Juan Pablo Garcia lists the main goals of the guard. Photo: Reproduction

Author: Professor Juan Pablo Garcia

Before learning any type of sports guard in Jiu-Jitsu, you have to understand the main goal of the position.

Number one is self-defense, being able to control and neutralize an opponent’s attack while setting up submissions, sweeps, and reversals. The guard is a position where we use our legs and hips to control the distance between ourselves and our opponent.

There are several variations of the guard in BJJ, including the closed guard, open guard, and half guard. Each of these guards has its own set of techniques and strategies, but they all share the same goals of controlling an opponent’s movements and setting up attacks.

These are the 3 main objectives of any guard:

1. Taking the back

The guard is an excellent position to set up back attacks. You can use the guard to control the opponent’s posture and position, then transition to the back control position and work on securing a choke or other submission.

2. Sweeping & reversing

Sweeping is essential from the guard, and it involves off-balancing an opponent to take them to the ground. From the bottom position, you can use the guard to control an opponent’s posture and set up a sweep, which allows you to take the top position and gain a dominant position. You want to be on the top in a fight!

3. Submitting

The guard is also an effective position for submitting an opponent. You can use your legs to set up a variety of submissions, like chokes, and armlocks. The guard position allows a smaller and lighter person to defend themselves against a larger opponent and provides access to a variety of submissions, sweeps, and back attacks. It is important to understand the purpose of the guard and to practice guard retention and distance management to prevent an opponent from passing.

* Professor Juan Pablo Garcia is our GMI in charge of the EDJ Riverside Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school in California.

Pablo Mantovani offers advice to up your game. Photo: Personal archive

Pablo Mantovani, 26, became a guard specialist in the course of his jiu-jitsu education. With almost 17 years’ experience, he has accumulated titles from the IBJJF Worlds, ADCC trials and many IBJJF opens.

Today, Pablo, who represents Atos and teaches in Abu Dhabi, presents three concepts to help you get a dangerous guard in 2021. First off, he warns:

“It’s important for you to study, but don’t forget to practice. Having a good guard is a consequence of intelligent training. Always choose to train often with your gym’s strongest passer, don’t get sad if get your guard passed in training, and remember: it’s better to make a mistake during training than in a competition.”

1. Make grips

Because I’m a versatile athlete, due to having an easy time fighting on top and on the bottom, I know the main paths a passer uses when trying to get past the guard player’s legs to reach the side. When you pull guard, never, under any circumstances, refrain from making grips, whether on the sleeve or the collar. You need to have control to keep the distance or bring your opponent closer. Having a good grip will save you in 50% of all situations. A passer’s paradise is when they see that the guard player is playing guard without grips.

2. Protect your pants

When my opponent pulls with me, I analyze, in a first moment, whether he’s going to come up or stay together on the guard with me. With that done, I focus on his arms so that he doesn’t make grips on my pants, which prevents me from moving my legs. In order for your takedown to always be dangerous, prevent your opponent from making grips on your pants. The secret is to control your opponent’s arms, which puts you ahead of them the whole time.

3. Take the initiative

When I seek to play guard, I already have my first action in mind. When I pull guard, I already want to play the closed guard to launch my attacks, but when my opponent blocks, I’ll wrap him in the lapel or place him in the spider guard, to develop my strategy during the match. When the guard player accepts someone else’s game, which is when you take too long to act, you’re telling your opponent that they are in command. The guard game commands the fight. Remember that.

João Miyao has some no-gi tricks up his non-sleeve. Ivan Trindade/GRACIEMAG

Cícero Costha representative João Miyao continues to wow audiences with his loose BJJ game, whether in gi or no-gi. One example of this happened at the Chicago No-Gi Open early this month.

In the light featherweight final, João faced Alexis Barragan, whom he had beat in the gi earlier. But their no-gi match was tougher, with both athletes moving a lot. In the end João got the best of it as he imposed his strong game both on top and playing guard. Watch them go at it in this video.

Nino Schembri. John Cooper/GRACIEMAG.com

An experienced, creative BJJ teacher, Nino Schembri likes studying the minutiae of ground positions old and new. From all that research and testing, every so often he comes up with something novel. This time it’s the labyrinth guard.

