Breaking the guard

[Andrew Green]

Breaking the closed guard – In a little more detail

Step 1


First thing you have to do is protect yourself from being swept or submitted.

First you want a good wide base with your knees, keep them outside of either side his hips, this will also restrict his hip mobility.

Now get your weight down low, butt to heels and keep it there.

In order to attack he needs use of his arms, his hips or both. So we have to tie them up. Also if he has control of your arms you will be unable to pass his guard, and in danger of a submission.

So use your head to pin him. You are using it as a third hand to keep him flat on the floor. At the same time you are protecting yourself from a whole bunch of sweeps and submissions that require your head to be up to do.

Now we want to control the arms as well, in order to break the guard so that we may pass / stand up / leg lock we need to control the inside line. So start working to control his arms at the elbow and keep them up and away from him. Do not fight him with strength, instead relax and bring your arm back inside and reset when he tries to fight out. It takes practice but you do not want to rely on strength when doing this.

*A simple drill is to get into a closed guard and fight for control of the arms. He is trying to get underhooks / overhooks / neck ties, you are trying to pin his arms out.

Ok, now we’re safe, time to start working into position to break the guard.

Step 2

Posture the legs.

With his arms tied up with your arms, and him pinned on his back with your head you are fairly safe to adjust your base to a less stable position, but one you can use to break his guard.

Stick your right knee right into his tail bone it is going to be used as a wedge. Your left foot is going out to the left and back a bit so that he can’t reach it to grab it.

Make sure you keep yourself low and your head pressing down.

Step 3

Move the hands into position.

Now that we have the base we need to break we have to move your hands into position. They are going to move from his elbows to his hips and take over the job that your head was doing so that you can posture up.

Your arms will be far enough back to make attacking difficult, especially with his hips pinned to the floor.

The most common mistake that gets made is to bring the head up before the hands are on the hips. This opens you up to a number of sweeps and submissions during this step. Keep your head down.

Step 4

Straighten up

Now that the hands are in place pressing the hips to the floor you can bring your head up. Keep the pressure down on his hips and straighten yourself up, here your butt comes away from your heels and your head away from him.

Step 5

Break the guard

Using that right knee as a wedge sit back and keep his hips pressed to the floor with your hands. If the guard is not breaking use your right elbow to press down on his leg to assist, keeping your hand on his hips.

Now that his guard is broken you can pass, fall back to a leg lock or stand up and separate.

Other methods of guard breaking work of similar ideas, First you protect yourself and control the inside line. Adjust your base if you need to, put your hands in position, posture up and break it.

The important thing to realise is that if you loose control at any time you must start over, otherwise you are in danger. So if you get to step 4 and he gets an underhook go back to step 1 or you could be in trouble.

[yes]

I think the key point is to shut down the hip movement and keep them still - you do that, passing the guard becomes easy.

[shootodog]

just some ideas:

grappling only: elbows on the inner thigh.

with strikes: why get out? pummel him into the mat. wait for for him to defend then kimura his arm.

[YODA]

just some ideas:

grappling only: elbows on the inner thigh.

with strikes: why get out? pummel him into the mat. wait for for him to defend then kimura his arm.

Kimura from inside someone's guard? Are you serious?

[Kwan Jang]

-One of my favorites is one I got from Frank Shamrock. You protect your head as you place your forehead into opponents solar plexus coming up under the sternum. From there you post, creating a tripod with your forehead and supported by your legs. You can clinch to increase pressure. Your opponent has two options. Option A: Release and collapse their guard and keep their sternum intact. Option B: Be stubborn and have their sternum cracked and then release and much more painfully collapse their guard. (I hope from my description you can visualize this well. In this instance, I am not describing this as clearly as I would like).
-As an instructor, I teach my students the more standard ways of passing the guard used in BJJ. These are much safer for practice and safety always has to come first. If it were for the street however, I find Frank's method much easier and quicker to apply.

[shootodog]

Kimura from inside someone's guard? Are you serious?

oh baby! it works! try it!

[Trent Tiemeyer]

Against a skilled opponent, NEVER.

[yes]

oh baby! it works! try it!

lol, grapple with some half-decent grapplers who know their stuff. I bet you'd be swept or submitted.

I thought I must have misread your post before.

[Freeform]

oh baby! it works! try it!

No it doesn't, thats the point in a guard. Whilst your in it stuff generally doesn't work!

Col

[shootodog]

i understand it seems strange the :D :D :D kimura. put your elbow on the guy's pipe before you make a box/ break a box. hips down.

against a decent grappler, closed guard: toe hold (from behind). neck cranck (pretend it's a kimura, slip one hand under his neck and use that to grab his wrist. hold your own and make a box and break the box). boston crab (if you get lucky). step over face lock.

http://www.catchwrestle.com/stepovercrossface.gif.

nice thing about these are, they'll never expect it.

