What was the first guard you learned? Everyone agrees that guard position is one of the absolute foundations of Jiu jitsu. The heavy emphasis on guard play is probably the single most distinctive part of Jiu jitsu that separates it most from the other grappling arts. There are many types of guard – which did you learn first? Most students begin with closed guard. There are good reasons for this. Closed guard represents one of the great ideals of Jiu jitsu – the ability to attack while not being oneself open to the opponents attack – an opponent can't attack you with passes or submissions until he first opens your guard. However, many students struggle to actually apply the major moves from closed guard as the position overall often feels very unfamiliar and unnatural to a beginner. I often find that beginners do better as far as effectiveness from bottom position is concerned with half guard rather than closed guard. So when it's time to teach bottom position to a raw beginner, try using closed guard to illustrate important concepts and half guard to make them effective in sparring in minimum time.
