Aesopian

Bjarni Baldursson of Straight Blast Gym in Iceland put together an excellent tutorial on two aspects of his half guard, and he was happy to let me share them here.

What I found especially interesting about his material is how it’s very similar to Eddie Bravo’s, but has little variations. His lockdown has a slight difference in foot placement. He gets the underhook much like Eddie does with the Jaws of Life, and he gets the butterfly hook almost like Eddie’s Super Stomp, but neither are exactly the same.

I like to see the little differences that happen when multiple sources work on the same positions and strategies, and what Bjarni shows is very solid material. I’m going to be working on this to see if I can’t revive my underhooking half guard game.

From Bjarni’s Half Guard Game

Just wanted to show you a part of my half guard game. It’s mainly what I use to get the underhook and block the cross face by using lockdown and pushing the guys chin, or if that doesn’t work I go to Butterfly half guard.

Before I continue I’d like to point out that I don’t use this kind of lockdown, as it traps one of my legs and makes it harder to get to Butterfly Half Guard.

Instead I use this one. I pull my left heel towards me and press on my right calf with my left toes.

When he’s cross facing me with his left shoulder I use the lockdown and extend my legs to pull him down, and get the pressure off my chin.

1. I push on his chin to make him look to his right. (It’s important to push on the chin and not on the side of his head cause it’s really hard for him to resist that.)

2. By doing that I create enough space to get my right hand through his armpit and block the cross-face.

3. I simultaneously a) press with both hands to push his chin/head further away and b) move my torso left and turn a bit into him.

4. Continue pushing with my right arm while I get the underhook with my left hand.

5. Go as much under him as I can.

6. Move my right hand off of his chin and on his left bicep.

If, on the other hand, he keeps his head down so I can’t push his chin to the side, I try to go to Butterfly Half Guard. Most of the time when he pushes his head down the legs get a little lighter so I’m able to lift them.

1. I lift his leg up, almost kicking it up.

2. Swing my left leg in. (It’s difficult to do this if you use the lockdown that’s on the first picture.)

3-6. Get the hook in and secure his leg.

I was going to save this for after I’d covered everything about my tournament, but I couldn’t resist the urge to share it after receiving my copy of Mastering the Rubber Guard by Eddie Bravo yesterday.

From what I’ve seen, the most common problems with (and arguments against) rubber guard are getting stacked, getting passed too easily, the demands on one’s flexibility and the risk of injury. I’ve experienced all of these problems myself and had mostly given up on rubber guard because of them.

It wasn’t until I attended Eddie Bravo’s seminar that I gained renewed interest and faith in the rubber guard. He taught details that handily fix most these problems. Seeing him teach it in person and hearing him repeatedly stress certain points made me realize how I’d be doing it wrong all along. I was missing all the little details on the grips and positions that are hard to pick up from photographs.

I now think most complaints about the rubber guard come from people who are studying it out of pictures in books and websites, like I was. It’s hard to learn the right pressure to maintain while doing rubber guard and you’ll miss little but important details without seeing and learning it in person.

I’ve only just gotten into the book, but already I see that Eddie has devoted a lot of the book to breaking down these details and the strategies that are missing from his previous book and online tutorials.

Let’s see if I can’t offer something he didn’t with a couple little details I’ve worked out.

A Common Problem

I want to open with a common problem I used to have with rubber guard, and one I suspect many others are still having. If you’ve played with rubber guard, you’ve probably had this happen more times than you care to count.

You’ve broken their posture and gotten mission control.

Your opponent reaches back. Oh boy, you can feel your triangle coming!

But before you get anywhere, he’s blocked your leg with his elbow and is crushing it to the mat. He’s not out yet though, so maybe there’s still hope for you.

Oh no, now you’re screwed. He’s gotten his knee in and really killed your rubber guard.

Maybe you’ll catch them in a “half rubber guard” of sorts and try to work from there (as I’ve seen done, and as Eddie shows in his book with moves like the Carni), but I’ll bet they’ll just keep driving through and try to explode your groin.

You’ll likely let go of your rubber guard because of the pain and pressure, and if you’re lucky and they don’t pass outright, you’ll end up in half guard.

The Fixes

In his book, Eddie devotes an entire chapter to troubleshooting common problems from rubber guard, including what to do when you they’ve stepped over your free leg. But I’d rather just avoid the situation entirely.

I worked out these details by experimenting with what he showed at his seminar, but I now see he describes them in the introduction to the rubber guard chapter of his book, in the section “Troubleshooting Mission Control”. Consider this the pictorial companion to his words.

To start fixing this problem, we’ve got to move back to before we’re even in rubber guard.

I’ve got a normal closed guard and I’m breaking their posture.

