Closed guard basics

Closed guard

"How did Ricardo Arona get in my guard? Maybe he took me down, it doesn't matter, maybe I just woke up one morning and Ricardo Arona was in my guard. Here's what I'm gonna do."
Mario Sperry (Stolen from RadBoy's signature!)

Contents

1. Posture
2. Good posture for O
3. Good posture for you
4. Grips
5. Unbalancing O
6. Left/Right
7. Forward
8. Backward
9. General advice
10. Be active
11. Relax
    
12. Be ready to open your guard
13. Avoiding submissions
14. When your guard is passed
15. Guard techniques
16. Collar and lapel chokes
17. Shoulderlocks
18. Sweeps
19. Ways to take the back
20. Miscellaneous
21. Books I recommend
    

Posture
Good posture for O
Good posture for O is to be upright, one or both hands controlling your hips in some way, his weight based out making him difficult to sweep. From here O will attempt to open your guard and either pass or attack with a leg lock.
Check the start of this clip with Gustavo Dantas to see an example of such posture.
Here is another example of O taking a strong posture to control the hips.
O will want to keep his arms free so he can post out to avoid having his posture broken/being swept. If you want to sweep him, you have to control the arm on the side you want to sweep.

Good posture for you
You want the opposite of what O wants.

• Keep your hands free
  
• Keep your hips free
• Keep him off balance
• Control his arm/hand on the side you want to sweep
  

Grips
To break O's posture you will need to get a dominant grip and stop O from gaining a good grip on you. In gi BJJ you can grab the sleeve at the wrist, behind the elbow or inside his collar. Check this clip for some gi grip ideas.
I usually grab across my body (my right hand to his right sleeve, elbow or collar and vice versa). I also like sticking my hand in the collar to threaten the choke and get some good pulling leverage.
In no-gi, you will be looking for underhooks, overhooks and to wrap the neck. Check out this clip for some no gi ideas.
Of course, these positions are possible in gi BJJ too although the feel is different.

Unbalancing O
Once you have your grip, ways to offset O include:

Left or right
Armdrag
Pull one of his arms across his body and hug him to you so that your body blocks the elbow from retracting.
See Frodo do it here.
Note the little bridge he does at the start to help break O's grip.

Forward

• Grab and fall

Sit up, grab O and fall back down, using your weight and gravity to bring him forward.

• Leg pull

Pull O towards you with your legs. You need to send him off to the left or right at the same time or he may end up headbutting you.

• Climb your legs

Whenever possible, I like to climb my legs up O's back. The higher your legs are the easier it will be to transition to armbars and the harder it will be for O to regain posture.

Backward

• Push him backwards with your legs.
• Pull him forward and when he resists, push him backwards with your legs.
• Threaten O's neck with a collar choke. He will instinctively pull back.

This will set you up for the hip bump sweep/kimura/guillotine.

General advice

• Be active in your guard

The guard is not a place for you to rest. Constantly pressure O by pushing, pulling and threatening subs and sweeps. The moment he feels safe, O will start to pass.

• Relax

Being active doesn't mean spazzing out! Breathe. Attack O logically using good technique and leverage. Pull one of his arms with both of yours. Use your legs to unbalance him. Use your weight to unbalance him. Threaten him with collar chokes and submissions. If you are going red in the face and getting nowhere you are doing something wrong!

• Be ready to open your guard

When your guard is closed you actually have very limited mobility. You will need to open your guard to sweep, to submit, to avoid being picked up and slammed if O stands up move, to move into open guard and to stand yourself up.

It is essential that you develop an open guard game as well as a closed guard game. Of the two, I would say a good open guard game is more important. The closed guard is easier to pick up for a beginner but open guard is such a huge part of bjj at the higher levels that the sooner you start to learn it the better.

Avoiding submissions
There are a few submissions O can do to you whilst in your guard. Know them and avoid them.

Can opener

Thrusting choke (tsukkomi jime for any Japanese speakers among you)

Once these are on, escaping or countering requires that you open your guard. Hence, many use these techniques to open a closed guard in order to begin passing. However, they are legitimate submissions so be aware.

