I remember seeing Matt Serra years ago doing a guard similar to what is refered to as the Rubber guard now. This was way back in like 1999 or 2000. I even asked him how he was doing it and he got down and showed me some of the basics of reaching under your own arm and trapping the arm with your leg etc. I saw Shawn Williams doing it a couple years later in a no gi comp. I hear alot of moves were invented at Renzo's in NY then pickup on by guys coming from Brasil to trian there, taken back there and then brought back to the US. I would have loved to have trained at Renzo's from 2000 to about 2004.
Nino Schembri pioneered the rubber guard.
Funnily enough i remember royce grabbing his leg to keep sak down.
I only remember because quadros was saying there must be a reason hes holding his leg..lol
jigoro kano, 1904
I have limited experience with the rubber guard and with Renzo's guys so you can take this with a grain of salt:
The type of guard that I was shown and told was the type that Shawn Williams used (so I've started calling it the Shawn Williams guard) is where I over hook his arm, reach all the way under my own knee and then lock my hands at his shoulder. If I were overhooking his right arm, my left arm would go over his arm, under my own left leg and then my right hand would clasp my left at his right shoulder. I've used it and I think its a great set up. I think the rubber guard would vary from this slightly. I think you grab your own foot, on the opposite side of his head (i.e., I would grab my left foot, with my right hand on his left side of his head). Slight variations on the same theme: Keep him locked in tight.
I do hear that Renzo's gym is the place for experimenting and creating new techniques and stuff. At a seminar he said something along the lines of "I'll learn from anyone. If a white belt catches me with something, I'll say 'cool, how'd you do that?'. Then we'll break it down and see why it works". Very cool attitude.
CC
Somebody had probably hit almost every conceivable position somewhere sometime. Bravo, however, is the one that came up with a complete system.
Bravo also has some interesting (and hilarious) notes about the Old School sweep from half guard in his Mastering Rubber Guard book - no one was doing it in the 90's, so far as he and the Machados knew, and Eddie saw the opening for the move, got it slick, and started using it, all on his own in the '90's.
Apparently a visitor/instructor along the line, from another school, noticed the move either at a tournament or on the mat, took it back to Brazil, and it became a hot move.
So years later the Machados are sponsoring a seminar with a hot Brazilian instructor and, not realizing that things were moving full circle, the seminar instructor introduced this hot new move from Brazil which was - you guessed it - the Old School sweep (albeit not under that name) that Eddie had been using for years.
Thereafter the archaeological exhumation began (national pride and all that) and people now argue that Gordo really invented the move - which may indeed be possible. But clearly Eddie rediscovered it on his own, and it got back into circulation and popularized - in another country yet! - thanks to his quest for innovation. And that was before Eddie was "systemizing" his moves and publicizing them!
ROFLMAO at eddie inventing the old school sweep and saying he taught it to someone who took it to brazil. There is no end to that guys lies and ego.
It's hard to imagin that a Kosen guy from the past never once grabbed his own leg from the close guard inorder to clamp down on his opponent tighter.
Did he do it all the time and attack submisions from that position?
It's seems like everything that is done today in great detail becomes named after the person that specializes in that particualr position,Delariva guard,telles,turtle,octopus guard,etc.
This does not mean however that they were the first to utilize this position,just the ones that popularized it thru their specialization efforts.