GRAPPLING CONCEPTS LESSON 14: Off the Hook, Standing

GRAPPLING CONCEPTS LESSON 14: Off the Hook, Standing Posture in Open Guard

Hi, guys! Welcome back to week 14 of the 26 week Grappling Concepts Course. And today we’re going to look at posture again with my friend and training partner Jason Parry helping me out.

'Posture' applies to many different situations. Most classically this term is used as shorthand to designate posture in the closed guard (head up, basing with your arms, caging the hips, etc.). This is what we covered last week in lesson 13.

But posture also applies when you're in someone's open guard. This should not be a surprise, because we've already addressed this topic a little bit by addressing posture against the butterfly guard in Lesson 10.

The challenge is that the open guard is a very open ended position. There are many different variations of open guard and there are lots of ways that your opponent might grip or hook your body. It is tough to have a single form posture that works against all types of open guard.

But in all forms of open guard posture It's important NOT to get stretched out (like in the picture to the right). In this position you’re not in balance and you’re giving him great access with his hooks allowing him to push and pull you, off-balancing you.

In fact, much of lot of open guard posture is actually about shutting down the hooks.

Standing up in open guard has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages include that it makes your upper body safer. If I’m on my knees, there’s always the danger of armbars, triangles, guillotine chokes, and collar chokes (only with the gi, obviously).

This is Lesson 1 from the Online Grappling Concepts Course: www.grapplearts.tv

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Upper body submissions are always a huge concern when you're on your knees in the guard

If I'm standing up it's a lot harder to get armlocked or choked. My arms are further away from him. My neck is further away from him.

Standing keeps my neck and arms further from him

(Note that it may be harder to have your upper body submitted when you're standing but it ISN'T impossible though: there are many very creative grapplers who spend a lot of time figuring out how to choke or armlock a standing opponent.)

Another advantage of standing up is that you have more mobility. It’s easier to circle and it’s easier to develop momentum (to smash through someone’s guard).



To be fair and balanced we also have to discuss the disadvantages of standing up. One disadvantage is that it can decrease your stability.

If you're on your knees vs. on your feet, with your then your center of gravity is higher. This means that it can be easier to get swept if you don't watch out.

Standing up without increasing the width of the base increases mobility but raises your center of gravity.

If you stand up then it's also easier for him to get his center of gravity underneath you and lift you off the ground.

Finally you also become more vulnerable to leg locks, so you have to know how to prevent and counter leglocks if you stand up.

(You can also get leglocked when you're kneeling, but it's trickier for your opponent to pull this off).



FOUR METHODS OF STANDING IN THE GUARD

There’s no single perfect posture for all situations.

I don’t play golf, but even I know that a golfer doesn’t have just one club; He’s got a bunch of clubs.

You want a bunch of clubs in grappling too: if you can’t pass a guard kneeling, then try standing up. If you can’t pass a guard standing, then try kneeling down.

Here are the four main options for standing in the guard that we're going to cover today.

1. The Close-In Squat2. Backing Off3. One Leg Forward4. Combat Base



THE CLOSE-IN SQUAT

Let's start with the squat when you're close to your opponent and your legs are square to his hips. In this situation either he's still got closed guard, or his legs have opened but his hips are still close to yours.

Sometimes you see people standing up with straight legs – this is not recommended as here you are pretty vulnerable to getting swept.

Standing with both legs straight: not recommended!

The only time you want straight legs is if you’re trying uncross the guy's ankles by pushing down on his leg. If I was squatting down and pushing down on his leg then it wouldn't go anywhere because it'd be sitting on the ledge of my own thigh.

Pushing the leg down from low squat: a counter-productive strategy.



When you're trying to open his guard then having a straight leg creates a straight line down the side of your body with nothing to stop his leg. Even so, I don’t often use this position too often unless I’ve got a real good anchor on his upper body or on his arms.

An exception to the rule: straight legs dohelp you push the leg down to open the guard

Most of the time I stand with my legs bent at about 90 degrees, a position favored by my BJJ coach Marcus Soares. When you squat like this with the gi you should usually control a sleeve before you stand up.

