Guard (martial arts)
The guard is a position in grappling in which a fighter lies on his back while trying to control the other fighter with the help of his legs.
It is, so to speak, the counterpart to the Mount , in which the controlling fighter does not lie on his back but sits on top, but exercises the same control.
In pure grappling martial arts (without "hitting") the guard is a control position. It does not bring in any points at tournaments; However, it serves as a “setup” for attacks such as chokes, leg attacks and levers.
In MMA or in hand-to-hand combat in general, it also makes it possible to minimize hits by the attacker by reducing the distance to a minimum.
There are different types of guards, each with different advantages and disadvantages.
The guard is a key element in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu so it can be used as an offensive position.
In judo it is unofficially known under the name "dō-osae", which is Japanese and means something like "trapped in the trunk". In catch wrestling it is known as the “front body scissor”. However, the term should not be confused with the " scissor sweep" , which also exists in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and represents a change of position. In this case, the legs are bent and twist into each other like scissors.
Guard pulling
Pulling the opponent from a standing position directly into a guard position is known as guard pulling . Tsunetane Oda, a judo master who died in 1955, demonstrated this technique on video.
variants
Closed Guard
The "closed guard" is also known as "full guard". She is the "typical", "classic" guard. The legs get caught behind the back of the opponent or at least bend in such a way that he is prevented from getting up. The opponent has to open his legs in order to improve his position and, for example, apply a leg lock on his part or change to another position such as "side control".
The lower fighter, on the other hand, has several options:
- He can schedule a submission , i.e. force the opponent to give up.
- He can continue to control and hold the opponent, which can be useful in tournaments, for example, to keep up with the time or, for example, "on the street" until help such as the police arrives.
- He can change his position to a position that is even more advantageous for him ( transition ), for example on his back or in another guard, for example an "open guard".
In this he can move himself better, but the risk that the opponent will escape is also greater.
Open Guard
The "Open Guard" is also typically used for attacks.
The legs can be used to move the opponent and thus achieve leverage. It allows the opponent to stand up and try a guard pass. Therefore, the Open Guard is often used as an intermediate step to set up a sweep or other techniques.
Open Guard is an overarching collective term that includes many types of guard positions. In these, the legs are used in very different ways to pull, push, hook the opponent and thus bring him off balance.
Butterfly Guard
With the "Butterfly Guard" ("Butterfly Guard"), both ankles are hooked into the legs of the opponent to be controlled. The control of the opponent takes place through the fixation of the arms as well as the "imbalance".
It is often short-lived until the opponent has moved free. The controller must constantly follow the opponent's relatively free movements. So it is not a “static” guard, but requires constant readjustment of the weight shift, pulling and pushing.
However, the leverage of the legs allows for good sweeps.
In MMA, it prevents the damage lying on the ground from taking ground & pound, i.e. receiving blows. The technique is also known in catch wrestling as "double elevator".
X-Guard
The "X-Guard" is an open guard in which the fighter to be controlled stands while the other lies on his back or side. A good X-Guard fighter can almost completely compensate for the disadvantages that a person lying on the floor has compared to a standing person (risk of being "kicked").
The Half Guard , which represents a completely separate subgroup within the Guard system, or the Butterfly Guard are often used as the setup for the X-Guard .
The X-Guard was made famous by the BJJ black belt Marcelo Garcia.
Spider Guard
The "Spider Guard" comprises several positions, which include the control of the opponent using the soles of the feet on the arms, biceps, hips and thighs or in alternation / combinations.
It is most effective when the opponent's sleeves can be grasped. Therefore it is mostly used in battles with GI. In MMA it hardly plays a role, as it is difficult or even impossible to grasp sweaty knuckles securely with an opponent who wants to tear himself away.
It is often used as a setup for sweeps and submissions.
De la Riva Guard
The "De la Riva guard" (also known as "De la Riva hook" and "jello guard") is a guard known from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt carrier Ricardo de la Riva Goded, who competed successfully with her in tournaments have been done. One leg is "wrapped" around the opponent's leg from the outside.
Control the leg with one hand and the sleeve with the other. The De la Riva Guard is ideal for many sweeps, transitions and submissions, and is often used in combination with the Spider Guard. However, the transition from and to Butterfly-Guard and X-Guard is also possible.
Like the Spider-Guard, it does not play a role in MMA due to the lack of an option to control the arm.
Rubber guard
This is a "closed guard". The simple rubber guard as shown in the picture was first used by Nino Schembri ; However, Eddie Bravo made it known and expanded it to a complete system .
Many techniques including sweeps, submissions, defending against blows were developed from this position.
The prerequisite for injury-free use of this system is that the hips are well stretched in order to prevent knee damage. The application of these techniques is in some ways comparable to high kicks, for example in Kung Fu or Tae Kwon Do : They are effective when they are performed well. However, years of specific training (not the leg muscles, but the hips) is required to perform them.
The techniques were specially designed for MMA, but due to the high degree of specialization, there is comparatively little feedback.
