Guard (grappling)

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Guard
Rangers in Action 01-African Land Forces Summit-US Army Africa-13 MAY 2010 (cropped).jpg
Standard closed guard, demonstrated by US Army Rangers.
ClassificationPosition
Style Jujutsu, Judo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Child hold(s)closed guard, open guard, half guard

The guard is a ground grappling position in which one combatant has their back to the ground while attempting to control the other combatant using their legs. In pure grappling combat sports, the guard is considered an advantageous position, because the bottom combatant can attack with various joint locks and chokeholds, while the top combatant's priority is the transition into a more dominant position, a process known as passing the guard. In the sport of mixed martial arts, as well as hand-to-hand combat in general, it is possible to effectively strike from the top in the guard, even though the bottom combatant exerts some control. There are various types of guard, with their own advantages and disadvantages.

Contents

The guard is a key part of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu where it can be used as an offensive position. It is also used, but not formally named, in Judo [1] though it is sometimes referred to as dō-osae in Japanese, meaning "trunk hold". [2] [note 1] It is called the "front body scissor" in catch wrestling.

Pulling Guard

Transitioning directly from standing to the guard position is known as pulling guard. Tsunetane Oda, a judo groundwork specialist who died in 1955, [3] demonstrated the technique on video. [4]

Closed Guard

The closed guard CLD2009-Jack Jamil x Phillip Diniz.jpg
The closed guard

Sometimes referred to as full guard, the closed guard is the typical guard position. In this guard the legs are hooked behind the back of the opponent, preventing them from standing up or moving away. The opponent needs to open the legs up to be able to improve positioning. The bottom combatant might transit between the open and closed guard, as the open guard allows for better movement, but also has a bigger risk of the opponent passing the guard.

Half Guard

The half guard position Half guard in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.jpg
The half guard position

Half guard is a position where the guard player wraps both of their legs around one of their opponent's legs. The half guard can favour the passer or the guard player, depending on the many details of the position such as body positioning and grips. The position affords many options for the guard player to initiate techniques such as sweeps and submission holds.

Variants of half guard include the deep half guard, the Z-guard and the reverse De La Riva guard.

Open Guard

A basic of open guard, as shown in a USMC Close Combat manual MCRP3-02Bfig7-1guard.png
A basic of open guard, as shown in a USMC Close Combat manual

The open guard is typically used to perform various joint locks and chokeholds. The legs can be used to move the opponent, and to create leverage. The open guard allows the opponent to stand up or try to pass the guard, so this position is often used only temporarily to set up sweeps or other techniques. Open guard is also a general term that encompasses a large number of guard positions where the legs are used to push, wrap or hook the opponent without locking the ankles together around them.

Butterfly Guard

The butterfly guard being used during Judo training. The judogi of the top combatant is grabbed to prevent him from moving away. Judo10-butterfly guard.jpg
The butterfly guard being used during Judo training. The judogi of the top combatant is grabbed to prevent him from moving away.

The butterfly guard involves both of the legs being hooked with the ankles in between the opponents legs, against the inside of the opponents thighs. The opponent is controlled using both legs and arms. The leverage in the butterfly guard allows powerful sweeps. The guard also allows one to elevate or set the opponent off balance and because of this it is particularly useful in avoiding damage and allows transitions to other dominant positions. The analogous technique in wrestling and catch wrestling is called double elevator.

X-Guard

The X-guard is an open guard where one of the combatants is standing up and the other is on their back. The bottom combatant uses the legs to entangle one of the opponent's legs, which creates opportunities for powerful sweeps. The X-guard is often used in combination with butterfly and half guard. In a grappling match, this is an advantageous position for the bottom combatant, but in general hand-to-hand combat, the top combatant can attack with stomps or soccer kicks. Likewise, skilled use of the x-guard can prevent the opponent from attempting a kick, or throw them off balance should they raise a leg. The x-guard was developed by Alexandre "Gigi" Paiva [in the 1990's,?] and popularized by Marcelo Garcia. [5]

Spider Guard

The spider guard comprises a number of positions all of which involve controlling the opponents arms while using the soles of the feet to control the opponent at the biceps, hips, thighs or a combination of them. It is most effective when the sleeves of the opponent can be grabbed. The spider guard can be used for sweeps and to set up joint locks or chokeholds.

