If you do it wrong then pulling guard can be dangerous for both competitors; I've seen people pulling guard knock themselves out AND people pulling guard injure their training partners by pulling guard incorrectly. It's important to clarify that I'm not against pulling guard in competition. I mean, what if your opponent is much bigger than you, or is a much better at takedowns than you, or … [Read more...]
Pulling Guard
Podcast Episode 116 – To Pull Guard in BJJ Competition, or Not?
Should you pull guard in BJJ competition or fight doggedly for the takedown. You'll get some answers to this perennial question in my conversation about pulling guard with BJJ black belt Rob Biernacki. To hear this podcast episode in full, you have a couple of options. The first one is to just press play on the embedded player below - easy as 1, 2, 3! The second (and better!) option … [Read more...]
The Single Leg X Guard – A Surprising Way to Pull Guard…
Should you pull guard in competition? And if you decide to pull guard, then how do you do it correctly? In a certain sense, I am uniquely unqualified to answer these questions... You see, much of my BJJ comes from 8th degree black belt Marcus Soares, and Marcus is very much from the old-school Carlson Gracie way of doing things. The Carlson approach to jiu-jitsu is definitely focused on … [Read more...]
Top 10 Throws and Takedowns for BJJ
I'll go ahead and say it: every practitioner should have at least a couple of throws and takedowns for BJJ. Yes, it's true that pulling guard is an option in sport BJJ competition, but ultimately this is a martial art, which means we have to at least occasionally consider the self defense aspects of what we're doing. Are you going to pull guard in a streetfight? Not bloody likely. In this … [Read more...]
Getting to Guard Against a Standing Opponent
It's a bad situation when you're on the bottom, your opponent is standing up in front of you, and you don't have any grips or hooks established on him... When he's on his feet like that he's super-mobile, and if he's fast then he can sprint past your guard in the blink of an eye. What you really need to do is some sort of grip and establish some sort of control over him. Something to slow … [Read more...]
Flying Armbar Guard Pull
Some people will tell you never, ever to pull guard. "Fight from the top," they tell you... In general that's good advice, but what if you run into someone with vastly superior takedown skills? Or someone who is good at defending takedowns and determined to fight a completely defensive battle? It's good to have some takedowns in your arsenal. But it's also good to have some other ways to get … [Read more...]
Podcast EP11: Draculino talks about the Evolution of BJJ
Recently I managed to catch up with Vinicius 'Draculino' Magalhães and pick his brain about the ongoing evolution of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. Draculino started training in Rio in the 1980's, back in the days when many of the big names in BJJ were just young kids with blue and purple belts around their waists. Plus he's trained many great competitors in the sport, as well as having personally … [Read more...]
An Innovative Butterfly Guard Jump
by Vitor "Shaolin" Riberio Some (but not all) BJJ competitors jump to guard in order to get the fight to the ground quickly and avoid conceding takedown points. Most of the time this simply consists of jumping in the air while trying to pull your opponent into your closed guard. … [Read more...]