Combining structure and attacks from the open guard

I’ve been thinking a lot about the open guard lately. My instructor has always emphasized the need for structure from the open guard. In his sword guard, his main point has always been get structure first, so your opponent can’t put his weight on you and has few options to move safetly. Once the structure is intact, then you can initiate your sweep and submission combos. If you don't have structure to slow your opponent down and limit his attacks, you have to rely on attributes.

For a long time, I’ve experimented with different types of guards, which have used speed, flexibility and strength. I never realized that I was doing that until I ran into someone who either had more of those attributes or was able to shut one of them down.

So I started to divide things up and worked on guards that had good structure. What I mean by that is I had my control of their head and arms and my knees were in positions so that I couldn’t be crushed down. Often times it would be hard for my opponent to put weight on me or to move from that position. But the problem was, there was no threat. Once they were able to move, then I was behind the game again. Usually they could pass, as I didn’t have structural answers to the next step they placed and there was no submission threat either.

I’d then go back to more of an attacking guard where I’d be working for sweeps and submissions. With this I’d either get the sweep or the submission or I’d get passed. It always felt like a tradeoff and depending on the level of my opponent, the ratios would change. If they could get passed the submissions, there was no structure to prevent them from crushing and passing or pinning and passing.

So yesterday I started experimenting with the spider guard and the shin guard. The object was to see how to set them both up at first. I was working with JS so it was going to be quick feedback if the position wasn’t working. After about 30 minutes, the structure started to seem to work. That was the first step.

The shin guard seemed more versatile to me, and I noticed that the shin across the middle line made it very difficult for him to put his weight on me.

But again, only having the structure made it simply a matter of him adjusting, moving and restarting his pass.

So the next step would be to use what the structure gives you. And that means sweeps and submissions.

The shin guard has a fairly basic sweep in the direction that you have your shin on their bicep. For some reason this was all I tried at first, before realizing I needed to try to sweep the other direction as well. Once I started combing those it opened things up. I could try rock from side to side and if that didn't work, pull into closed guard and go for a pendulum sweep from there.

The combinations seemed more effective since I felt I wasn't exhausting myself to unbalance him or initiate attacks. The structure of the guard makes him move and then it's a matter of figuring out where he'll move and reacting as he does that.

I need more practice with this as I don't have the mental Rolodex yet to know what reactions people will do so that's just a matter of mat time.

Also worked with MB and he worked on popping his hips forward and having his head straight up. It took me a while to realize that maybe holding on to a wrist or a sleeve and moving backwards would have an "ab wheel" type of effect. Still need more work on that though as I'm not happy with the options I was coming up with.

But I think this idea of structure and getting handles on the person is a good concept.

I look at it this way: proper structure protects you and slows your opponent down. If they’re slowed down, it makes it much easier to catch them with submissions and sweeps. If there’s only structure with no follow through or just submissions and sweeps being thrown at them, they just have to avoid them and they’ve passed. But if the two concepts are combined, it becomes much more difficult for the opponent to survive as they can’t start an attack and are always being attacked.

Side mount work

Worked with JS and CW today. With JS it was first side mount escapes and secondly side mount control and attack. With the escapes, I’m just reminding myself constantly of rule #1 Stay Safe. I’m trying to anticipate his attacks so I can move in that direction right when he moves. It is difficult to even try standard reversals as his hips are so low and his base so good, that it feels like it’s a waste of energy.
Felt this with CW as well. He has a more patient and methodical game, but starting with his sidemount sunk in, it felt damn near impossible to get out. Again, I stuck with rule #1 and kept trying to predict his next move.

Now part of me is not a big fan of this approach. It feels very passive and is dependent upon the other guy moving. But on the otherhand, I want to conserve energy to a degree in a position like this. I definitely felt calm, lucid and safe. But I guess I’m wondering is this enough or is this at least the step for now?
I know this wouldn’t be a good tournament mentality, but that’s not really what I’m doing this for in the first place.

I guess another mentality is that getting stuck in those positions is a worst-case scenario. But it happens and I want to keep making sure I strike a balance of safety while still making things happen or at least acknowledging the reality of the situation.

JS and I also worked on my top game side control. This is still not a strong point and he is an extremely difficult person to keep pinned down. Need to write out a flow chart or the story of side mount as I see it right now. Still finding the times to pin verses the times for attacks.
See some interesting possibilities of combing the Rigan twister with the arm in guillotine, the anaconda and the D’arce. Need to really focus on far hip control with all of these.