Graciemag asked him for an exclusive video, and he delivered with this one. After locking his opponent’s arm under the leg, Nino has a tight armbar at his disposal, as well as some opportunities to sweep. On top, the armbar remains alive, and the game is wide open for him to work with an advantage.

Teacher Sérgio Bolão demonstrates the position. Gustavo Aragão/GRACIEMAG.

A sixth-degree black-belt under Carlson Gracie, Sérgio Bolão was one of the strongest competitors of his generation, with many wins to his name against the likes of Fabio Gurgel, Leo Castello Branco and Jean Jacques Machado.

The experienced teacher, who has been practicing BJJ since 1981, has long been known for having an offensive guard, and, among the techniques up his sleeve, his favorite is the sweep from the open guard. In a variation of the butterfly guard nicknamed the bolonian, Bolão has sent many a great champion flying.

In this video he comments on his style, remembers moments with Carlson and teaches the detail to surprising one’s opponent with a sweep from the seated position. Watch to add this to your game.

Pay attention to the punctual grips and lethal levers by Rilion, who is deemed one of the most inventive guard players in the family.

Rubens Cobrinha plays the open guard vs. Augusto Tanquinho in Abu Dhabi. Dan Rod/ GracieMag.

One of the chief mistakes made by beginner guard players in BJJ gyms is, due to anxiety, to reverse the order of technical learning. Instead of dedicating themselves initially to the primer of defenses, blocks and recoveries, students spend too much time studying techniques of sweeping and finishing.

Well, if the best defense is in fact the attack, it is, however, necessary to comprehend that learning to defend is the best way to understand the mechanics of attacks.

Here are three advantages to learning first the defensive aspects of the guard.

1. If you believe in your recovery, you will attack more coolly, improving the potential of your offensive moves. The worst thing for a BJJ fighter is the fear of making mistakes.

2. Often, in order for you to induce your opponent to open holes for you to attack, it is necessary to let them progress a little in the positions. To let them open your guard and expose some error. Defensive confidence is necessary for the guard player to allow their opponent to move. And that is where the guard player conceals their trap.

3. When you master the defense part of the guard, learning the offense part becomes more efficient and promising. After all, as in a game of mirrors, you will know much more precisely what moves a passer makes and what the ones are that can somehow hinder your strategy. Mastery of defense is useful for you to also know what they do that can favor your counter-attack from the bottom.

Just so we’re not confined to the theoretical realm here, Graciemag compiled three video lessons for you to study defensive techniques that will enrich your guard game. Check them out.

1: Guard recovery in BJJ

2: Keep the pressure up even on the open guard

3: Breaking the posture and using the closed guard

Be like Rodolfo Vieira and get past terrifying guards like Leandro Lo’s. Carlos Arthur Jr./GRACIEMAG.

As much of a guard player as a BJJ fighter might be, there’s no way around it: Sometime or another, they will have to play on top and be faced with a number of guards and traps designed to send them flying, or at least make it a nightmare to get on the side. But what is the single hardest guard to pass?

The answer is simple: The hardest guard to pass is that which you don’t know. Where you’ve never been. Where you don’t have hours of experience to identify the dangers. With that in mind, Graciemag selected five video lessons about guard-passing — one for each type of guard.

Study and practice them. Let your sparring partner do their best adjustments on the guard they’re doing, and force yourself to beat that guard.

Closed guard – Marcio Feitosa

Open guard – Marco Barbosa

Lasso – Leandro Lo

Half-guard – Rodolfo Vieira

50/50 – Lucas Lepri

Tanner Rice just won the 85kg black belt division at the Grand Slam LA.

Here’s one of the techniques he uses on his matches.

Watch closely and add this armbar from the DLR to your own guard game.

In 2013, we visited Keenan Cornelius at Atos JJ, in San Diego, and he took the time to show us a few positions of his arsenal.

Still a brown belt then, Keenan already had a knack for coming up with creative ways to solve problems in Jiu-Jitsu.

One of the most creative black belt of all times, Fernando Tererê is our Professor for this week at the HOW-TO Series.

Watch closely as he goes from a knee slicer to the inverted half guard until getting the pass.

Black belt Bruno Frazatto knows a thing or two about no-gi Jiu-Jitsu.

In this video, he teaches a sweep from the reverse De La Riva guard.

Watch carefully and add the technique to your game.