How to have an impeccable guard game.

[MrTectonicFusion]

I'm looking to get good at butterfly guard and closed guard as well as inverted guard. I know quite a few submissions and positions from those areas, but I'm wondering what is a must. What must I train everyday to achieve a great guard game so I can focus on other stuff like shopping while I play BJJ.

[Arman Fathi]

Best piece of advice I can give off the top of my head is to always engage your feet. If you're in an open guard situation and he's trying to pass you or smash you, think about having your feet on the hips, torso, arms, or ideally, having your insteps underneath his legs, as is customary for the butterfly guard. There is incredible value in 'resetting' your feet. Even if they've been taken out of the picture, don't be afraid to reestablish points of contact. This can often times be a mental battle and can be extremely frustrating for the guard passer. I've found more and more that guys are passing by shoving my legs underneath their legs and this creates opportunities to bring my knees closer to my chin and granting access for my insteps to be inserted onto their thighs , ergo a butterfly guard. Check out the 'Advanced Rubber Guard' book by Eddie or 'Open Guard Translated' on Youtube to really go indepth. But for sure closed guard and butterfly guard are the two essential guards for no-gi, imo. Especially in terms of preventing and not getting exposed for footlocks. Inverted guard is probably better more as a recovery mechanism than anything, but I'd be weary of building a whole game around there unless your body moves like Gumby. But all these positions are connected.

[Jackienystrom]

Seriously though, train in the gi also. Certain hip movements will really only developed from the gi. All the best guard guys keenan, miyaos, Mendes, langhi, etc are gi guys. You can still enjoy the system and the gi

[Arman Fathi]

Seriously though, train in the gi also. Certain hip movements will really only developed from the gi. All the best guard guys keenan, miyaos, Mendes, langhi, etc are gi guys. You can still enjoy the system and the gi

+1 on training in the gi only because of this bleacherreport story I read this morning. Just the part copy-pasted. Good article overall.

There are fair assessments of his style, and one of them comes from Eddie’s own instructor Jean Jacques Machado. First it must be said that Machado is still good friends with Bravo, loves training at 10th Planet and loves that his student isn't afraid to rock the boat.

That said, Machado thinks the gi serves an important purpose in training, namely it slows down the grappling, giving students time to think and forces them to learn techniques. Machado says that he is always able to tell which of Bravo’s students have trained in gi jiu-jitsu when rolling because he is able to blow through the defenses of the students who never put on the gi. Guard passing happens so quickly in no gi it’s hard to build the fundamentals of guard retention at the speed, so it takes longer to develop training just without the gi.


Whole article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/6...ie-bravo-story

[Liquidrob]

This will not be a popular opinion, but the best way to develop your guard is in the gi, you can not simulate the grip gi battle and the amount of hip movement, leg dexterity, etc... it takes to defend your guard against really good passers

Trying to defend someone grabbing your pants, torrendo, leg dragging you to death is rough, the ability to pin your legs, hips, etc...you can not recreate that in the gi, the best passers will be developed in the gi also

That's my biggest thing I see from training gi and no gi, it's the guard passing/guard retention battle, it just can't be matched IMO

My overall guard game completely changed for the better training in the gi, and I was a No Gi forever

[Liquidrob]

You can not recreate that No Gi I mean, can't edit

[Slick Rick]

The best piece to improve your [insert guard here]-guard is to start all your rolling in training in that guard. You're probably gonna get subbed or passed a lot, but only then will you learn what to do and not to do.

Let's say you started in inverted guard and you guys scramble and you reface your opponent. Even though it's still the middle of the round, once again go inverted.

For any technique or guard you want to improve upon, cut to the chase and put yourself in that position. You'll learn your escapes well in this way.

[Joshua Jarboe]

Thanks for sharing that article! What an interesting quote.

I find myself torn as to whether the ability to retain a guard for a long time (but ultimately getting passed) is an excellent thing or whether making the best of the flow and finding a way to make space and escape is better. Got a little white belt thinking.

+1 on training in the gi only because of this bleacherreport story I read this morning. Just the part copy-pasted. Good article overall.

There are fair assessments of his style, and one of them comes from Eddie’s own instructor Jean Jacques Machado. First it must be said that Machado is still good friends with Bravo, loves training at 10th Planet and loves that his student isn't afraid to rock the boat.

That said, Machado thinks the gi serves an important purpose in training, namely it slows down the grappling, giving students time to think and forces them to learn techniques. Machado says that he is always able to tell which of Bravo’s students have trained in gi jiu-jitsu when rolling because he is able to blow through the defenses of the students who never put on the gi. Guard passing happens so quickly in no gi it’s hard to build the fundamentals of guard retention at the speed, so it takes longer to develop training just without the gi.


Whole article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/6...ie-bravo-story

[Brian Debes]

So.... once again I'm going to comment on the no-gi vs gi thing. The best way to get good at a thing is do that thing. That's hard wired into our DNA. Wanna get good at a certain guard? Do that guard. There can be carry over from other things for sure (ex. working your butterfly guard could improve your x-guard but not as much as working x-guard would. The reason you work butterfly guard is to get good at butterfly guard. Then maybe you can use it to set up your X-guard, but as far as being in X-guard and working from there, the fastest improvement will always be to work from there). Same applies to the gi.

As far as this garbage about "you must (insert claim)", I'll just say that NOT training in the gi has been the edge that I have used to achieve my competitive success and I have almost never gotten my guard passed in competition, not even by good black belt...

There has also been several gi black belts I've watched get repeatedly schooled by my blue belts in the last few months, and oddly enough, its usually their guard (and leg lock defense) that is the most lacking.


Keep training my friend, you'll gravitate to certain guards naturally, don't stress to much about "you must do this or that" just enjoy the journey my friend

[Liquidrob]

If you see it as a training tool it makes more sense, people use training tools all the time is sports, weighted vests, runners with parachutes, resistance bands, whatever

Of course you can get a good guard just training No Gi, but IMO, from what other people have said and my own personal experience, you develop a better guard faster with the Gi, it doesn't mean you always need to train Gi

It means that you can use it as a tool, like I said, you can't simulate the passing/retention game in No Gi, it's not really possible

but of course do what you want to do, JJM seems like a good source of information on this subject though