He was excellent at getting to his side and facing me. Felt that both reverse kesa and kazuri leave me vulnerable to getting swept. Also wondering whether the idea is to prevent someone like that from getting to their side or just attack the position they’re in.

Again it comes down to efficiency and taking the situation right where it is, rather than deciding it “needs” to be a certain way. Really like the triple attack and setting up from knee on stomach. Makes me realize I need to map out this position even more as I don’t have nearly enough chains.

I'm going to keep picking the guys who I think are best at this and work my escapes while at the same time continuing to practice my top attacks. This is still my weakest top position and it's time to change that.

Training notes 8/11/09

Had some good training yesterday with TO. Felt like I was using way too much strength and that my flow was not where it should be. Probably over training a little and am probably taking today off fully. Always feel the need to push at times like this, but maybe pulling back is the smarter move.

Seeing the grapevine grip in closed guard situations. I still like the clamp when I get the hand to the mat, but thinking that if I can keep the same principals from the overhook halfguard triangle and sweep setups,

Felt like the clamp and pulling the foot over to omoplata is still a dangerous position to put my knee in. May try to work the overhook, get on my side and maybe even bait them to push my leg down to get the grip.
From half guard could put other foot on hip to work triangle. Or put hook in to work butterfly sweep.

I need to experiment with this more but again feels more and more like each position is an extension of another and they are all just transitions. I still find myself getting into trouble when I look at something as “half guard” or “full guard” etc. rather than just seeing the principals and just letting the flow take it where it should.

From top position, still working knee on stomach, elbow and wrong knee. Want to start working in some toe holds and bat chokes to help set up arm locks and triple attacks.
For open guard, trying to make sure that all my appendages are accounted for. Want everything to be a handle or controlling point. Using my head, hands, knees, elbows, shoulders, hips and feet. Notice that at times when I’m going for omoplatas, triangles etc. that one leg is simply there to go over the shoulder rather than messing with the base etc. When there is separation, I’m in trouble, especially with someone fast, strong or explosive.

Controling to motivate mistakes

Worked with the Mighty JH last night and MB this afternoon. Again doing the knee on stomach, wrong knee, elbow combo. With JH was definitely forcing the pin and see how exhausting that can be.

Felt better this afternoon with MB seeing how things can transition to the triple attack, to back control, one cheek sneak armlock, bat chokes etc. The pin is merely a motivating factor. I’m working on the balance for that.

One the bottom game, I’m mainly working on making sure everything is occupied with doing something productive. If the upper body is working a submission, the lower body is pushing out his base. If my legs are tying his legs up, I want to make sure my arms are pulling him off balance. And if my legs are working on his upper body, I want to make sure my arms are checking his base, moving my body etc.

Knee on stomach and invisible knee.

Got some good training with the ever Zen TO today. Again the concepts of needing to coordinate my upper and lower half came into play when I felt the blinders go on as I went for a guillotine from butterfly guard. I forgot about my feet for just a second and he immediately passed.

In that particular situation, I think using the guillotine to hook sweep, or maybe pushing his knees out or even just keeping my feet at his hips would be some effective options. This is going to take some time to drill into my head as I am definitely consistently making this mistake in many areas.

Worked on knee on stomach and invisible knee for a little bit as well. I still really like this technique but need to get more precise on my knee and elbow placement.

He used the defense of turning away and bringing knee to elbow. Normally I use this as a chance to take the back, but realized I could and probably should jump to the other side and do knee on stomach on that side.

Felt a little more tired than I wanted to be after the roll. Conditioning is still coming back but for some reason the knee on stomach seems to tire me out as much as my opponent and I’m not quite sure why that is.

Definitely see how that position can lead to the Rigan twister as well as people want to turn in, especially once the knee is on the ground. I’m liking this better than the D’arce right now as I feel like I have better control and a submission, while the D’arce can be hit or miss.

Half guard angles and more 10%

Been working on the next phase of half guard, which involves overhooking attacks. Worked with TG yesterday and the mighty JH today. Both presented some interesting problems and were good at nullifying my lazy, get pinned and bridge half guard. While I still think the techniques on that one are effective, they are not the first line of attack so it’s time to put them in the proper order.

I really enjoy playing the triangle/omoplata game from the half guard overhook but one thing I am not doing well is getting the proper angle. I’m getting better at getting on my side, but I’m still too close which lets the person on top posture up too easily at they have a perpendicular angle to push again.