In addition, there are numerous leglocks that can be applied once O has opened your guard. You must learn at least the basics of leglock attack and defence.

When your guard is passed
So O opened your guard and you couldn't stop him from passing. Once you've lost the guard battle you begin a fight for posture, usually under side control.

• Keep your knees and elbows tight to your body and between you and him.
• Do not let O establish a comfortable side control.
• Don't let him take the underhook or crossface.
• Don't let him flatten you out, try to turn onto your side facing O.
• Scramble to use your escapes (turtling, returning to guard, spinning out etc.).

Guard techniques
I have already posted on armbars and triangles from the guard and these are both high percentage techniques. However, there are many more techniques and submissions available from the guard, of which the main ones are collar and lapel chokes, shoulderlocks, sweeps and ways to take the back. Attack with combinations of these to keep the pressure on O.

I will add more to these later!

Collar and lapel chokes

Shoulderlocks

Sweeps
Hip bump sweep
Pedro threatens a collar choke to make O lean backwards

Locked guard sweep
Attacker breaks O's posture forward with a leg pull.

Locked guard sweep 2

Overhook sweep
Check how he takes the overhook grip with his left hand.

Scissor sweep to collar choke/armbar

Some no-gi moves
They work because O has no posture

Ways to take the back

Miscellaneous
Krellik's Lockflow thread

Lockflow techniques resource

Books I recommend
I recommend Essential Guard by Kid Peligro and Rodrigo Medeiros. It contains a wealth of useful information on the guard including nuances of posture and drills to help make your submissions more effective.

Top Mount Basics

Mount

Posture

Staying on top
“It doesn’t matter how many attacks you know from here if you don’t know how to stay here.” Cesar Gracie on the mount

Arms

• Keep your arms free to post. See this video at 2.23.
  
  
  
• Use a swimming motion (breast stroke) through his arms or legs to disentangle yourself.
• If one arm is caught shift your weight slightly over to the other side to destroy his bridging leverage.
• If O catches one arm and bridges before you can shift your weight or you simply cannot stop his bridge, you can base with your head. This is to be done from a low posture as you do not want to be slamming your head into the mat from any great height (or even worse onto concrete!).
• Pull up on O’s head to destroy his bridging leverage. Erik Paulson shows how in this video.
  
  
  

Knees
If he is good, O will likely adopt a very tight guarded posture with his elbows tight to his body and his hands protecting his neck

• Keep your knees tight to his sides.
• Do not sit on top of his arms or he will escape “out the back door”.
• Do not let him jam an elbow inside your knee for the elbow escape.
• Move your knees up under his armpits when possible (any time O raises his arms) - ideally go to the knee clamp position. Try setting up the knee clamp by threatening a choke (O will raise his hands to defend).
• Hold the top of his head to stop him wriggling away from you – Erik Paulson shows how in this clip.
  
  
  

Weight

• Stay loose and relaxed.
• You don't have to sit down heavily on O, doing so will actually give him more bridging power.
• Keep your feet tight to O's body to give you extra "grip" when he bucks.
• Let the guy on the bottom tire himself out trying to escape, inexperienced guys will likely panic when mounted and expend lots of energy trying to buck you off.
• Be ready to lean back, post out or shift your weight slightly to one side to deal with the bridge.
• Be ready to turn to the kneeling mount shown here.
  
  
  

Demonstration
The swimming motion and the lean are demonstrated by Cesar Gracie at the start of this clip. Cesar also demonstrates the knee clamp, how to set it up and two submissions (armbar and Americana).

Clip no longer available...

Basic Escapes
Everyone uses these and you will have to know how to deal with them. Below each escape I list the various motions you can use to counter.

Bridge (upa)

• Lean back.
• Post out with your arm(s).
• Base with your head.
• Shift your weight slightly to one side.
• Pull up on his head.

Elbow escape

• Keep knees tight.
• Turn to kneeling mount.
• Counter with Brabo.

Giving you the back

• Take the back and flatten him out.
• Turn into the kneeling mount.

Double/Single leg escape (O brings his leg(s) around your chest to lever you off)

• See a single leg version here (awful sound).
  
