Closed Guard Concepts

What You’ll Learn

• How to turn neutral closed guard into advantageous attacking position
• How to use the knee pull to get to advantageous positions
• Major advantage positions in closed guard

The key to a successful and attacking guard position is by making micro adjustments that lead to advantageous positions, in other words, movement which leads us to angular advantage.

The technique you must master in order to get the movement and angular adjustment is the knee pull technique.

Knee pull is done either over the shoulders or over the head.

Key detail: think of the opponent’s spine as a lever, with the hips being the bottom end of the lever and the neck being the top end of the lever. The part you want to manipulate.

Use the knee pull to get to these advantageous positions:

• elbow across the centerline -> back attacks, sweeps
• elbow to the centerline (shoulder is outside the elbow) -> Top Lock
• elbows away from the body (arms on the mat) -> The Clamp Guard, Williams Guard, sweeps, submissions