[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY8JlJZBgCk&mode=related&search="]The only Marcelo Garcia video that matters - YouTube[/ame] Just for you viewing pleasure...
I am a huge Marcelo fan. I'm holding my ticket to his first MMA fight May 19 right now. This is my favorite highlight vid of him so far. I like the divisions according to aspect of his competition game. Takedowns, sweeps (woo X-Guard!), taking the back, finishes. I think I'm going to work on my X-Guard at practice tonight.
Yeah I'd been working on some X-guard stuff... I suck at it. I just seem to lack any finesse with that sort of guard. Maybe I'm just so used to being in panic mode and locking on with the closed-guard-of-death.
Try not allowing yourself to ever use full closed guard for several consecutive practices. You'll learn fast.
yeah... much of it is just inexperience with open guards. It's the panic clinch instinct. I'll get over it... people driving their elbows into my inner thighs to drive open my closed guard are pushing me towards and open guard.
It's not like you can use it in Judo anyway if you actully want to use any sort of guard work for productive results. Can you? If you know anything you can do then please please please let me know.
I don't know, some Judoka can be pretty naive when it comes to the guard (or groundwork in general). I've had a lot of success with the Kimura/Sweep combination.
I think at this point I should point out that Marcelo, uh, pulled out of that fight a little while ago. Sorry to disappoint! Ahem. That said, enjoy the event, it should still be cool! Take care, Stalks
I ALWAYS fought out of closed guard in BJJ. If I's gonna use the open guard, I would drop out of closed guard and go for whatever was open, or whatever presented itself. I didn't use the closed guard much.
I wasn't a fan of closed guard due to SD/MMA concerns for a long time (and don't like overly gi-reliant moves for the same reason). Thankfully I became a Rubber Guard fan, and everything changed.
We learned it as a basic in my class. The first 6 months, EVERYONE kept their guard closed unless you were working something.
Do you mean for shiai? People do it, but not very often. I've seen it more in randori. This one guy used to always get it and fight for these really tight overhooks and open back up, which seemed to work out pretty well for him against me, since without it I could pass and get a hold-down. I've used a closed guard when setting up armbars from the guard, but not all that often and other than that I eschew it. I like taking the back and closed guard never struck me as particularly useful for that.