[TheMachine]

In passing a guad, one has to be able to neutralize the legs of his opponent. Sometimes you must also neutralize his arm movement as well

[shootodog]

In passing a guad, one has to be able to neutralize the legs of his opponent. Sometimes you must also neutralize his arm movement as well

hey there!

maybe you could vouch for some of these techniques. in jgs, didn't the manwhore do those things?

[Ad McG]

oh baby! it works! try it!

I am a relative beginner to the the ground game, and I even I can think of at a few ways of countering someone trying to stupidly do a kimura from inside a guard. I don't know who your partner is, but I'm pretty sure if you try it with someone with a small amount of experience or technical knowledge they will know what to do to get out of this. Probably one of the daftest moves in this situation I have ever heard. A train to submission central, and you're running for it.

I'm thinking of making "Kimura from the guard!" my new sig. It's that good.

[saikyou]

kimura inside the guard? can be easily stopped or countered. for me, attacking while inside the guard is just wasting your strength. get out of it(guard) and attack. i used to try to kimura or gi-choke my opponent while in the guard but it rarely worked. besides, you have more options if your in the mount or side mount. (assuming that no strikes are allowed)

[Yukimushu]

I had a dream i was grappling just a few mins ago when i was asleep lol. I pulled guard and arm barred the guy from closed guard lol.

That's something i've really got to practice actually lol, they why i reckon i drempt about it.

[mikelw]

Kimura from inside someone's guard? Are you serious?


YEah for real, that would never work on anyone who has any idea how to lock their legs around your waiste......oh wait, that's called the guard position!

[The Wastrel]

Kimura from inside guard? Way to give up your back there.

[Kenpo Kicker]

just some ideas:

grappling only: elbows on the inner thigh.

with strikes: why get out? pummel him into the mat. wait for for him to defend then kimura his arm.


That the move where you sit back in your base while grabbing their pants and using your elbows to break the guard in the inner thighs? I love that technique but i'm still a newbie. I think I would go for a straight arm bar, since I dunno too much after breaking the gaurd in this manner. What is a kimura anyways? They don't tell me the names of all the moves.

[saikyou]

What is a kimura anyways?

here's a pic:

[YODA]

here's a pic:That's a Keylock / Americana.

A Kimura is the other way up (His forearm pointing towards his feet) like this...

[saikyou]

oops, sorry for that. thanks yoda. :D

[Kenpo Kicker]

Oh ya I know that one as keylock :) . Fun technique. I think it is possible to get into after the guard but I am a newbie. If you break the gaurd then go into a cross chest and work the technique from there. You may have to elbow the person in the head as you get out of the guard to get their hands down to pull off the keylock. I think a straight armbar would be easier to pull off. Let me know if I'm wrong I"m just a white belt :) . I don't remember the name of the choke is that cuts off the two veins in your neck, and you tighten your wrist around them by crossing your wrists and pulling on the back of the collar of the person's gi. That may work too.


edit: Oh just noticed the pic bellow is the Kimura. I have not been shown that one yet.

[totality]

i think kimura is usually one of the first subs taught from the guard...

and about your explanation, the keylock is very possible once you've passed the guard and moved to side control, but then you aren't exactly in his guard anymore, now are you? :D

[Kenpo Kicker]

"and about your explanation, the keylock is very possible once you've passed the guard and moved to side control, but then you aren't exactly in his guard anymore, now are you?
"


I guess you could do a legbars and armbars from the guard. I was thinking passing the guard counted oh well.

[Andrew Green]

Even with leg locks you are not really in his guard anymore.

Leg lock require almost exactly the same things as passing to set them up.

In guard you don't attack with submissions, at least not with the intent of finishing. You can attack in order to get a response and work off of that.

[Kenpo Kicker]

Ok, today in class I pulled off a armbar from the guard :). I used a high guard (around the neck) and took the arm he was supporting on between my legs and he feel over, and I pulled the armbar off that arm (think that is what happened I was rather tired). I had a ton of leverage on that arm . I know this is different than being in the guard, but I learned it is a very nice position. Mostly happy because the guy was alot bigger than me. Do little guys do the best in guard rather than mount? I had trouble actually when I wasn't in the guard. I pulled off some wierd move from wrestling (my instructor said) by putting his arm in a guard like hold then grabbing the neck for sub (his back was on me and had his arm very well trapped he could not move) .

I tried some stuff in the guard and nothing worked for me at all. I think it is best to get out of the guard. I was able to pass guards without a problem today (not bragging got choked out twice :) ). (really yesterday but passed out from trainning :( /lol )

[yes]

Do little guys do the best in guard rather than mount?

Yeah.