Squatting with the legs bent at roughly 90 degrees

Notice that when I'm squatting I trap his thigh between my body, my arms and my own legs. This makes it hard for him to move away. His legs are locked in, a concept we covered quite thoroughly in the 'caging the hips' lesson. If his hips and legs are locked in I can 'give' him my arm and still not get armlocked.



Another close-in squatting option that some people like is to squat really low. I don't use it much myself, and it’s probably something I should work on. The reason I mention it here is for completeness: I just want you to know that it’s an option.

A super-low squat (hips lower than the knees)

Then there is the pigeon-toed squat; my feet are far apart but the knees point in, caging his hips. With that knee pressure caging his hips you can extend your arms in relative safety.

Having the feet flared out also makes it harder for your opponent to underhook your leg, which – as we'll see later – can be a big problem.

If you do the pigeon toe squat by yourself it looks really silly, but it's a good way to get the feel of the position.

The silly-looking but highly effective pigeon-toed stance



HOOK MANAGEMENT WITH THE CLOSE-IN SQUAT

If you squat in your opponent's open guard then you are going to have to deal with and neutralize a variety of grips and hooks. I call this 'hook management.'

Dealing with the double heel grab. Your opponent controlling your heel can lead to no end of problems. If he cups both your heels you need to anchor yourself to his upper body.

With the gi I often just grab both lapels.

When he extends his hips or pushes with his legs to knock me over backwards I pull on his lapels. That shuts down his sweep.

Without the gi I usually grab his head.

It looks like I'm trying to do the 'can-opener' necklock here, but that's not the case – I'm just holding myself there. I pinch in with my knees to protect against the armbar.

Dealing with the underhook.

When you stand up your opponent will often keep his guard closed and bring one of his arms underneath your leg.

His basic sweep from here is to his other hand on the ground and arch his hips up so that it takes me over backwards as it folds my leg outward.



To counter this attack, as soon as he underhooks my leg, I turn my leg inward and drive my knee inwards against his ribs.

Now it's a matter of clearing his leg on the same side that he's underhooking...

...and passing the guard to that same side.

Not only is angling my knee into his painful for him, but it also puts my leg into position where it's strong. It denies him the angle he needs to push my leg sideways and destabilize me.



Shielding the sides of the body

If I’m squatting in Jason’s guard he'll often try to make space. He may want to move away and bring his hooks into play. At this point I often use the concept of making a shield down the whole side of my body.

Demonstrating how my left arm and leg form a shield

When I connect my elbow to my thigh it creates a wall that makes it much harder for him to get a decent hook in on my body (and it also makes sure I don’t get my arms stretched out).

In my opponent's guard, shielding on both sides.

And even if I'm moving around and I'm fighting for grips, then I'm still going to pay attention to connecting my elbow to the knee or the thigh.



Of course if he moves far enough away he can then bring his legs inside and start applying his hooks. So this shielding concept only applies when I'm still between his legs, as opposed to when he's in front of my legs.

STANDING UP WHILE BACKING OFF

If you back far enough away, then you don’t really have to worry about posture as much. It’s like in boxing: if I’m tight with my opponent then I want to have my hands up. If I’m far away, on the other hand, then I can drop my hands for a minute.

The same applies to posture in open guard. The further away I am from Jason, the more relaxed I can be. But as I come in, I have to be more and more alert, especially if he’s got his legs up. In MMA, I don’t want him to to kick me, and even if it’s not MMA, I still don’t want his legs to be free because he can hook and sweep me with them.

The closer you are to your opponent the more alert you need to beIIt's always good to control his feet, ankles or legs. Now you probably won't stay here for long, because a knowledgeable opponent will work like crazy to get his legs free. But controlling his feet, even for a short time, is still a good thing!



ONE LEG FORWARD

As I come in closer, I often go from having my feet square to having more of a staggered stance (i.e. one leg forward). And at the same time I usually go from being bent over to holding my body in a more upright position, while still trying to control the heels or ankles.

