Roger Gracie closed guard question

Anyone know how Roger is so effective with his closed guard on an opponent in combat base(leading with knee)?

I've never seen anything like it. He sweeps everybody from that position. I've been trying it without much luck. Obviously his length has a lot to do with it, but I'm about the same height(just under 6'4").

Any tips?

if people switch to "combat base" you have to adjust your guard so that your butt is on their thigh. this takes away their base.

ryan, i have had a lot of success with this position since watching roger. the action is all hips. i will let the guy work to put the knee in and then control his sleeves. i fake like i am going to try to sweep him towards his bottom leg then swith to a cross grip to the other side and lift my hips in that direction. the cross grip helps because i will put my other hand on the floor to help get my hips up. the best time to use this sweep is when the guy kinda sits back on his leg to grip your pants to break your legs apart. if the guy is leaning forward, you should try to get a deep underhook to the side he is going towards so that when he breaks your legs you can get to your knees easily.

i would really love to show you this position because you are long limbed like me unlike the people i try to show it to down here.

hope this helps, although to really learn it you kinda have to see it.

Honestly, I think it's just his level of sensitivity and timing and not any particular technique or methodology. You just have to practice working from the closed guard a lot.

A trend that has been developing over the past several years in bjj is a neglect of working from a full closed guard. DVD's, instructionals, and instructors have been placing a lot of emphasis on different forms of open guard (x-guard, dela riva guard, spider, etc.) and half guard. As a result, a lot of newer (relatively speaking) bjj players just aren't as effective from closed guard as they could be.

I train at Rogers and asked him to show me that sweep, it's all about being tall enough to close your guard behind his back and about keeping the grips on his sleeves.

If he starts to cut the knee through you need to push his arms to the same side so that you're threatening to take his back.

As far as the sweep, once you have the grips and the guard closed, just lift your hips and sweep him backwards, open your legs and take top position (normally top of half guard).

It's really as simple as it looks and is now one of my favourite sweeps.

I figured you'd be doing this well Chris. When you visiting Ohio?

roger is a tall motherfucker. thats why.

"roger is a tall motherfucker".

So am I.

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