A Tricky Kneebar From The Closed Guard With Gabriel Arges

Leg locks from the closed guard?  That’s crazy, right?  Not at all.  There are plenty of ways to get inot leg lock positions from the closed guard.  They are primarily used from when an opponent decides to stand up in your closed guard.  Leg locks can catch many opponents by surprise when they are set up from the closed guard.  This is because they are least expected from there. 

The closed guard is one of the best guards for a variety of reasons.  It is good for self-defense, MMA, gi, and no gi bjj.  The closed guard can also provide you with safety from many attacks.   Typically when you have someone in your closed guard it is very hard for them to submit you or attack you.  This position can provide you with safety and be a position when you build your guard from. 

Many beginners are exposed to the closed guard on their first day because it is often taught in fundamental bjj courses.  This is great way to develop your guard because many people consider the closed guard the foundation of the guard.

Today we are going to look at a more advanced attack from the closed guard with Gabriel Arges. If you are not familiar with Gabriel Arges you definitely should be.  He is a black belt under multiple time Black Belt world champ, Romulo Barral.  Gabriel has only been a black belt for a few years and he has managed to secure two Black Belt World Titles in the adult division of the IBJJF.  He was one of the only people to win his finals match in the black belt worlds by submission and it was with a knee bar.  Let’s take a look at his attack below and then we will break it down.

Kneebar from the Closed Guard by Gabriel Arges

 Breakdown of the kneearges from Closed Guard with Gabriel Arges:

So as you can see above, Gabriel is setting this omoplata up when his opponent stands in his closed guard.  Many people stand in the closed guard so that they are able to pass the guard easier.  This situation is tough to deal with if you do not have a game plan.  What you don’t want to happen when playing closed guard is allowing your opponent to stand and pass immediately.

When his opponent stands, Gabriel is going to control his opponents sleeve. Controlling the sleeve will make it so that your opponent cannot grab your pants and so that you can also keep their posture somewhat broken.  This sleeve control will allow you to shift your hips so that you can shoot for the omoplata.

Once Gabriel shoots for the omoplata he is already thinking about the knee bar.  This omoplata is an amazing distraction because his opponent will focus on the danger of it and forget about his legs.  It is always a good strategy to threaten one submission in order to get another.  Once he is ready, Gabriel will invert and attack the knee.

Gabriel’s main goal is to off balance and sweep is opponent so that he can land in a belly down knee bar.  This is one of the set ups that Gabriel was able to use at the highest levels of competition.  It may seem unorthodox, but you will have the element of surprise with this attack.

There are two main components to being successful with this attack.  The first is that you do the omoplata with the intent of finishing it.  This is because it will allow you to have a realistic reaction.  If you do the omoplata lightly then your opponent may not give you a real reaction.  That being said, if you end up getting the omoplata, that is a good thing.  Marcelo Garcia infamously sets up his X Guard and Single Leg X by doing a butterfly sweep.  He always says to try and get the sweep because if you sweep them then that is a good thing, if you don’t maybe you get X guard or single leg x.  This is the same principle.

The second thing is that you have to be able to sweep your opponent to get the finish.  This is critical.  There are many ways to sweep your opponent in this position but the way that Gabriel showed us is fantastic because it will allow us to end up with a belly down knee bar.  This move can come on fast so always go slowly.

If you want to learn more knee bar set ups with Gabriel he just released his DVD The Kneebarges.  This DVD is also available as a digital download.  Check it out below.