Just curious how many Bjj guys heard that the closed guard dosent work as a white belt and that you should always opt for the open guard.?? (total rubbish). Several blue belts told me this as a white belt.
I would say those blue belts are misinformed, if they're not purposefully misleading you.
Different styles of open guard are important to learn and feel comfortable with as soon as possible, but for a complete beginner, I would say things might be happening too fast for him to keep up with. Closed guard slows things down a little bit, give him more of a chance to think and try some techs.
Yeah, I heard this crap when I was a white belt. Now, that I am a blue belt I am glad I never listened to that nonsense. I of course never tell any white belts this when I roll with them.
It's probably that the blueblets had just discovered their open guard game. I remember when I was a white belt my closed guard sucked. I would constantly get stacked and passed. Then when I was a new bluebelt I started working some open and 1/2 guard and could pull off a few sweeps. It wasn't until I got my purple belt that I really started working my closed guard again.
i never told white belts that closed guard was useless. but i did have this guy i was training who refused to even think about open guard b/c he thought it was too advanced for him. i explained that when you have your guard closed the dude in your guard is going to try to open it. many times he will open your guard then you are forced to play open guard. nowadays, i rarely see anybody use a closed guard.
One thing you will notice a lot of, especially here on the forum, are "lower belts that know it all". You will have blue belts who don't think they are beginners and that talk like they are black belts.
That is interesting. I MAKE my white belts practice closed guard, and I discourage working open/butterfly/de la riva guard until they are proficient at closed guard attacks, sweeps, and escapes. This was the way I was taugh and I find it wise to develop the fundamental position before exploring the 'looser' more advanced positions.
I still use closes guard quite a bit though I now use butterfly too. I still cannot get De la Riva (Jello) to work against other competent grapplers (Kbhat among others!)
But what is a closed guard (or a closed guard game)? Ankles crossed? What do you guys call a guard in which your heels are behind your opponent's back (as opposed to, say on his hips) but your ankles AREN'T crossed?
1)Closed guard is great for practical purposes (i.e. a real fight where you may be considerably outweighed) and gives you practical options (like old school, Royce style kidney kicks) open guards do not.
2) Your opponents, even the best guys, will have to leave themselves at least somewhat open when they try and open up a tight closed guard. That gives you a chance to make a move. If you never close your guard, and don't work on keeping it closed, you'll never learn how to exploit this situation.
IMO closed guard = ankles crossed
I think a beginner spens more time(when sparring) defending subs,
being stuck in bad positions, getting Guard passed etc..
When people go to open your closed guard a lot of beginners fight so
long they miss the oppurtunity to play an open Guard because they are
to late.
This might be what the blue belt is trying to explain that you will spend
less time in closed guard as opposed to open but not because of your
choice.
The best guard is the guard that you can use most effectively. It can be closed, all the variations of open, half....
In BJJ, all the guards are effective. Depends on which one you take to
I think you need to learn closed guard first. Everything else stems off of that. Just like everything else you need to learn the basics first. If you can't control someone from your closed guard, where will you retreat back to if an open guard scramble fails?
That sounds crazy to me...My philosophy has always been stay in closed guard until my opponent forces me into open or half guard. Even then, you should work to reguard.
I think Bolo and the others are right, you might have a few blues who just 'discovered' the open guard and now think everything else doesn't work. The basics are called that for a reason, they are the basic positions of BJJ and everything else comes off of them and should never be abandoned.
Bolo is very correct...if you read some of the posts here, you would think that there's nobody but black belts posting (due to authoritative attitude, not accuracy). Then, 15 lines down, you get the "but what do I know, I'm just a lowly white/blue belt."
"What do you guys call a guard in which your heels are behind your opponent's back (as opposed to, say on his hips) but your ankles AREN'T crossed"
JP, I call that position "Me Getting Combat Base". :)
"That sounds crazy to me...My philosophy has always been stay in closed guard until my opponent forces me into open or half guard. Even then, you should work to reguard"
angelo, you are so right. Even when I was a white belt I was like- man that just dosent sound right. I do privates with an elite blackbelt who tells me that his closed guard is his favorite guard.
My take on this whole thing is something like this: If, as a white
belt(such as yours truly)only focussed on closed guard to the exclusion
of all others, then your options when the opponent breaks the closed
guard(and he will)? If all you throw at him are attempts to close the
guard then he´ll pass quickly.
So even if your priority task is to get back to closed, you need to throw
something else at him(most likely sweep attempts from open guard)to
facilitate the re-closing. And if you never study the open guard how
are you going to do that?
So, both types should be studied at whitebelt IMO, even if you place
more emphasis on closed. People that think teaching both to
beginners is somehow too much for them or will confuse them
probably aren´t giving their student enough credit.
You need to work on your escapes from side control after they pass closed guard. (my opinion).
angelo,
caique and relson would be very proud of that response!