De La Riva Guard

The De la Riva guard being used in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training De la Riva guard.jpg
The De la Riva guard being used in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training

The De La Riva guard (also called jello guard) is an open guard popularized by Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner Ricardo De La Riva, who was successful with it in competition.[ citation needed ] The guard consists of one of the legs wrapped behind the opponent's leg from the outside, the ankle held with one hand, and the other hand grips one of their sleeves. The De La Riva guard offers a number of sweeps, transitions and submissions, and is more recently used in combination with spider guard.

Rubber Guard

Rubber Guard diagram, a red figure holding blue figure in the rubber guard. Rubber guard composite.png
Rubber Guard diagram, a red figure holding blue figure in the rubber guard.

The rubber guard is a position that keeps an opponent down in your guard. The position was used by Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner Nino Schembri and popularized and made into a system by Eddie Bravo. Many techniques have been developed from this position including sweeps, submissions, and striking defense. By using a leg to hold an opponent down, one arm is free to work on submissions, sweeps or to strike the opponent's trapped head.

50-50 Guard

Megaton Dias demonstrating the 50-50 guard Megaton Dias Seminar 18.jpg
Megaton Dias demonstrating the 50-50 guard

The 50-50 (Fifty-fifty) guard is a position popularized by Roberto “Gordo” Correa and extensively used by the Mendes Brothers, Rafael and Guilherme Mendes, Bruno Frazzato, Ryan Hall and Ramon Lemos from the Atos Jiu-Jitsu Team. In other grappling systems such as catch wrestling and Sambo, it is a form of the "outside leg triangle" type of leg control. In this position, the fighter on the bottom crosses a triangle on the opponent's leg, which allows for the leg to be dominated while leaving the arms free to work on sweeps and submissions. This position has been heavily criticized for use in competitions with restricted use of leglocks due to the potential of stalling a match when the fighter on top cannot pass the guard and the fighter on the bottom cannot successfully perform a sweep. [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]

Passing the Guard

In order to overcome the primary defense of one's opponent, their guard, and attain a more dominant position, such as side mount, full mount, or knee on stomach a practitioner must pass the guard. There are several ways of doing so; many involve pain compliance whereby the practitioner persuades the opponent to release their guard through an abrasive action. Examples of this type of action would be digging the practitioner's forearms into the inner thigh of the opponent, standing and attempting a can opener neck crank, or in the case of a mixed martial arts setting, to simply strike the opponent until the guard is released. Passing the guard however has perils of its own, as it has a tendency to leave the practitioner particularly vulnerable to counterattack in the form of sweeps and submissions.

Simple guard pass

Simple guard pass also known as the arm/leg pull is a guard pass demonstrated in The Essence Of Judo by Kyuzo Mifune, and it is an unnamed technique described in The Canon Of Judo . [13] In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu this pass is commonly referred to as the Toreando/Bull Fighter Pass. [14] The main characteristic of the pass is the practitioner side-stepping around the opponent's legs whilst simultaneously pulling aside the opponent's leg or pinning the opponents legs to the ground.

Stacking guard pass

Stacking Guard Pass is also demonstrated in The Essence Of Judo by Mifune, and it is also an unnamed technique described in The Canon Of Judo. [13] The main characteristic of the technique is the practitioner lifting the opponent and stacking them, into a possible neck crank or blood choke submission, when the practitioner is in the opponent's open guard.

Near knee guard pass

Near Knee Guard Pass is also demonstrated in The Essence Of Judo by Mifune as well as Canon of Judo by Mifune. [15] In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, this guard pass is commonly referred to as the Knee Over Pass. [16] The main characteristic of this pass is the practitioner driving their knee over the opponent's same side thigh while in the opponent's open guard.

See also

Footnotes

  1. The technique "do-jime" is sometimes incorrectly used to describe the closed guard. The difference is that with do-jime, pressure is applied to squeeze the opponent's trunk to cause asphyxia. Do-jime is a prohibited technique in judo, see IJF Referee Rules (English version).