I learned this from training with MMA fighter Denis Kang. He liked it because standing with one leg forward set him up for landing some big bombs with his fists and combining those strikes with the guard passes.

Denis often stood upright with one leg forward, I found that this posture made it impossible to get a foot on his hip to control the distance (and kept his face safe). Upright posture, combined with thrusting that lead hip forward, made the natural pocket where his leg met his torso disappear.

Upright posture makes the 'hip pocket' disappear

Dealing with the sit-up

Without the ability to put their foot on your hip many opponents will try to sit up and hug your leg. After they sit up they can do a number of sweeps ranging from fancy rolling sweeps to simply standing up and getting a single leg takedown.



If he sits up, I have to come forward. His happy places are lying on his back or sitting all the way up – in neither position is he wasting very much energy. But halfway up, that's where he’s wasting energy. The longer he stays here, fighting to come up, the more energy he’s wasting. Plus he doesn’t have that many techniques that he can do with his back only 45 degrees to the floor.

How do I keep him halfway up? Some people use their hands but most guys drive their lead knee forward. At this point your opponent is burning a ton of energy and we're set up to do the cross-knee slide or any other number of other guard passes.

My opponent halfway up, wasting energy and NOT in his happy place!

Like I said earlier, it’s hard to come up with a universal posture that will work for all variations of the open guard. The one thing that is clear, however, is that you do need to get rid of or neutralize your opponent's hooks.

If working you with his hooks and his grip then you’re not going to be able you’re going to be stretched out and off balance; you’re giving him the openings that he needs to work his game.



Denying the arm grab

I don’t want to give him my arms, especially if I'm standing with one leg forward.

If I’m wearing a gi and he gets my sleeve then he really has a ton of options here. For example he can pass my arm through my legs, which really sucks.

Without the gi, one of the most common grips is where he’s controlling my lead arm with both of his, holding his 2 thumbs toward himself. With this 2 on 1 control he can stretch me out, which is another wretched position.

Stretched out and in trouble.

So, I’m going to be very careful and I want to grip fight all the time in order NOT to give him a great grip.

Dealing with the cupped heel

Another grip I want to shut down is my opponent cupping my heel. This sets up a lot of sweeps. Because he’s got my foot trapped I can’t step with it. Now all he needs to do is topple my upper body and I go over!



Here are the two methods I use most often to clear his heel grip.

One option is to kick my foot up towards his armpit and loop it out to the side. Even if I do this as he’s sweeping me, then I can often loop it out to the side and still recover.

Kicking the foot forward and then looping it out sideways

Another option to get rid of that grip is to kick your foot behind his body. His grip is strong if you just try and pull your foot away, but if you kick it behind his butt then his own hip strips his grip.

Kicking the foot sideways, behind his butt

Remember NOT to get complacent about the heel grip because anytime he’s grabbing your heel, he’s probably got a plan to knock you over and get to the top.



Managing the de la Riva hook

When you’ve got one leg forward you also need to have some options to deal with the de la Riva hook (where he wraps his leg behind my lead leg, bringing his foot either around my knee or in front of my hip).

Shallow de la Riva hook Deep de la Riva hook

You need an answer to this hook because you’re going to run into it again and again. Sometimes you can bounce step backwards and use that to set up the cross knee slide (we covered this pass in Lesson 5: The Hourglass Concept – the photos below should serve as a quick review).



But you can’t only rely on one pass or one solution to a hook: you may end up in a situation where your one solution doesn’t work!

If I'm trying to use the cross knee slide he might counter by putting his hook in deeper, in front of my hip. This opens me up to a bunch of sweeps, but it also makes him more vulnerable to toehold and kneebar attacks.

To kneebar I turn away from him, 'giving' him my back and then apply the kneebar. Or if I control his other foot I can dive over my shoulder and apply the toehold.

The Backspin Kneebar The Diveroll Toehold



The kneebar and the toehold are probably the 2 highest percentage leglock-based solutions to the de la Riva hook. And even if you don’t like leg locks, you can still fake these two attacks: your opponent will freak out , he'll retract his foot a bit, and then you can go to more of a conventional guard passing solution.

