I am very happy to announce the release today of my latest instructional video as the third of the new wave series open guard : THE TWO FOUNDATIONS OF GUARD PLAY. My students are well known for their ability to come out from the start of a match, sit to guard position, and immediately impose an attacking game that very often ends in submission. Their ability to do is based on two foundational skills. The first is guard retention. You can't attack successfully if opponents can just breeze past your legs and pin you. You have to be able to hold the position long enough and comfortably enough that you can attack in combinations over time. My approach to guard play is based on the notion of offensive and defensive cycles. The more time you can spend in offensive cycles and force opponents into defensive cycles, the more exciting and devastating your guard game will be. As such, retention by itself is not enough. You have to be able to launch counter offense at the completion of every retention sequence to throw yourself back into an offensive cycle and take charge of the action. I show our maximizing knowledge/denial method of guard retention with does exactly this. The second great skill is leg lock entry and finish. I favor leg attacks as the foundational attacking skill from guard play because the legs are always available for attack and because the legs are your opponents base – if you threaten his base it's very hard for him to focus on his passing game. I show how to enter the legs from everywhere and lock on intimidating finishing grips. Once you develop this skill you will be able to keep opponents locked in a defensive cycle for long periods of time and shut down much of their game. If it sounds like something you might be interested in – check it out at BJJ Fanatics – the link is in my Instagram Bio
