Playing Guard

[Lekta]

I've stopped only working my top game now and started working on my guard lately and I've noticed some things. I never seem to comfortable on my back, as in I'm always going for a sweep to get top position and never playing around with spider, butterfly, sit-up, x-guard and DLR(although some of my favorite sweeps/subs come from those guards). I also tend to always try to regain my closed guard, because I just generally feel more comfortable there. My triangle is very high percentage, as are my sweeps (which I can mostly do at will because my hips are very stong) but my cross choke is low percentage and I almost never get an armbar from guard(and I drill it like crazy). My academy is a guard based school and my instructor is trying to get me to open up my guard game a bit more, but I just don't feel very comfortable in open guard. I get passed too quickly because people often just rush through my open guard. I think working on my hooks will help, although I'm not sure how much.

Any tips or suggestions on how you play your guard and how you deal with the different elements and positions would be greatly appreciated.

[KempoFist]

You sound like you're doing just fine. I'd probably say I am in the same boat, but there's nothing wrong with feeling more comfortable in dominant position :p

I would recommend working your open guard. Don't even close it. Start with feet on the hips, and go from there, feeling out how to control your opponent with both gi grips and wrist control. From there you are much more likely to land things like omoplatas, and be able to scramble back to your feet as they try to make distance to pass.

[fire cobra]

How about asking your partners NOT to rush through your open guard,that way you can try to focus on why you are getting passed etc :)

[Slindsay]

I'm the same with the armbar from guard, I can never get it though I'm playing under Judo rules so it's not exactly the greatest move really.

When it comes to stopping people blitzing through my open guard, I find that I need to get good control of their hands and break their posture down a bit before I set up my open guard. I also find if someone is rushing through my guard then more often than not I can either scramble to my knees before they can pin me or at the very least catch half guard. Again, this is under Judo rules so it may be very different for you as you're no doubt up against more skilled passers who are probably seeing an opportunity to pass quickly as opposed to Judo guys who HAVE to pass quickly.

Another thing I found useful was being really aggressive with my guard, never being passive in it, always sitting up, grabbing an arm and dragging it over or at least trying to grapevine their legs, just doing something or anything to stop them getting a decent posture to start passing. Finally I found that not thinking about the different types of guard so much and just thinking about it all as being my guard helped a lot.

[Atharel]

Follow KF's advice. Don't close your guard. Ever. Work simple open to start with. Move on to using hooks more and more. 1/2 butterfly, butterfly, X. If you can be comfortable transitioning between those your open guard will become incredibly hard to pass and your sweep options multiply.

[Lekta]

Thanks for all the input, its giving me something to work on. Sadly I won't be doing BJJ for the next week because I sprained a tendon in my bicep by having a kimura cranked on me. I'm just going to give it some time to heel and hopefully begin nogi, which will only confuse my guard more.

[Slindsay]

Follow KF's advice. Don't close your guard. Ever. Work simple open to start with. Move on to using hooks more and more. 1/2 butterfly, butterfly, X. If you can be comfortable transitioning between those your open guard will become incredibly hard to pass and your sweep options multiply.

I kinda disagree with this, if he was just saying that he was uncomfortable with open guard then by all means always open up your huard, but if people are just blitzing through it before he can do anything then I think it's worth taking a moment to set up playing open guard from in closed guard before starting to use it.

[Atharel]

I look at it like if you let yourself "cheat" into closing up your guard again, the rate of progress on the open guard will be a lot slower than it otherwise would be because you'll in actuality spend only a tiny fraction of your guard time on this unfamiliar territory before resorting to the easy way out. I know I caught myself doing that a lot until I stopped letting myself close my guard at all for two months, and the results were fantastic.

Of course, if having an independently functional open guard isn't the primary objective, my advice is misplaced. It definitely worked for me though.

[I'mKira]

Think of it this way. Closed guard and its variations are played as close to opponent as possible. With one exception (butterfly), open guard is played far. As far as you can possibly get from him. Kick out with your legs and move your hips to the side. Space is your ally. Tactical standup the moment you think you've got the space. Wall drills will help the movement

If he turtles, it's time to get your knees under you and preemptively sprawl. If he grabs the leg, work the omoplata options.