Ankle Bar? Have you seen/experience this move?

[southjerzshore***]

I agree that you should not waste time resting, but the closed guard is an immensely powerful and damaging guard that should not be neglected. It requires a great deal of skill to play closed guard effectively, but when you do, it is devastating. Improve your closed guard and your open guard game will open up; improve your open guard game, and your closed guard game will open up. Improve your half guard game, and all of the guard games will open up. Improve your escapes ... well, you get the idea. Every link in the chain, from closed to open to half to turtle to escapes, greatly improves the strength of the links around it. Focus on a narrow area of improvement at a time, but improve everything in the chain, systematically developing strength in each area. That's my approach to learning guard, at any rate.

Yeah I realized that my posts seemed very anti-closed guard, so I clarified with another post. I agree with you. Just, for your average white belt, I feel that opening your guard is the best method of improvement.

 

[thuegli]

Not trying to sound condescending, but you seem like you're a bit new to the grappling game, so just making sure you know the fundamentals.

Thanks again for the tips. I am very new to this. I've been training 2x or 3x a week for about 3 months now. Your tips are great. I fully "rest" in my closed guard and tend to wait until they try to pass before I react. I need to be far more proactive and open guard seems like a good next step to apply this.

I love the training discussions forums because there are plenty of people willing to give tips/advice on training/gear etc.

 

[southjerzshore***]

Thanks again for the tips. I am very new to this. I've been training 2x or 3x a week for about 3 months now. Your tips are great. I fully "rest" in my closed guard and tend to wait until they try to pass before I react. I need to be far more proactive and open guard seems like a good next step to apply this.

I love the training discussions forums because there are plenty of people willing to give tips/advice on training/gear etc.

Great to see your mind open and your ego left at the door.

Listen to everyone's advice, try it all out, and see what works best for you. I'm 5'9", 170 lbs. What works for me might not work for someone six inches taller, 30 pounds lighter, etc. So you should experiment and find out what really improves your game. Always ask questions, esp. to your instructors.

I'm a blue belt man, so I can't act like an expert, but I only became a blue belt because I had worked hard on fundamentals. That's where it's at. Fundamentals and not being afraid to try stuff. You won't always get what you want, but you will learn so much from tapping and getting swept and getting your guard passed. Usually if I am wrestling a white belt or a new guy, I will do the same pass or sub. on them a couple times, and usually by the second or third attempt, it's a lot harder for me to get, or I don't get it at all.

Keep your mind open bro, you'll go far fast.

 

[Sambo234]

sounds kind of like the "quasimodo", I think it's a catch counter to the closed guard which I think is really dumb .

http://www.lockflow.com/article_view.php?id=264

 

[thuegli]

sounds kind of like the "quasimodo", I think it's a catch counter to the closed guard which I think is really dumb .

http://www.lockflow.com/article_view.php?id=264

That is pretty much what he did. Thanks for the link and pictures. Their description is a little wrong though, with the right angle it hurts like hell. My ankle is good and sprained now with a knot the size of a golf ball on the side!

 

[Zankou]

Yeah I realized that my posts seemed very anti-closed guard, so I clarified with another post. I agree with you. Just, for your average white belt, I feel that opening your guard is the best method of improvement.

I agree with that. Open guard is the golden road to real BJJ advancement, IMHO. Although I think it's more of a beginner blue belt thing than a white belt thing.

That's the funny thing, I feel like closed guard in many ways is a lot harder to play than open guard, because developing a closed guard that works against strong opponents requires your technique/positioning to be so much tighter and your timing and combinations to be so strong. A lot of the open guard stuff is relatively easy by comparison, because sweeps from open guard are so uber-powerful that even sloppy, loose technique still works.

 

[Gzzy]

Tony C showed this move on his tapes years ago.