Guard, is a reactionary position. Meaning, The guy on top must make a mistake for guard to work. More and more guys know enough BJJ/grappling to not make big mistakes on top. When you are on top, you dont need the bottom guy to make a mistake to pull something off/win, you can do so through pressure alone.
I think part of the reason is too many guys use closed guard too long. Closed guard is for attack only, not so much defense. If you cant get a guy's posture, you need to open the guard and work from there. Part of the reason guys who are bad at closed guard use it though is MMA rules. They know if they can stall a fight on bottom, they might get stood up. Top guys know they just need to "look" busy enough to stay down. The results tend to be a top guy who wont pass/go really hard with posturing blows to try to finish (not worth the risk, because when you really try to do things to "win" you open up chances for the other guy to do things) and a bottom guy who is satisfied to not take alot of damage and try to stall back to the feet, either to try to land blows or to end up on top himself.
A big part of this equation is elbows. In MMA, a guy can elbow you inside your guard, and not necessarily hit you with a blow than can KO you, but can badly cut you or crack something (nose/eye socket/etc). Without elbows, bottom guys tend to work more because top guy has to have real posture to do damange, and top guy tends to work harder because he needs to pass/posture to do damage.
I think part of the reason is too many guys use closed guard too long. Closed guard is for attack only, not so much defense. If you cant get a guy's posture, you need to open the guard and work from there. Part of the reason guys who are bad at closed guard use it though is MMA rules. They know if they can stall a fight on bottom, they might get stood up. Top guys know they just need to "look" busy enough to stay down. The results tend to be a top guy who wont pass/go really hard with posturing blows to try to finish (not worth the risk, because when you really try to do things to "win" you open up chances for the other guy to do things) and a bottom guy who is satisfied to not take alot of damage and try to stall back to the feet, either to try to land blows or to end up on top himself.
A big part of this equation is elbows. In MMA, a guy can elbow you inside your guard, and not necessarily hit you with a blow than can KO you, but can badly cut you or crack something (nose/eye socket/etc). Without elbows, bottom guys tend to work more because top guy has to have real posture to do damange, and top guy tends to work harder because he needs to pass/posture to do damage.
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