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grappling</span> Range of techniques used in many disciplines, styles and martial arts

Grappling, in hand-to-hand combat, describes sports that consist of gripping or seizing the opponent. Grappling is used at close range to gain a physical advantage over an opponent, either by imposing a position or causing injury. Grappling is a broad term that encompasses many disciplines. These various martial arts can be practiced both as combat sports and for self-defense. Grappling contests often involve takedowns and ground control, and may end when a contestant concedes defeat, also known as a submission or tap out.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brazilian jiu-jitsu</span> Martial art

Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a self-defence martial art and combat sport based on grappling, ground fighting, and submission holds. BJJ approaches self-defense by emphasizing taking an opponent to the ground, gaining a dominant position, and using a number of techniques to force them into submission via joint locks or chokeholds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Submission wrestling</span> Fighting style

Submission wrestling, also known as Submission grappling or Submission fighting, is a combat sport that focus on clinch and ground fighting with the aim of obtaining a submission through the use of submission holds. The term usually refers to a form of competition and training that does not use the Gi, the "combat kimono" worn in traditional martial arts. No-Gi Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) is the most well known subset of submission wrestling, with the ADCC Submission Fighting World Championship considered its most prestigious tournament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ground fighting</span>

Ground fighting is hand-to-hand combat which takes place while the combatants are on the ground. The term is commonly used in mixed martial arts and other combat sports, as well as various forms of martial arts to designate the set of grappling techniques employed by a combatant that is on the ground. It is the main focus of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and is featured in varying amounts in Catch wrestling, Judo, Jujutsu, Sambo, Shoot wrestling, Dishuquan Dog Kung Fu, some schools of Shuai Jiao and other styles of wrestling.

A triangle choke, or sankaku-jime (三角絞) in judo, is a type of figure-four chokehold that encircles the opponent's neck and one arm with the legs in a configuration similar to the shape of a triangle. Applying pressure using both legs and the opponent's own shoulder, the technique is a type of lateral vascular restraint that constricts the blood flow from the carotid arteries to the brain, potentially resulting in loss of consciousness in seconds when applied correctly. Recent studies have shown that the triangle choke takes an average of 9.5 seconds to render an opponent unconscious from the moment it is properly applied.

An armlock in grappling is a single or double joint lock that hyperextends, hyperflexes or hyperrotates the elbow joint or shoulder joint. An armlock that hyper-extends the arm is known as an armbar, and it includes the traditional armbar, pressing their elbow into your thigh, and the triangle armbar, like a triangle choke, but you press their elbow into your thigh. An armlock that hyper-rotates the arm is known as an armcoil, and includes the americana, kimura, and omaplata. Depending on the joint flexibility of a person, armcoils can either hyper-rotate only the shoulder joint, only the elbow joint, or both the elbow joint and shoulder joint. Generally, armcoils hurt more than armbars, as they attack several joints at the bone and muscle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount (grappling)</span> Position in grappling

The mount, or mounted position, is a dominant ground grappling position, where one combatant sits on the other combatants torso with the face pointing towards the opponent's head. This is a favorable position for the top combatant in several ways. The top combatant can generate considerable momentum for strikes to the head of the opponent, while the bottom combatant is restricted by the ground and by the combatant on top. Other advantages include various chokeholds and joint locks that can be applied from the top. The bottom combatant will usually look to sweep the opponent or transition into a better position such as the guard.

A leglock is a joint lock that is directed at joints of the leg such as the ankle, knee or hip joint. A leglock which is directed at joints in the foot, is sometimes referred to as a foot lock and a lock at the hip as a hip lock. Leglocks are featured, with various levels of restrictions, in combat sports and martial arts such as Sambo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, catch wrestling, mixed martial arts, Shootwrestling and submission wrestling, but are banned in some sports featuring joint locks such as judo. The technique has been seen across a wide range of different combat sports and is reportedly over 2,500 years old, having been seen in the lost art of Pankration in the original Olympic Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Side control</span> Grappling position

