On Your Back

Wednesday, 28 July 2010

This may not be obvious to you right away but I spotted Peter doing this to great effect on Monday night when I was rolling with him in BJJ. What was it that he did? Well he was in guard and he simply decided to stand up.

If you ask most beginners to grappling what you can do in the guard you will often get the answer 'Sweep or Submit.' This is true but there is more. There are in fact five things you can do but not all of them are applicable to Sport BJJ.
1. Survival
2. Strike
3. Sweep
4. Submit
5. Stand-up



So on Monday Peter was in guard with Matt and they were fighting away and Matt was defending well so Peter moved out to spider guard and then suddenly jumped up, snapped Matt forward and took his back!! This is a great example of thinking outside the BJJ box, where you often see guys struggling away trying their various sweeps and submissions to no great effect and slowly sapping their strength and increasing their frustration. You don't have to stay there. Why not learn and drill ways to get from being in guard to standing up and changing the game??

Keep Training!!