Adults: Opening Closed Guard
Warm-up
Footsweep Warm-up
Player A
Player A has an overhook and is gripping Player B’s free hand. Their only objective is to connect their feet to Player B’s legs. Connect, keep, and off-balance, trying to get a hand, hip, or butt to touch the mat.
Player B
Player B’s has an underhook and their objective is to get to a bodylock.
Win Condition(s)
If Player A gets Player B’s hand/hip/butt to touch the mat or Player B gets to the bodylock, switch.
Frame Clearing
Player A
Player A is on top, in half guard. Trying to control and clear wrists to get chest-to-chest.
Player B
Player B is on bottom half guard. No using your legs to frame, only your arms. No way to win. Just trying to keep your space for as long as possible.
Win Condition(s)
If Player A gets chest-to-chest.
Closed Guard Posture
Player A
Player A is on the bottom, in closed guard, and has an overhook and a collar tie. Player A is trying to get legs locked around an arm and the head.
Player B
Player B is trying to safely get postured back up and to break open the closed guard and have a knee up in the middle.
Win Condition(s)
If Player A gets the legs locked around an arm and the head, that’s a win, switch. If Player B breaks open the guard, with a knee in the middle, that’s a win, switch.
Main Class
Opening Closed Guard
From the position on top, this is going to be a fight to get out. I’m not going to lie to you. But, there are effective ways to get out of this position.
In no-gi, we’d get our hands to the armpits, with our thumbs pointing up, but in the gi, we have the gi, so we’ll use it. Instead, I’m going to grab the lapels on both sides, pulling them tight, thumbs still up, but fists in the armpit.
From here, I’m going to bring my head over their head and step up to my feet.
In order to pop open his guard, I need to create a wedge and I’m going to use my knee to do so. Keep in mind that I’m not driving my knee into his tailbone, I’m walking it back and bringing it into the middle. As we sit back, it’ll wedge itself. I want to stay stable on my foot.
Once that foot is in place and flat, we’re going to do two things at once. First, we’re going to walk our other foot back, which is what creates the wedge. Second, we’re going to walk our hands from the shoulders back to the hips. To pop open the guard, we’ll start to crouch down, increasing the pressure from our wedge.
We stay flat on our feet the entire time. When we come down, we’re going to drive one of their knees down, and we’re going to staple their leg with our same side leg.
Finishing
From here, I’m stapling the bottom leg, and I step up to my other leg, so that it’s against their thigh, taking up all space. I bring my chest down and get chest-to-chest. Your pressure should be forward. I’m driving my upperbody forward with my legs, pinning his head and shoulders to the mat. Keep your hips low, but try to bring your head to the mat.
From here, we have two simple options: either A) backstep or B) take out our staple leg, and walk toward their high leg to pass directly into mount.