How do you pass a guard like Mr. Eddie Bravo's? that guard position seems so tight and the legs so high up on your back and nape...Honestly I havent rolled with anyone who uses this guard but just in case your input would be appreciated...
Some ideas from me:
Use a low posture when you can't use a high one, i.e. head low and your elbows tight to his ribs, hands either on the biceps or in the armpits.
Drive your head under his chin and don't be nice, so that he has to push on you with his arms and not just pull and hold. Punish him a bit and make his life miserable with your head like that.
If he gets a foot on the hip, twist your hips to get that foot off your hip.
Always try to have him flat on his back. If he shrimps his hips out, walk sideways on your knees to follow him and flatten him out. You want your hips to be DIRECTLY in front of his hips and close to them as well, as a rule of thumb in the closed guard.
Watch Leo Vieira do it a ton of times in the 03 ADCCs.
A right cross? ;-)
It will be hard to pass his rubber guard. There are a couple of ways, but the way he controls the head is the key.
prim8 is correct
I am not an expert on this, but from what I have seen and used, is to pass on the side where his foot is on your hip. If you are caught in the rubber guard, your opponent will eventually have to move his foot on your hip to do a submission, when he moves, you have to time it right, push his leg down and pass over it. However, like anyone with a good guard, a lot of it is timing, and experience.
LOL at bjjprim8. Awesome answer.
Amazing answer... like a knife thru butter
No shame in losing to Leo Vieira.
BUT, this does call into question all the statements Eddie makes in his book about gi vs. no gi. Although certain athletes "depend" on the gi more than others, training in a gi does not automatically hamper one's no gi performance.
Leo did a seminar for us in Boston several years back. When someone asked him what he does differently to prepare for no gi events, he replied without the slightest trace of sarcasm: "I take off my gi." It was clear that he meant that he trained basically the same and took off his gi, literally, right before the fight.
John
I think the original question was how to you pass a high guard/rubber guard when the guy already has you locked up in it, and jonpall gave some good suggestions there.
From what I recall of the match, Leo Vieira was able to smoke past Eddie's guard because he never really allowed Eddie to tie him up in either full or half guard. If Eddie had somehow been able to get to one of those positions and start working his game, he might have given Leo more trouble, but Leo was always one step ahead and never let him get started.
Soneca's video on passing Guard,has a nice pass when your opponent has high guard.
Most people don't have Eddie's level of flexibility so if a person tries to do rubber guard you just position yourself in inconvenient ways. The first thing is that most guys have to hip out a little on the side that their leg is on X's neck so of course you can mess this up by containing their hip with your knee and even pushing it back the other direction.
It also helps X to get your arm in his armpit for the New York position so you want to avoid that.
I find that if you can stand in the rubber guard most people have to switch to something else.
It is also true that Leo didn't get caught in Eddie's rubber guard so that match isn't really applicable to the question.
Passing rubber guard is another area where there is some kind of tacitly agreed silence in the BJJ community. I'm sure many schools have a complete rubber guard passing game (10th Planet being the most obvious candidate). I'd be very surprised if SBG don't have a rubber-passing game worked out (considering how much interest many people in SBG have shown in RG). It could be most of the material is still experimental so noone really wants to talk about it.
Rubber guard simply hasn't been proven in competition. Many people mistakenly assume Eddie used RG in his defeat of Royler but in fact he used a pretty standard overhook setup that has been around for many years.
I am not saying that RG doesn't have the potential to be very effective but it just isn't taking competitions by storm to the degree that most people are worried about dealing with it.
John Frankl,
It's funny I heard Leo say the same thing. Also former teammate Marcelo Garcia trains Gi 6 days a week and no gi one day at the most. He said he doesn't train no Gi like everyone thinks.
I'd say pass standing, i've been doing everything in my power lately to stand up from guard and pass from there, i've been having great success with onestep passes, in the very least it creates a scramble where i can perhaps get a favorable position.
Royler cleanly passed Bravo's guard more times than Leozinho did in their match.
Mr. dracovich, that pass is great but you've gotta be careful of leg locks, IMO. Just pointing that out. I like the pass, though, and hate having it done to me.