  
  

• “Swim” with a breast stroke motion through the legs.
• Be aware of it, the faster you can respond to this one, the more likely you are to retain mount.
  

Back door

• Don’t sit on his arms.
• Turn around very fast if he gets out.

More escapes
Play around with these Roy Harris escapes with resistance - see what you come up with.
Roy Harris Foot Drag escape

Roy Harris Foot Drag escape 2

Roy Harris Foot Turn escape

Roy Harris Kneeling mount escape

24/03/07 Top Side Control Basics

Top Side Control Basics

Contents

Posture

• Head side arm
• Hip side arm
• Legs
• Weight distribution

Objectives

Maintaining and improving position

• Prevent him returning to guard
• Kill off his frame (arms)
• Deal with him turning toward you or away from you
• Move to scarf hold/KOTB/Mount

Submitting your opponent

• Various technique videos

Conclusion

Books I recommend

Posture

Let’s take a look at the various basic options you have regarding the positioning of your arms and legs as well as the idea behind your weight distribution.

Head side arm

Cross face vs far side

Cross face

• Allows you to control the head with your shoulder preventing him turning toward you.
• Essential for setting up the cobra hold/gift wrap/various lapel chokes

Far side

• Lets you attack the far arm with armlocks

Hip side arm

Near side pants grab vs Elbow on the far hip

Pants

• Allows you to get up on your toes and grind your weight into O
• Prevents him turning into you
• Leaves his far arm free (not good)

Far hip

• Allows you to attack the far arm
• Allows you to make easier transitions to mount and KOTB
• Affords you some control of his hips (sandwiched between your elbow and your knee).

Be aware that with the diaper check (hand between the legs position) can leave you vulnerable to a triangle (the shame of being triangled from the bottom!). However, I sometimes stick my arm between O's legs to prevent him turtling. This can be done from the front or back.

Legs

Both knees in vs One knee in vs Both legs sprawled out

Both knees in

• Gives you good mobility
• Protects against the guard return
• Helps you kill the near arm if you can get under the elbow
• Doesn’t allow you to press a lot of weight on O

One knee in

• Protects against the guard return
• Allows you to press a fair amount of weight on O

Sprawled

• You need to position your hand to prevent the guard return
• Allows you to press the most weight on O by getting up on your toes and driving forward.

Weight distribution

Your aim is to keep O flat and prevent him from keeping good posture i.e. turning onto his side with a good frame. To do this you will need to use your weight efficiently.

• The basic idea behind weight distribution is that you want your weight where it makes movement hard for O. You should not remain in the same position no matter what O does. All is timing.
  
• If O tries to turn toward you, push your weight into him to flatten him.
  
• Pushing your weight too far forward at the wrong time may allow O to roll you over him.
• If you are fighting a very strong O who outweighs you then you will need to play a fast, mobile game, using KOTB, North/South.

Objectives

Maintaining and Improving position

One of the underlying theories behind BJJ is that of improving position. All beginners are taught this basic progression:

Mount/Back > Side Top > Guard > In Guard > Bottom side > Bottom Mount/O on back

However, within the individual positions themselves it is also necessary to improve position.

When on top

You should be working not only to maintain position but also to take away O’s leverage and gain more and more control over his body.

When on bottom

You should be working to create space and lock that space off with barriers before using it to escape.

The greater your understanding of the bottom game, the better your top game will be and vice versa.

• Prevent him returning to guard or half guard

You need to deny O the space he needs to insert his knee under your body. The 2 main ways to accomplish this are:

* Grab his pants by his near hip

* Bring your knee up to his hip

It is also good to avoid leaving your legs close to O’s legs as you do not want to become entangled in half guard.

• Kill off his frame (arms)

O will try to place his arms between you to create space and act as a barrier. Control them with your body so he has no leverage to escape.

i) Far hand

Forearm under your neck

• Push his arm up with your arm and tuck your head under his elbow so he can’t bring it back.
• Pull his arm across his body and lie on it.

Underhook

• When he underhooks, kill it by bringing your hand back and grabbing his gi pants on the near side (whizzer).
• You can counter the underhook with a Brabo choke.