Well-known MMA fighters who use the rubber guard system are Ben Saunders , Nathan Orchard and Dustin Hazelett
50-50 Guard
The 50-50 (fifty-fifty) guard is a position that became known through its use by the Mendes Mendes brothers Rafael Mendes and Guilherme Mendes, both Brazilian black belt carriers , as well as Bruno Frazzato , Ryan Hall and Ramon Lemos from the Atos Jiu-Jitsu team . In other grappling systems such as catch wrestling and sambo , it is a form and is used as a kind of "leg triangle from the outside" to control the opponent.
In this position, the fighter crosses his legs on the floor in a triangle choke so that the leg is under control while the arms are free to be used for submissions and sweeps.
The position is so called because both opponents are in the same starting position - sitting / lying opposite. Basically, both can carry out the same attack from this position. In order to be successful, the fighter simply has to know better what opportunities he has from this position and be able to plan the opponent's moves better than his opponent.
The position has been heavily criticized for its use in tournaments because many leg locks such as the "heel hook", the "knee bar" or the "toe hold" are often forbidden.
This causes them to stall the fight. because one fighter can't fit and the other can't sweep.
Escape from the Guard (Guard Pass)
In order to get out of the guard into a more advantageous position from which, for example, a sweep or a submission can be scheduled, the fighter must escape from the guard, so they “pass”.
There are different Guard Passes. Some work with pain at various pressure points , so that the opponent opens the guard voluntarily.
Examples of this would be pressing the elbow into the inner thigh, standing up, neck cranks , or in the case of mixed martial arts simply hitting the opponent (which, as mentioned above, is risky because the person lying on the ground has better control and the hitter risks his balance.)
This can generally be used with guard passes, for example for a sweep.
Simple guard pass
The “Simple guard pass” also known as the “arm / leg pull” is a guard pass, which is described in the technical collection The Essence Of Judo by Kyuzo Mifune (1883–1965). Kyuzo Mifune, who had the tenth dan in Kodokan Judo, is considered to be one of the best judo technicians of all time.
Furthermore, it is an unnamed technique described in his book The Canon Of Judo . The main feature of this pass is that the fighter steps sideways around the opponent's leg while simultaneously pulling the side of the opponent's leg.
So he uses the leverage to break open the guard.
Stacking guard pass
The "Stacking Guard Pass" is also described in The Essence Of Judo , and it is also listed as an unnamed technique in The Canon Of Judo .
The main feature of the technique is that the performer exerts so much pressure on his opponent against the ground, possibly up to the neck crank, that he lets go when he is in an open guard.
Near knee guard pass
The “Near Knee Guard Pass” is also demonstrated in Essence Of Judo . The main feature of this pass is that the performer brings his knee under the opponent's tailbone to raise him slightly. He also puts pressure on the knees by twisting the hips. He then presses his knee into the opponent's inner thigh to make him open the guard
Double under pass
The "double under pass" is a pass in which between the legs of the opponent is reached with both arms under the thighs. The opponent is raised in this way, the guard is "raised" upwards, so to speak. At the end the opponent pulls out his head and is then free.
Since enough space is required under the opponent's crotch to get both hands through, this technique often has to be prepared by other techniques such as the near knee guard pass when the guard is very tight. Conversely, however, it can also be used as a “plan B” if other techniques do not promise sufficient success.
See also
- Mount (martial arts)
- Grappling
- Grab handle (martial arts)
- Backmount (martial arts)
- Half Guard
- Side control
- North-South position (martial arts)
Web links
- Løvstad, Jakob. The mixed martial arts primer . www.idi.ntnu.no . URL last accessed March 6, 2006. (DOC format)
- Page, Nicky. Groundfighting 101 . homepage.ntlworld.com . URL last accessed March 4, 2006.
- Kesting, Stephan. The X guard position . www.grapplearts.com . URL last accessed March 7, 2006.
- Bravo, Eddie (2006) Mastering The Rubber Guard ISBN 0-9777315-9-6 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Miller, Chris. Grappling / Submission Fighting . hsma1.com . URL last accessed on March 4, 2006.
- ↑ Toshikazu Okada. Master Tsunetane Oda
- ↑ Tsunetane Oda - judo ne-waza 2 of 3
- ↑ "The Closed Guard, accessed on December 28, 2017 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ "The Butterfly Guard, accessed on December 28, 2017 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Marcelo Garcia, Eric Hendrikx, Glen Cordoza, Erich Krauss: The X-Guard: Gi & No Gi Jiu-Jitsu (= Sport Series ). illustrated. Tuttle Publishing, 2008, ISBN 0-9777315-0-2 , pp. 260 .
- ↑ "The Spider Guard, accessed on December 28, 2017 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ "The De La Riva Guard, accessed on December 28, 2017 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ "The Rubber Guard, accessed on December 28, 2017 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ "The 50/50 Guard, accessed on December 28, 2017 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Kyuzo Mifune: The Canon Of Judo . Kodansha International Ltd., ISBN 4-7700-2979-9 .