What I need to work on is that extra hip out motion which will flatten the opponent out more. I should also get my outside hook in from here to prevent the slice through pass and to also give me the option of the hook sweep.

In a way, it’s similar to using 45-degree angles in other positions. It seems like it’s always better to have this angle because then the guy on first needs to get back to his centerline first before he can posture up.

Felt that the knee across the hip guard is a little limiting in certain positions. The Roger sweep seems to work sometimes and not at all at others. I haven’t developed the sensitivity yet to figure out when that is and when it’s not.

Also still trying to figure out when to get underneath for that type of half guard. I’m not sold on it yet as the Mighty JH was cradling me when I tried that and I had to get wrist control and pry him away. There was no moving and I’m just not sure if that’s a great guard for someone my height to be using. The jury’s still out on that one.

I also need to work on framing off the bicep or the far hip to get on my side and also to have pressure on their shoulder to keep their head down. If they start to get their arm out of the overhook I should then swim in for the underhook and get ready to clamp down and shotput sweep towards that arm.
Also had plenty of practice working on the vital 10% again. It’s still scary to get that close to the flame but I need to keep doing it. I feel very calm but not taking a moment for granted either. It’s necessary and I’m enjoying it even though it scares me.

The upper/lower connection and the 10%.

Rolling with GC last night made me realize that my upper and lower body are not moving together the way they should be. My instructor had told me this last week in regards to my half guard, but I realized last night, this is an overall problem for me.

I kept looking for half guard when it wasn’t there as GC tends to pass standing and that makes it tough to get a half guard. The De La Riva was there but I’m normally not a big fan of it.

After sparring, he and I were drilling De La Riva and coming up with some interesting variations. One of which, I think I’ll call the De La Vandry as it uses Will’s X-guard technique of instep to instep control but from a de la Riva rather than x-guard. It seems to eliminate the knee bar threat but still keeps the opponent tripped up and stretched out.

But while we were drilling GC kept emphasizing for me to grab the collar or the sleeve and I realized I never do that properly. My legs are in decent position but I’m not pulling the opponent down.

And I started to think about my half guard and realized while I’m emphasizing leg and hip movement, I’m not controlling, attacking and defending properly with my upper body. I’m actually giving up those elements and relying on my legs to save me.

GC made me quickly aware of the danger of that by never letting me comfortably set up half guard in the first place. I relied on people “accepting” half guard and a skilled player won’t do that. Again it’s coordinating the upper and the lower together.

Thinking about it a little more I realize the opposite is also true. When my upper body movement is decent my lower body is off. This is especially true with arm drags where my timing is decent but my lower body control is not there. If someone has a feel for my timing, the can just go with the momentum of the drag into an easy pass.

The solution for all this is probably straight up drilling, positional drilling and more than anything being aware of this problem. I had never really thought about it before last week.

The 10%

Another thing that came up in training was the concept of 10%

One of my good training partners, MB, is really good at shutting down the last 10% of someone’s submission. Against someone who’s inexperienced or panics, 90% is usually all you need to get the tap. But when someone knows how to shut down the vital 10%, the attacker, even with 90%, will not be able to get the tap.

What’s most important about that 10% is that most attackers will think they have the tap if they only push a little more or squeeze a little harder. If you can continue to shut down the 10%, control your breathing and your mindset, you should be able to wait out the fire. Meanwhile the 90 percenter will most likely burn himself out.

I’ve been on the 90% side of things many times. I’ve felt myself squeeze the hell out of a triangle or strain for that armlock and have someone just…barely….get out. It’s extremely frustrating and tiring to be on that end of things. You just gave them your best shot and they’re still standing. Often times I couldn’t even tell what I was doing wrong.

So now I’m starting to focus on figuring out the 10%. My instinct is to scramble in these situations rather than really assess what needs to be done for the lock or choke to work. Often times it becomes a game of inches. If you can figure out tiny roadblocks to put up, most people won’t be able to feel them. If you can give someone false confidence that they’re almost there, that if they push just a little bit harder, I think that’s entering the realm of the 10%.

Now I expect this will lead to me getting tapped a lot and having to deal with a certain amount of fear. These are positions that have always made me panic. But if I learn where those roadblocks are, I force the opponent to make an adjustment. And adjustments almost always mean making space for a moment to move. And if I can furthermore start to anticipate what direction they’ll need to move and can work on the timing, I can start turning the 10% into 15% and so on.