Having said that, a guy who I have 25kgs from can control me from mount/side control without me escaping. :)

[Andrew Green]

Yeah.

Having said that, a guy who I have 25kgs from can control me from mount/side control without me escaping. :)
I got a girl that can do that to a lot of the guys ;)

As long as you don't try to play the top position the same way a bigger person would it is just as good.

There are ways of pinning people that rely on weight, and weighs that don't.

If you are smaller, you need to use the ways that don't ;)

The key to fighting someone bigger then you is never letting them put there weight on you, or commiting yours onto them. You need to stay loose and mobile, especially on top.

[Kenpo Kicker]

The key to fighting someone bigger then you is never letting them put there weight on you, or commiting yours onto them. You need to stay loose and mobile, especially on top.

That I noticed! I do really good for a small guy against a bigger guy. I focus more on the leverage techniques that weight. I really cannot apply enough weight on a larger person except for the head which should work for everyone really. I have alot of speed just like stand up so that is my advantage and my flexibility. It seems armbars and leg bars are ezier for me to pull off. I will have to read up on some small fighters in bjj I think for tips. I am short like the average brazilain (probly) 5'6. Maybe thats a good thing /shrug.

[WushuSD]

To pass the guard, we learned a few ways. Aside from the way where you separate their thighs with you elbows and slip your knees through, we learned a few more. One way (I haven't got this to work very well yet) is kneeing them in their butt with one leg and then shooting the other leg back right away. The knee kind of makes them flinch while the other leg pushes their legs apart.

Also, the one that works very well on me (everyone I grapple with is stronger so I have trouble doing this one too) is the can-opener. You place your elbows on their chest (close together, so they have to reach further to grab your arms) and put both hands behind their head. Then you pull their head into your chest so it hurts their neck. The easiest way for them to releave the pressure on their neck is to break their own guard (funnily enough I usually don't, because the only sort of control I have is when they are in my guard. If I give that up, there isn't much I can do really lol). I don't like unlocking my ankles when they do that, but I will release them for a second so they let go of my head, and then try to get them back in my guard right away. Of course it doesn't always work out that way :p

Another one is turning back quickly to look at the ankles to see which is on top of the other (keeping your guard up if you are in a MMA fight or the streets) and then once you figure that out, your wrap your arm around that foot and turn your hips back towards the person. That is designed to break their ankle in the streets, but I guess if you didn't break it you could use it to just break their guard.

[Yukimushu]

That's a Keylock / Americana.

A Kimura is the other way up (His forearm pointing towards his feet) like this...

Ooh, they say you learn something new everyday :D lol i never knew that :D thx!

[MichaelV]

To pass the guard, we learned a few ways. Aside from the way where you separate their thighs with you elbows and slip your knees through, we learned a few more. One way (I haven't got this to work very well yet) is kneeing them in their butt with one leg and then shooting the other leg back right away. The knee kind of makes them flinch while the other leg pushes their legs apart.

I find the wedge is actually easier to pull off. You need to keep their hips down while shifting your weight back for it to work.

Also, the one that works very well on me (everyone I grapple with is stronger so I have trouble doing this one too) is the can-opener. You place your elbows on their chest (close together, so they have to reach further to grab your arms) and put both hands behind their head. Then you pull their head into your chest so it hurts their neck. The easiest way for them to releave the pressure on their neck is to break their own guard (funnily enough I usually don't, because the only sort of control I have is when they are in my guard. If I give that up, there isn't much I can do really lol). I don't like unlocking my ankles when they do that, but I will release them for a second so they let go of my head, and then try to get them back in my guard right away. Of course it doesn't always work out that way :p

Work on your open guard.
Use your legs to pull him down to give him less leverage.
Choke him - any way you like.
Stiff arm him across the chin, pushing it to one side. The harder he pulls on your neck, the more pressure he's applying to his own neck - he'll let go.
Occasionally you can get a double armbar - depends on how extended his arms are.


Another one is turning back quickly to look at the ankles to see which is on top of the other (keeping your guard up if you are in a MMA fight or the streets) and then once you figure that out, your wrap your arm around that foot and turn your hips back towards the person. That is designed to break their ankle in the streets, but I guess if you didn't break it you could use it to just break their guard.

If you look, he'll know it's coming. Know where his feet are before you turn around.
Same technique works great if he's got back mount or half-guard on you and crosses his ankles. Just use your feet instead of your arms.

[totality]

i don't have to worry about the 3rd one so much, i have long legs and use a body triangle sometimes, not to mention if someone does that, i'll just switch it up...

and the can opener is great, against weaker people who don't know what the hell they're doing. if someone tries it on me, you WILL get armbarred, possibly double armbarred.

[Jim]

Why not just stand up, run around the 'other end' and just start kicking them in the head? :D

[Andrew Green]

If only it where that easy....