Top 3 Closed Guard Tips for Jiu Jitsu Beginners

By Fanatics Authors, November 27, 2018

The 3 Fundamentals of Closed Guard for Beginners

Whether you’ve just started training or have been training for a long time we’re often told that closed guard is a good position to attack from. It is a popular position in both Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and in MMA. It is often times the first guard that many people learn, and it is one of the positions that even casual fans of grappling and MMA are familiar with. Therefore it is essential to learn to have an aggressive closed guard. But sometimes it can be hard to set something up, especially against a guy who has a solid base and knows how to defend properly.

You can do many things from closed guard, from sweeps to submissions. This is, in theory, because the position can be considered somewhat safe. With that being said, it is not a position you want to hang out in – especially in a street fight scenario when someone will likely be throwing punches at your face or attempting to strangle you to death.

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Here are three important fundamentals to remember when in closed guard.

Establish Your Grips

Strong grips are one of the most fundamental principles of BJJ. Grips will make or break your technique. It’s important to secure proper grips in both Gi and No Gi jiu jitsu for submission attempts as well as proper control. In closed guard, your job is to break your opponent’s grips, and get inside control before establishing grips of your own. Whoever has the inside control is going to have the dominate position, and dictate where the match goes. The importance of the collar grip from guard cannot be understated.

Break Down Your Opponent’s Posture

Breaking an opponent’s posture could be the most important detail to securing both sweeps and submissions while in closed guard. Whether your opponent wants to pass or stall while in your closed guard they are going to need to retain posture in order to stay defensive. It is vital to break this posture.

Once you have your grips the next step you should be focused on is breaking down your opponent’s posture. Here you can start threatening chokes, arm bars, omoplatas and more. With a strong cross collar grip you can pull your knees forward and force your opponent to lose his posture. From here it is essential to escape your hips to the side, which will allow you a free leg (and knee) to prevent your opponent from posturing up, even if you lose your grips.

Sweep Your Opponent

Once you’ve broken your opponent’s posture you should be setting yourself up for a sweep. There are many different ways to get into a sweep position, as well as many different sweeps. One example of an essential, high percentage sweep is the hip bump sweep. It is a sweep that you can always use and come back to, even when your game evolves further. It is a strong sweep that even white belts can win matches with. The important part about sweep is that it gets you to the mount position without expending too much energy. Check out how you can train to get a strong hip bump sweep.

Whether you’re a complete beginner or have been practicing jiu jitsu for many years, you will always be training and improving upon your closed guard. By practicing closed guard with these fundamentals in mind, you will quickly improve your BJJ game. Closed guard will teach you many things, from sweeps to submissions, to the essentials of having strong grips. Over many years of training it will certainly be one of the moves that you make into your own.