1. Keep Your Legs Between You
and Your Opponent
I mentioned this before, but it is the
single most "basic" principle of playing
guard, yet one that eludes a lot of students
who are too locked into thinking in terms
of the guard as a series of "moves."
Keep your knees to your chest (unless you
are in the process of stretching your opponent
out) and always maintain an obstruction
between you and your opponent, and you will
always have a guard.
2. Foot Placement
Wherever you put your feet there should
be some pressure on your opponent -- a
transfer of weight when posting on a hip,
bicep, thigh, etc. or pressure with a hook.
This does not mean your whole leg is tense,
just that there is pressure. This is your sensitivity,
your "feelers" to tell what your opponent is doing,
not to mention it's huge for protecting you from leg
locks!
3. Grips
It often happens that whoever gets the dominant
grips first in an exchange wins. The grip game is
huge for gi or no gi (as it is for MMA, but everything
happens a lot quicker there or you get popped!).
However, the grip game is most sophisticated at the
gi level. Always think of what your dominant grips
are, offensively and defensively, as you go through
process of defining your routes. When you get them,
don't hesitate. When you lose a grip exchange, be
ready to BUST A MOVE to intercept your opponent
and immediately re-establish dominant grips.
4. Hip Movement
If leverage is the heart of BJJ, then use of the hips
is the soul. The two work hand-in-hand to create
the postures and levers that make jiu-jitsu work so
efficiently.
Developing good hip movement in all planes
facilitates all the other aspects of the guard.
It means creating defensive space and posture as
well as angles of attack (remember peripheral
offense).
Many times fixing a technical "mistake" in BJJ is
as simple as moving your hips more or earlier.
5. Attacks
The first four were all essential for guard retention,
although also important for attacking. As for the
attacks themselves, these include the constant
pressure to submit, sweep, or reverse an opponent,
or to sit or stand up out of the guard altogether.
Drill all four elements until your arms and legs
work fluidly and in conjunction without thinking,
and just as you have defined your positional
routes, also define your offensive routes and ability
to attack in combination.