In grappling, side control is a dominant ground grappling position where the top combatant is lying perpendicularly over the face-up bottom combatant in such a way that the legs are free and he or she exerts no control over the combatant on the bottom. The top combatant is referred to as having side control, and is in a stable position, with the other combatant pinned beneath them. From there the top combatant can proceed with elbows, knees, various submissions, or transition into a mounted position. It is high priority for the bottom combatant to sweep the top combatant or otherwise escape the position, for instance by entangling the opponent's free legs and trying to obtain the half guard or guard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grappling hold</span> Martial arts technique

A grappling hold, commonly referred to simply as a hold that in Japanese is referred to as katame-waza, is any specific grappling, wrestling, judo, or other martial art grip that is applied to an opponent. Grappling holds are used principally to control the opponent and to advance in points or positioning. The holds may be categorized by their function, such as clinching, pinning, or submission, while others can be classified by their anatomical effect: chokehold, headlock, joint-lock, or compression lock. Multiple categories may be appropriate for some of these holds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grappling position</span>

A grappling position refers to the positioning and holds of combatants engaged in grappling. Combatants are said to be in a neutral position if neither is in a more favourable position. If one party has a clear advantage such as in the mount they are said to be in a "dominant position". Conversely, the other party is considered to be in an inferior position, usually called "on the bottom", but in this case sometimes called the "under mount".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spinal lock</span>

In combat sports, a spinal lock is a multiple joint lock applied to the spinal column, which is performed by forcing the spine beyond its normal ranges of motion. This is typically done by bending or twisting the head or upper body into abnormal positions. Commonly, spinal locks might strain the spinal musculature or result in a mild spinal sprain, while a forcefully and/or suddenly applied spinal lock may cause severe ligament damage or damage to the vertebrae, and possibly result in serious spinal cord injury, stroke, or death. Spinal locks and cervical locks are forbidden in IBJJF Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitions, amateur mixed martial artas (MMA), multiple forms of no Gi jiu-jitsu, judo, and other martial arts. However, professional MMA and some Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitions do permit spinal locks and, particularly, neck cranks, and such moves are trained in various MMA and Brazilian jiu-jitsu schools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Half guard</span> Grappling position

Half guard is a ground grappling position where one combatant is lying on the other, with the bottom combatant having one leg entangled. Sometimes the bottom combatant is said to be in half guard, while the top combatant is in a half mount. In wrestling and catch wrestling half mount is called Turk ride. The half guard is the position that is in between a full guard and side control or full mount. The combatant on top will try to untangle the leg and pass to obtain side control or mount, while the bottom combatant will try to transition into a full guard or alternatively attempt a sweep or submission. The half guard may favour the combatant on top or the guard player, depending on the many details of the position such as body positioning and grips.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knee-on-stomach</span> Grappling position

Knee-on-stomach, or knee-on-belly, knee-on-chest, knee-ride, knee mount, is a dominant ground grappling position where the top combatant places a knee on the bottom combatant's torso, and usually extends the other leg to the side for balance. This position is typically obtained from side control, simply by rising up slightly and putting a knee on the opponent's stomach or chest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tate shiho gatame</span> Judo technique

Tate-Shiho-Gatame (縦四方固) is one of the seven mat holds, Osaekomi-waza, of Kodokan Judo. In grappling terms, it is categorized as a mounted position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Okuri eri jime</span> Judo technique

Okuri-Eri-Jime (送襟絞) is one of the twelve constriction techniques of Kodokan Judo in the Shime-waza list.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sode guruma jime</span>

Sode guruma jime (袖車絞め) is a type of Judo chokehold (shime-waza), which compresses the opponent’s trachea or the carotid arteries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sweep (martial arts)</span> Martial arts techniques

A sweep is either of two categories of martial arts techniques. From standing, sweeps are throws or takedowns that primarily use the legs to attack an opponent's legs. On the ground, sweeps are techniques for reversing a grappling position from a guard position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gogoplata</span>

A gogoplata, foot choke "Piroplata" or kagato-jime (踵絞) is a type of chokehold that utilizes the shin bone. This technique is often used in Kodokan Judo, submission grappling, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

References

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  4. Tsunetane Oda - judo ne-waza 2 of 3
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  14. Smith, Andrew (March 29, 2019). "7 Toreando Guard Pass Variations in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu". How They Play. How They Play. Retrieved March 21, 2020.
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Further reading