February 11th 2010

Technique

Breaking the closed guard

Introduction to passing the guard

Today we focussed on breaking the closed guard and had the help of a very experienced Purple Belt who has joined our group.  Nine years experience speaks for itself and it was great to get a slightly different view on things.  We did the usual warm up and went straight into the technique.  The first was a kneeling guard break with the emphasis placed upon controlling your opponent's hips and maintaining your own posture.  Ken Primola gives a good example:



We also practised breaking the closed guard from a standing position. Again Ken Primola gives a good example:



We then introduced passing the guard and worked two different variations of a guard pass utilising the raised knee from the guard break. The emphasis here was placed upon isolating your opponent's leg, controlling your opponent's hips and staying as tight as possible to execute the pass.  Passing the guard can be difficult, so over the coming weeks we'll looking at this from both a technical and conceptual perspective.

We then did some positional sparring for 10 minutes with the person on the bottom utilising the closed guard and trying to sweep or submit, paying close attention to the arm bar which we have been working on. Whilst the person on top attempts to maintain their posture, breaks their opponents guard and tries to pass. We ended the session with 25 minutes of normal sparring.  Another good class, well done to everyone who contributed to the great atmosphere.