a victory unto itself.
Once the safety of the bottom fighter has been established, it is time to look at the matter of position, In some situations, the best choice for improvement of position is to progressing or abandoning the guard all together. What do I mean? One of the more accepted progressions from the guard would be the sweep, in a Sport Jiu Jitsu context it is rewarded with 2 points. Once a sweep occurs, the person on the bottom is effectively trading the guard for something else (hopefully one of the superior top positions). In a fight, many times the safest option is to simply to bring the fight back to a standing position (this has been increasingly common in Mixed Martial Arts lately).
Sometimes however, it is necessary to maintain the guard. Does this mean that the battle for position has been abandoned? Hardly, however the battle has become more subtle. Within the guard, the battle for position nearly always starts off or continues as a battle for posture.
THE IMPORTANCE OF POSTURE
While the term posture usually implies correct and erect form, within the context of the guard (and the context of all of Jiu Jitsu for that matter) the definition of posture can be expanded to include base, foundation, self control and everything else that a fighter must do before they can look to progress (safety‡position‡submission) in the encounter.
An interesting thing about posture is that it is dynamic and the balance will shift between the fighters during an encounter. Both fighters can’t have perfect posture, or else not much would happen in a match! Instead this is very much a see saw battle which might be the most subtle of battles to the outsider view (also often termed a “technical war” by somewhat enthusiastic announcers.)
Before any action is made, a careful fighter will be sure to check against their posture relative to their opponent. If posture is in their favor, they will progress to the next step. If posture is not in their favor, they will try to establish a correct posture.
I cannot over emphasize the following. TO MANUEVER WITHIN JIU JITSU WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING OR ESTABLISHING YOUR OWN POSTURE IS TO INVITE DISASTER. As specific as a hint as I will ever tell you in the Critical Thinking and Jiu Jitsu series, never try to fight THROUGH a bad posture. Always try to REGAIN a good posture.
POSTURE AND THE GUARD
Now with our renewed understanding of posture, we can apply this to the guard as a generic whole. The fighter on the bottom utilizing the guard needs to seize control of the posture of the opponent on top if they wish to progress to the next move (usually either a submission or a sweep). The different variations of the guard then, are different ways of seizing control of the posture. Some variations would look for hip control first, some would pull down the head, some will grab the arms, but all variations of the guard are looking to control the posture of their opponent.
If one understands the importance of posture, one will be well on their way to establishing a good guard game and will be able to easily transition their way from guard game. After all each guard has the same goal in mind, and to some degree similar methodologies, with different toolsets.
PASSING THE GUARD
Once a more fundamental understanding of the bottom game of the guard has been established, one could reverse engineer this understanding of the guard in order to learn how to effectively combat it (and I suppose if you’re more of a top player, the inverse remains true as well). If the goal of the bottom fighter is take control of the posture, so to it must be the goal of the top fighter to take posture as well. If the top fighter wants to have any hope of solving the riddle of the guard, they must be able to control their own posture. Once a posture has been established, the guard passing may commence.
As I stated earlier, the guard is about as 50-50 of a proposition in a ground fight as we can get to. The difference then, in which way the orientation of the match will go, is determined by posture.
We can also look at another aspect of the guard we’ve discussed, in order to reverse engineer it into the top person’s advantage. Earlier we stated that the guard is when the bottom fighter has use of their legs in order to establish control. It would stand to reason, that the main goal of the top fighter, after establishing and maintaining posture, would be to neutralize the bottom fighters legs. In my years of trial, error and lot of observation, I would say that the second biggest mistake of novice grapplers when passing the guard is to not effectively neutralize the legs. All too often I see people trying to pass the guard by establishing control points other than the legs, and I very seldom see this strategy work. (If you guessed lack of posture was the number one mistake I see, treat yourself to a cookie. In the spirit of our good friend Nick Diaz, make sure it doesn’t have any hydrogenised fats in it however)
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
Part 1: Assess your personal version of the guard. Figure out what your favorite grips and hooks are in the context of how you are going to break your opponents posture.
Part 2: Pretend you are on top trying to pass your favorite version of the guard. Figure out first how to establish your posture to counter your grips and hooks. Figure out how to control the legs of the person working the guard.
Previous Critical Thinking Articles:
#1 Mentorship
http://www.onthemat.com/articles/Critical_Thinking_and_Jiu_Jitsu_Mentorship_02_13_2007.html#2 What is Jiu Jitsu?
http://www.onthemat.com/articles/Critical_Thinking_in_Jiu_Jitsu_2__What_is_Jiu_Jitsu_02_21_2007.html#3 What do you bring to the Table?
http://www.onthemat.com/articles/Critical_Thinking_and_Jiu_Jitsu_3_What_do_you_Bring_to_the_Tab_03_16_2007.html#4 The Heirchy and Duality of Position
http://www.onthemat.com/articles/Critical_Thinking_and_Jiu_Jitsu_IV_04_25_2007.html
