12, 2026.
3. Jiu Jitsu Legacy. “The BJJ Truck Position: Drive Everyone Into Submission.”
   https://jiujitsulegacy.com/videos/bjj-truck-position/. Accessed June 12, 2026.
4. Jiu Jitsu Legacy. “Illegal at Any Rank: The Twister.”
   https://jiujitsulegacy.com/videos/the-twister/. Accessed June 12, 2026.
5. BJJ Fanatics. “Truck BJJ.”
   https://bjjfanatics.com/blogs/news/truck-bjj. Accessed June 12, 2026.
6. Evolve Daily. “Everything You Need To Know About The Truck Position In BJJ.”
   https://evolve-mma.com/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-truck-position-in-bjj/. Accessed June 12, 2026.
7. Elite Sports. “Top 10 Illegal Moves in IBJJF For All BJJ Belt Ranks.”
   https://www.elitesports.com/blogs/news/top-10-illegal-moves-in-ibjjf-for-all-bjj-belt-ranks. Accessed June 12, 2026.

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