People who never pull guard

Erik Paulson has a great instructionnal about fighting from the knees. Check it out!
 
Weird. After 2 years of training, my closed/open guard game (and side control since I have become proficient in sweeps from guard) is strongest. In fact lately I've been the guy that refuses to pull guard to intentionally work my top game.

To each his own. I actually have started to like working against guard pullers. I love love love working on passing guards.
 
MBGracieBarra said:
Weird. After 2 years of training, my closed/open guard game (and side control since I have become proficient in sweeps from guard) is strongest. In fact lately I've been the guy that refuses to pull guard to intentionally work my top game.

To each his own. I actually have started to like working against guard pullers. I love love love working on passing guards.
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If I want to work guard passing, I ask my training partner to start in guard. Anyone that isn't a douche will usually say yes. Or, i'll quickly sweep and let them reguard.
 
Well this isn't exactly the same thing but when I play bottom and the top guy just refuses to enter my guard and just stays on their knees, I will usually just stand up and push them over. From there I work top, I refuse to wait 2 minutes for them to decide whether or not they are going to pass my guard or enter it. Some just leave a ton of space and stall while avoiding subs. It's annoying.
 
One of my trainers would have a hard time choosing between death and being put on his back. The last time I had him on his back it was because I had dislocated one of his ribs while working for the sweep.

My other trainer is almost the exact opposite. In the end it's a pretty good combination because they present such different challenges.
 
I don't pull guard unless I'm transitioning right into a sweep or a sub attempt.

It's like admitting that you that your opponent is better than you in that position and begging them to go into a position in which you have an advantage.

From the knees or from standing I'll usually look to pass for about 10 seconds and then back out and let them start the charade again this time knowing that it's coming and capitalizing on the lack of depth in the game.
 
SuperSuperRambo said:
I think you're missing the point of this thread. We're talking about when starting from the knees. When you're not allowed to stand up, fighting for "takedowns" is pointless and does not train anything you'll ever use. Fighting for takedowns from the feet makes sense, we're not talking about that. When your instructor starts you from the knees it's because he wants you to work on your ground game, not knee wrestling. It's focused training. Trying to get a meaningless "takedown" from the knees takes time away from the actual training. If you have 3 minute rounds, and spend 2 minutes wrestling on the knees, you wasted 2 minutes of time.
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Which is why a lot of clubs, including mine, never start knee to knee - its an almost completely artificial situation which rarely arises in any grappling competition of any kind - wrestling, judo, BJJ, sub grappling, sambo, you name it.

When we want students to practice ground work, we start them with one person in guard (arbitrarily pick one, or take turns), or start with a free throw (the action starts as soon as uke hits the ground). This gets rid of knee wrestling and straight to ground work.
 
SuperSuperRambo said:
Trying to get a meaningless "takedown" from the knees takes time away from the actual training. If you have 3 minute rounds, and spend 2 minutes wrestling on the knees, you wasted 2 minutes of time.
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Have you really ever seen two minutes of pointless knee wrestling? If that's how it ends up where you train I can absolutely see the point. I don't think I've ever witnessed more than 20 seconds of struggle before that was dealt with. Unless some idiot stands up and runs away it's usually over with rather quickly.
 
I don't really mind the knee wrestlers so much when they lunge at me, I will either pull guard or push their heads down and sprawl.

What I really dislike is the disengagers. The guys that crouch there in combat base and wait for me to approach them, and when I try to grip their sleeves or collar they keep breaking my grips, when I try to clinch or tackle them they hop backwards and push me away, when I sit and buttscoot they stand up and step way back and try to run around my guard. That kind of excessively defensive behavior annoys me. I'm trying to practice my jiu-jitsu, not chase grown men in circles around the mat.
 
and then if you just give up sidemount they get all upset. WTF???
 
i almost always pull guard when we start from knees unless the guy is bigger than me but from standing i never pull
 
Pulling guard from the knees is gay. If I'm going to use my guard right off the bat i sit down ahead of time and butt scoot.

Honestly, if you think midget wrestling is useless in bjj you're a tard. If you can fight off your knees your scrambling will be that much better.
 
I usually pull half-guard since my half guard is better than my closed. I've been in many midget wrestling/judo matches and always end up getting annoyed and just pulling half. One day, with a dude who refuses to ever play guard, I decided to do everything I could to avoid guard or half. The roll went 8 minutes and at minute 6 we were still knee fighting. The dude had like 75 pounds on me and I finally armdragged and took his back and he freaked. Before I could get any hooks in or control, he pushed into me hard and stood up, knocking me like 3 feet into the air. The sad part about guys like that is that they will never improve until they learn how to get out of bad spots since its impossible to avoid them against guys who are good(ie not me).
 
Pierced7681 said:
Pulling guard from the knees is gay. If I'm going to use my guard right off the bat i sit down ahead of time and butt scoot.

Honestly, if you think midget wrestling is useless in bjj you're a tard. If you can fight off your knees your scrambling will be that much better.
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Yeah... you're that guy.
 
I actually prefer working my guard. I guess I'd rather have a really good guard/bottom game first then later work on my top game.
 
morote gari said:
Do you have any of these guys at your gym - you know, the ones who will never pull/play guard and will battle off their knees for an eternity to avoid it?
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We never start from knees, so no.
However, I can count the number of times I've pulled guard on two hands in my four years. If I'm wanting to work my guard, I'll say so and we'll start from there or, if I'm much better than my partner, I'll work to get to guard after we get to the ground.
 
Im always looking to get better at jiu jitsu and have no problem pulling and playing the closed and open guard but having wrestled since middle school, i gotta play to my strengths and thats a top game.

*Although there is nothing cooler than someone who can play tons of guards like the kayron barbosa match this year at the Pan - thats where i want to be in the end
 
im a wrestler and it even annoys me. when i do it i just take people down and end up in guard, so you mine as well start there
 
i go to my back a ton in practice because i wrestled for ten years i know better what to do on top then on bottom. work on the weaknesses you know
 
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