We went through these leglocking solutions to the de la Riva guard pretty quickly. I didn’t want to dwell on it because I’ve taken more detailed explanations for these entries from my leg locking DVDs and made them into a bonus for today's esson. Make sure to check out that extra video!

COMBAT BASE

Our final open guard posture today is 'Combat Base.' This is a term used by a lot of grapplers to describe a semi-squatting, semi-kneeling position, where you use your lead shin to separate yourself from my your opponent and stop him from closing his legs.



Let's say I’ve opened my opponent's guard haven't quite managed to pass his guard yet. My opponent might want to close his guard again, especially if he's got a good closed guard attack game.

If I manage to get into combat base, then unless he’s got ridiculously long legs, it will be really difficult for him to close his guard again. (And even if he does close it, then the shin will give me enough leverage so that, most of the time, I can pop his ankles apart again.)

Switching from a 'regular' closed guard opening to combat baseto stop the opponent from closing his guard again

Just as with other forms of posture, the management of your opponent's hooks and grips is also central to combat base.

By keeping my elbow/forearm glued to my knee/leg area I can do a lot to shut down his hooks on my upper body. It will be hard for him to stretch me out.

Good: forearm touching leg Bad: arm disconnected from leg



I also need to guard the area behind my knee, between my calf and hamstring.

In fact, when I'm sparring with someone in combat base I usually try to use that de la Riva hook myself right away.

You don't always have to have your calf glued to your hamstring, but you do when he’s trying to get that hook in. So, if he’s trying to close his guard then I'll usually back away. But if he’s trying to get the de la Riva hook in, then I should be coming in closer, closing the space for the hook.

If nothing else, make it so that he can only get his toes in, because at that point, you can still go to some guard passes. Whereas if his hook is deep, now it’s a lot harder to do those same guard passes.

Of course, another use for combat base is to actually open the guard. If you were to block both biceps, stand up, put a knee in the middle and then sit down, where do you end up? Combat base, of course.

Two fundamental combat base guard passes

There are two guard passes – the same side knee slide, and the cross knee slide – that are part of everybody's arsenal who uses combat base. These are the 'jab' and the 'cross' of combat base guard passing.

We'll now quickly show you these guard passes and emphasize a few key points.



For the same-side knee slide I drive my right knee forward and to my right (his left)

As my right knee goes down, my other knee (the left knee) goes up

I then backstep with my left leg to pass the guard and secure side mount.

Detail 1: As my lead knee touches the floor, the instep of that foot remains over his thigh to control his leg.

Detail 2: My trailing leg needs to pop up, or else my opponent will be able to lock onto it with his half guard.



And the other natural guard pass coming from the combat base position is our old friend, the cross-knee slide, which we've covered several times in this course already.

Of these two passes, the cross knee slide probably has a higher success rate, but you can also use the same-side knee slide to set it up. When your opponent reacts to and blocks the same-side slide, you switch to the cross knee slide and pass his guard.

(In boxing don’t see many people get knocked out by the jab, but the jab does win a lot of fights by setting up the cross. Remember the 'Fake East, Go West' lesson? It's the same principle at work here.)

SUMMARY

You should try to develop it at least one good standing guard pass: that way, if you just can’t pass the guard on you the knees then you still have a remaining ace up your sleeve: a standing guard pass. (And of course if started out trying standing guard passes and they're not working, then try kneeling guard passes!)



Standing guard passes are also very important for self-defense and MMA; you can generate a LOT of punching and kicking power from a standing position.

Most of the fighters who are really good at ground and pound stand up to deliver their heaviest shots.

So don't neglect learning standing posture, or figuring out how to defend against it!

Lesson 15 Preview:

Next week we’re going to forget about the guard and address using posture when you’re pinned and in other bad postions.

This is an important lesson, and you'll find that the concept of posture can be applied just as validly to surviving a pinned position as it can to thriving in the guard.

See you again next week.

Stephan Kestingwww.grapplearts.tv




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GRAPPLING CONCEPTS LESSON 14: Off the Hook, Standing