Ideal position

Ideally you would like to have this far arm tucked under your head side armpit as your arm encircles his neck. I’ve seen this position called a few different names: Howdy, Barbed wire, Ji-boi. Whatever the name, this position sucks for the guy on bottom.

How to get it

* Swim your arm under his armpit and wind back round under his head, crushing his arm across his body so it sticks out under your armpit.

* Change sides via North/South taking the near arm with you against your body. When you reach the opposite side, the arm should be ready for the taking.

ii) Near hand

• When he puts his forearm in place to block your hips, swivel your hips towards his head and under the elbow as if you were going to scarf hold. Block his elbow from returning with your hip and knee.
• Once in this position, you may move to north/south and then to side control on the opposite side, crushing his arm under you as you go. Upon reaching the opposite side, you should lock his arm (now the far arm) in the ideal position as described above.

Ideal position

• An excellent way to kill this near arm without changing sides is to grab the wrist with the hand you have under O’s head. It’s difficult for O to pull his hand out. Again this position has a number of names: the cobra hold, the gift wrap.

How to get it

* Pass it over with your other hand.

* Push your weight on the elbow to move his hand into position.

* Attack the far arm with an Americana, forcing him to reach over and grab his far arm to defend, when he does so, catch the near arm and gift wrap it.

iii) Rolling with the frame

If you can’t seem to stop O from getting a good frame, you can use your hips to break down his frame by

* Rolling under his frame for a scarf hold (underhook his far arm).

* Rolling onto his frame for a reverse scarf hold

• Deal with him turning toward you or away from you

1) O turns toward you in order to go to his knees.

O will try to get on his side - it is good basic posture for him. You need to flatten him out which can be done in a number of ways.

* Push his head away from you with the shoulder of justice from the crossface.

* Grab his pants at the hip and push your weight into the far side of his body to flatten him out. You can use your head, chest, anything really.

* Roll into reverse scarf hold, dropping your weight across his shoulders

2) O turns away from you in order to go to his knees.

This is generally considered not as good an option as turning toward the guy on top as it exposes the back. However, people do try this.

Grabbing the far arm

* Grab under his far elbow. He will find it very difficult to turn when you have this gripped.

Hooking the near arm

* Hook the near arm with your head side arm. From here grab the belt, step over the head and go for an armbar.

* Hook the near arm with your leg side arm, reach under his head for his collar and half nelson gi choke him.

Taking the back

* If you cannot stop him turning to his knees, you want to take his back. One way is to slide your head side knee under him and pull him back towards you by pulling on his far hip. As he falls into you, get your hooks in and clasp your hands in the harness grip.

• Move to Scarf hold/KOTB/Mount

Taking Scarf hold/KOTB

Taking scarf hold requires you switch your hips so they slide under O's armpit.
Taking knee on the belly requires that you either hop your knee onto O's stomach or grind your knee in.

Taking Mount

Side position is good but traditional BJJ theory states that mount position is better. Mount your opponent to get a whopping 4 points in competition.

O will likely have his near foot on his far knee, placing his knee by your hip to prevent you taking mount. What can we do?

• Rickson leg pull- Turn into reverse scarf hold, pull O’s near leg toward you, when he resists, let his leg go and pop into mount as his leg springs out of the way. You can see Rickson do this in “Choke”.
• Turn slightly to reverse scarf hold, grab your own foot and pull it across O’s body into mount.
• Slide your knee hard across his stomach to the other side.
• Reverse scarf hold again. Hook the near leg with your near leg, push his knee with your far hand and mount.
  

Experiment with taking the different positions from side control whilst keeping your balance and using your mobility to stay in control.

Conclusion

I hope to have covered some of the basic information regarding side control. There are plenty of different theories about side control. Checking out books and instructional DVDs is a great way to see how others approach the position.

Books I recommend

Although the title of this book is Ultimate Fighting, it is in fact devoted to gi bjj techniques. Royce Gracie explains a myriad of useful techniques for finishing the fight from on top of your opponent in a top quality book filled with clear photos.