This week was closed guard bottom week. It’s a fairly slim week in terms of curriculum. Most coaches tend to teach safety position and base and posture positions. These are fundamental positions that everyone has to know in order to survive closed guard. I’ve done this cycle a number of times and usually go through the same routes. I do safety position, then base and posture, then breaking the guard, then combat base. It’s a nice simple progression and easy to teach with a posture and pressure model. I changed it up a bit for this particular class because I wanted to try something new. I added some standing breaks in the mix.

Safety Position

I first started with safety position. I wanted to stress it as a pin. You really have to key in on controlling the bottom guy’s hips and posture. If you are simply lying on top of the bottom guy he can manage to upset your posture easily.

  • knees wide ass low
  • elbows inside of knees and down at hips
  • squeeze your elbows together to pin his hips
  • use your forehead to pin his chest

Troubleshooting

After we drilled the safety position I went over some troubleshooting tips. I saw a couple of attacks coming up when we drilled and wanted to address those right away. Typically the bottom guy will take his body offline and frame to create space or they will go offline and sit up. Below is a video addressing those issues.

Standing Guard Break

I hadn’t intended on teaching a standing guard break at this point but it just so happened to dovetail right into what I was teaching so here it is… If you watch through the rest of the videos you’ll see that the way I teach it at the end of class is slightly different than the way I initially show it. I love when this happens. Through watching what students do well and have trouble with I’m often able to modify what I’m teaching on the fly. You can see that here.

Troubleshooting

Watching students try the technique I noticed some trouble with foot position. This caused me to have to think through something I do intuitively. I never quite noticed exactly where I place my foot when doing this break. It looks like the shin needs to be straight up and down and the foot needs to be under the bottom guy’s hips. This gives you the best base and leverage.

Drill Time

Top guy starts standing with hands in biceps. His goal is to survive the posture and achieve the break. Bottom guy is giving pressure and holding the closed guard. This is a great chance to give some flight time to the position and see where it breaks down. It’s great for me because I can see where students are having trouble and whether or not they are making the technique work real time.

Monitor and Adjust

The video below is long. It starts out with looking again at the position and making some adjustments to how I showed the original standing break. It’s modified based on what I saw when students struggled to make it work in drills. This is the power of drilling and the I method to me. It allows me to see the technique in action and modify as needed.

I also answer a question about what to do when the bottom guy grabs your free leg and you can’t get it loose.

Base and Posture

Below is a video describing the basics of a good base and posture. This is a core fundamental of BJJ and something everybody has to know. It’s done the same way as a white belt and as a black belt. It’s a fundamental you are likely to use every time you roll.

Same video as above just skip to about 5 minutes 8 seconds in.

Grip Basics

Below is a short video detailing hand grips for base and posture with Gi.

Troubleshooting Base and Posture

Below is a video where I talk about how to move the far hand when you feel like you are getting broken down. If your posture isn’t perfect or if the bottom guy is super strong you sometimes have to alter the position of your far arm to keep your body upright. The video describes how to make the adjustments.

The later half of the video talks about the job of the rear hand in base and posture. This is often overlooked by guard top players. It’s the rear hand that keeps you out of triangles and armbars though. The hip pressure applied here is key. The video describes how and when to apply the hip pressure with the palm of your hand.

Breaking Guard from Knees

Below is a video where I describe how to break open the guard from knees. This break relies on having good posture and grips. If you have those then the break is a gimmie from here.