I step with my right foot on the hip as I climb my other leg up the back. This is actually where you start setting it up so he can’t pass over your leg. It’s hard to see, but you need to understand that I am squeezing my knees together with constant pressure, pinching them to his sides. I call this the “thigh master”.

When I grab my foot and go to mission control, my free leg is still thigh mastering against his ribs.

Compare this to the first picture in this tutorial, paying special attention to the position of my knee, and the relationship of his arm to my thigh. My knee is up under his armpit and my thigh is behind his triceps, blocking him from behind his elbow or reaching back and pressing down on the inside of my thigh.

Eddie stressed this point over and over again at his seminar, saying the ability to maintain this constant squeezing pressure with your legs is extremely important to a tight rubber guard (or any closed guard). He also said (and writes in his book) that it takes a while to build the endurance to keep the thigh master on all that time, but it will pay off when you can.

I’ve been trying to work the constant thigh master into my closed guard, and it’s one factor I attribute my tournament wins to. If you keep a constant squeeze (as well as pulling your heels to your butt), any high guard game becomes drastically tighter and harder to posture out of. Once you’ve got your legs conditioned, it’s harder to high guard well with loose legs because they’ll be able to posture up and rip out whenever they feel in danger. So putting in a little extra effort beforehand will prevent a lot of problems from arising later.

I can cover the basics of defending the stack as well as minimizing flexibility abuse and joint injury (which go hand in hand) at the same time.

Here is a view of mission control from the side.

The first point to notice is that I have my foot on the hip. This is my first defense to the stack, allowing me to push them off when they drive in. Simple enough. Eddie covers counters to the stack in his book that actually sweep and submit them.

This foot on the hip is also what saves my joints and reduces the demands on my flexibility. Even before I use it to defend the stack, I can use my foot on the hip to tell if I’ll be able to easily get rubber guard or not. If I can’t get my foot on the hip, I know my guard is too low and I’ll have to pull my leg too high to work rubber guard. I’ve seriously hurt my hip joint before by not keeping this point in.

Another way to gauge this is by the position of his head relative to my stomach. If he is at my sternum or above, I know I’ll have to really stretch to pull my leg up for rubber guard. If his face is in my stomach, down by my hips, then I know I am high enough that it won’t be hard to get rubber guard. Look at the angle between my back and my left leg, with my hip as the corner. It’s nothing extreme, like having to bring my foot to my face, and this is because I made sure to get my guard high enough that I could put my foot on the hip.

I know a lot of people have hurt their knees and even their ankles while trying rubber guard. I’ve never had problems with this, thankfully, and I think it is because I have always tried to bend at the hips more than trying to pull my knees or feet around. When you’re going for more demanding moves like tight omoplatas or gogoplatas, be careful with how much you pull your foot and how much stress is on your knee, and try to get your leg into place by bending at the hips.

Rubber guard does demand a degree of flexibility that most people have trouble with at first. Go easy at first, and don’t try it on anyone who’s going to spaz out and thrash out of it. Work on your flexibility; Eddie’s stretching chapter is great for this. Drill it for a while to get the steps and positions down.

If you want to really get into the rubber guard, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Eddie Bravo’s book, Mastering the Rubber Guard. What I’ve shown here is just a couple little scraps of the complete game he’s designed.

Consider this the first edition of Aesopian’s Tournament Tested Techniques. I’m starting off the series with the north-south escape that saved my bacon in the final match of the light weight blue belt division.

This move takes some flexibility in your back and hips, and long legs certainly help. I don’t recommend it as your main escape from north-south, but it’s well worth knowing so you can use it when the situation calls for it.

I am in the unfortunate situation of being stuck under north-south. I need to make sure he doesn’t hug my arms, or I won’t be able to push on his hips, and worse, I’m more vulnerable to kimuras.

Reach out and grab his hips with both hands. Shove him away, trying to lift his hips and scoot your chest down.

At the same time, stretch your legs and plant your feet…

...and drag yourself out some. Use the line between the mats as a reference to see how I’ve escaped my hips out.

This is where the reverse shrimping you never do and I get scoffed at for drilling comes in handy.

Shoving their hips and escaping yours down should put your head under their chest. My arms and neck are extremely exposed so I need to be quick with the escape.

When he sprawls to try to stop all of the wiggling I’ve been doing, I lock my arms out and shove his hips as high as I can.

I quickly start a backwards somersault motion, throwing my legs up on his back.

I get the first hook in and use it to pry myself out the rest of the way.

This is where a flexible back and long legs make themselves valuable. They will likely try to keep your upper body down and smash you from here.

To minimize the stress on your back and neck, roll over one shoulder.

Just keep digging your hooks in and using them to pull yourself on to their back. “Walk” on your shoulders and shake your upper body out until you’re free.

Free your self completely and enjoy your new position on their back.