Left or right handed rubber guard?

[Stephanie Walker]

I'm assuming it would be better to hold mission control with your left hand as your opponent has probably had much less experience defending and trying to pass rubber guard against a left handed person. From watching Nathan Orchard he does use his left hand to hold mission control. How much of an advantage is this in the long run?

[Charles Wilhelm]

I play my rubber guard with my right leg and left hand, and it's not an advantage in my experience. What I find most often is that people want to pass to their left, so you end up in traditional lockdown, and when you have to Stomp your way out it's not smooth trying to switch to right leg and left hand rubber guard.

[Brian Debes]

Man, I play both sides so much it took me a little time to think about what side is generally "strong side" rubber guard. Most people in 10p play the same strong side as Eddie which is grabbing rubber guard with your right hand.

My experience is, since almost everyone you face will have very little experience training against rubber guard, your much better off either a. working on the side your coach shows it one (I guess Eddie on DVD's and MTS if your a ronin) or b. work which ever side you gravitate toward or are more flexible one. I would work to you strengths and not other peoples perceived weakness because if your working rubberguard at all, you are already training something most people don't work on defending much. Its not nearly as big of a deal as passing left for instance, which many people have a very lopsided amount of defense time put into it vs passing right.