Learning The Guard First
Posted by Corey Kuropas on
When you first start to learn Jiu Jitsu, the most important spot you can practice is the guard, the full guard. The guard allows for many offensive and defensive opportunities. It also a relatively easy to get to the position. Besides all of that, unless you wrestled while in school, you will probably find yourself on your back time and time again against former wrestlers or people that are large and strong. That is just one of the first reasons why learning the guard first is important.
There is more to this though, than just ending up on your back. Some of the most high percentage and successful submissions come from the guard. The armbar, the triangle, the kimura and the omoplata are submissions that you will be able to submit opponents with over and over. They work on the mats at your gym, and they work for the best black belts in the world. By learning this position first, you are putting yourself in a good spot to get the high amount of reps needed to become a master of those techniques. If you want to compete, you can make a career off of submitting people from the guard. Start at white belt and by the time you are a high ranking student, you will be scary, and be able to submit anyone who comes into your guard.
While guard is certainly not the only position that is of importance in BJJ, it can actually help you get to other positions that you will learn. One of this position’s advantages is the array of sweeps that come from it. Easy, and simple sweeps will allow you to get to the coveted mount position. So by learning guard, you can then learn the mount. That way you can have two positions where you can be dominant from and you can make your Jiu Jitsu game even more diverse. The guard gives you a gateway to that other position. It will open up doors to other aspects of Jiu Jitsu.
Learning the guard will also help with your overall Jiu Jitsu movement. When you learn the guard, you will learn the subtle ways on how you will move on the mat, especially in a live situation such as sparring. You will be able to adapt your body to BJJ. By playing it at first, you will learn how to move your hips and how to use them in a strong manner. Besides that, you will learn how to control your opponent’s upper body, hand fight and break posture. All of those are important concepts that will transcend the full guard and cross over into other parts of the Jiu Jitsu world.
Everyone uses the guard. Even if you are not a bottom player per say, you will eventually end up on your back and will have to make use of the guard. But for someone that is starting the Jiu Jitsu journey, the guard should be your focus. Once you have a good guard, other positions will be at your disposal, but no matter what you will still this position to fall back on if you are less successful in other spots. Even top notch competitors know the benefit of the guard. BJJ champion, Claudio Calasans just released a new four DVD set, which two of the DVD’s are focused on the guard. This awesome set can help out anyone wanting to improve their guard.
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