The Specialists
THE TAPPER'S TOOLBOX: Fixing the little mistakes in your BJJ game - "How to break guard"
Sep 1, 2010 - 11:36:41 AM THE TAPPER'S TOOLBOX: Fixing the little mistakes in your BJJ game - "How to break guard"

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By: Rob Gramer, MMATorch Specialist

No matter what guard breaking technique you use, they all share one similarity. And if you "get" this you'll never be stuck in guard again.

Here's the story:

For nine years now, new white belts have been jamming their elbows into my thighs, trying to break my guard. As a white and blue belt it really hurt, and I would immediately open my guard. As a purple, it was annoying. Now I just laugh at it.

Have you ever tried that technique? Well, do you notice that it stops working on the higher belts?

When you take a closer look at this technique, you'll see it actually HELPS the guy on bottom keep his guard closed.

Don't believe me? Try this little experiment.

Lay on your back like you have just pulled guard. First, open your legs as wide as possible while keeping your ankles crossed.



Next, close and straighten your legs and touch your knees together.



You should notice two things…

First, when you open your legs your feet "lock" together, making it easier to keep your guard closed. Second, when you close your legs your feet "unlatch".

Here's the takeaway from all this - there are thousands of ways to break the guard, but you only really have to remember one thing:

You must uncross their feet!

Sounds simple in theory. Not exactly easy in execution. Let's break down exactly what is going on in closed guard, so that you can understand exactly how to open it every time.

First, let's take a look at structure.

The more space that is in between your legs, the more difficult it is to keep the guard closed.

Think of it this way. If you are fighting a skinny person, it is relatively easy to keep your guard locked on them. But, if you are fighting a huge fat guy, you probably can't even lock your guard around them.

That's the concept of space. So, you need to increase the space inside the closed guard to break it open.

The easiest way to do this is to put pressure on his locked ankles by pushing your lower back into them. This pulls his knees together and straightens his legs (like in the picture), forcing his guard open.

Here's how to do it.

Step One: Provide some sort of strong base to push off. I like to place one hand on his ribcage and the other on his hips. This allows me to keep posture and hold his hips in place.

Step Two: Increase the distance between his hips and your lower back. This automatically puts pressure on his feet and pops open his guard.

Step Three: Immediately go into a position where he can't close guard again. I like putting my knee up between my legs.

This is my way of doing it. There are many others.

The critical question you have to answer in guard is: how can I push my lower back into his ankles? Find out how to do this, and you'll never get stuck in guard again.

Rob Gramer is a mechanical engineer and BJJ brown belt. For more BJJ articles with a scientific bent and a free report revealing the 33 Grips every grappler must know, visit www.backchoke.com