Rickson Gracie's MMA Guard

[Supereem]

Traditionally I always thought Rickson was a very strong advocate of the closed guard in both grappling and real righting situations. I know recently him and Kron said something about a knee shield guard being more effective in MMA but lets forget about that for a second.

I just recently re-watched the second Takada fight for the first time since I was a white belt and was somewhat surprised to see Rickson using an open guard in the fight.



At around 7 minutes Rickson finds himself on his back and at first he keeps a half butterfly hook and then transitions to having both his feet on Takada's hips whilst also attacking with old school heel kicks. I was surprised that was cool to stay pretty chilled and flat on his back the whole time, it didn't seem like he was too concerned with controlling posture. I have not seen it in a while but didnt he pull closed guard on zulu and then almost use a rubber guard like variation by grabbing his foot?


On a side note I was also very astonished Takada successfully attacked for a heelhook from under the mount and as able to dismount Rickson (more than once actually). I guess technically Takada attempted two submissions during the first (the first being his stupid stand up leg attack thing that got his swept).


TLDR: Rickson didn't use his closed guard against Takada, is that weird?

 

[KJGould]

Not to comment on Rickson's guard, but I think it might have been Billy Robinson who said Takada always suffered from conditioning issues, even when working matches for UWFi, and he was considered more a striker than grappler.

Back to the guard, open guard and forcing space so punches couldn't reach has always been the other side of Gracie 'combatives' as far as I'm aware.

 

[Supereem]

Not to comment on Rickson's guard, but I think it might have been Billy Robinson who said Takada always suffered from conditioning issues, even when working matches for UWFi, and he was considered more a striker than grappler.

Back to the guard, open guard and forcing space so punches couldn't reach has always been the other side of Gracie 'combatives' as far as I'm aware.

Ah that is interesting because I thought it was closed or nothing on that side of the family (with the exception of maybe Royler).


Do you think Takada was going for a heel hook/straight ankle lock when he stood up in the guard? As in he was planning on coming back down to the side? It looks to me like he was but he did it in a very dramatic/pro wrestling fashion that got him swept.

 

[KJGould]

Ah that is interesting because I thought it was closed or nothing on that side of the family (with the exception of maybe Royler).

I'm basing it on coaching lineage from Rickson Gracie.

Erik Paulson has shown the closed and open guard for MMA approach, and he spent around 4 years with Rickson Gracie, and a few years with Royce and Rorion before that.

Greg Nelson has shown similar concepts, and he's a Pedro Sauer black belt (Sauer being arguably one of Rickson's best early black belts)

 

[georgwilhelm**]

looks like a work

 

[KGB256]

When Rickson came to my dojo a few weeks ago, one of the things he demonstrated was transitioning from the closed guard to more of a knee shield guard to protect yourself from G&P. We actually did a few different things about dealing with strikes from the guard, and he referenced situations from Belfort-vs-Jones at least 3 times to introduce techniques.

It was pretty awesome, actually. Reaffirmed my thought that his jiu-jitsu would be more applicable in self-defense or modern MMA than most people give him credit for.

 

[Einarr]

looks like a work

BLASPHEMY!

Nah, I doubt Rickson would take a work. He has too much pride for that kind of thing.

 

[Mike Piekarski]

The point of closed guard is so you can break your opponent's posture and keep them close to minimize damage, but Takada didn't even try to posture. With Takada keeping his head down and having pretty much no offense from within the guard Rickson was better to keep his feet on hips so he'd have better hip mobility and the option to kick away and get back to his feet if he desired.

 

[MMAwisdom**]

Z-guard is good for defense, but you have little control; your opponent can break free and stand up if he really wants to.

You'll need a tight overhook or modified wrist control (holding the opposite way and putting your elbow inside the space between his arm and shoulder). And you'll need to block strikes from his other arm.

It's pretty hard to attack from Z-guard in no-gi. There are some armdrag options and low-percentage sweeps, but nothing fantastic.

And you can pass Z-guard well if you know how to, especially with the underhook. Cyborg is really good at it.

Z-guard from the bottom is a little better with the underhook, because there is little space and you can create momentum to dive underneath when your pull your knee out, but it's by no means a great option.

Also, watch out for heel hooks. Crossing your ankles works a little, but it's still very risky.

Rickson's opponents obviously didn't have the skill to take advantage of it.

I'm talking about no-gi only.

 

[SuperSuperRambo]

BLASPHEMY!

Nah, I doubt Rickson would take a work. He has too much pride for that kind of thing.

Moreover, Pride wouldn't stage a work to have Takada lose.

 

[woooo]

the pass he did after the foot lock attempt was so smooth

TBF and with all due respect to Takada, that was a terrible and ill-advised attempt.

 

[Supereem]

TBF and with all due respect to Takada, that was a terrible and ill-advised attempt.

First one he did was retarded, the second one from mount was smooth from Takada. He went from the most inferior position to possibly almost being capable of submitting the great Rickson! Would have been hilarious if he pulled that off, considering the same man couldnt win a bout fixed in his favour vs Tamura!

 

[JohnyBoyy]

To be honest, I thought that Rickson's Jiu Jitsu was not that great in this fight (yeah call me a blasphemer). He did lost his mount 3 times against TAKADA. That scrambling of Rickson's mount with a foot lock attempt was beautiful though, I have to give you that.I was not expecting Takada to come with something like this.

And that guard was too lose. Rickson or not, he would be passed or GnPed to oblivion nowadays. The reason he won the top position was imply because Takada was reverted by a very basic sweep that now one will fall nowadays, after a very weak submission attempt.


IMO, when applying pure Jiu Jitsu to MMA fighters, Roger was much more dominante. I doubt he would ever lose that mount like that.

 

[Supereem]

To be honest, I thought that Rickson's Jiu Jitsu was not that great in this fight (yeah call me a blasphemer). He did lost his mount 3 times against TAKADA. That scrambling of Rickson's mount with a foot lock attempt was beautiful though, I have to give you that.I was not expecting Takada to come with something like this.

And that guard was too lose. Rickson or not, he would be passed or GnPed to oblivion nowadays. The reason he won the top position was imply because Takada was reverted by a very basic sweep that now one will fall nowadays, after a very weak submission attempt.


IMO, when applying pure Jiu Jitsu to MMA fighters, Roger was much more dominante. I doubt he would ever lose that mount like that.

Yeah and he had some trouble passing and maintain control of Yuki Nakai as well. There have been a few guillotine attempts against him as well.

 

[ijustwannasurf]

I'd be interested to hear more about what he does from the MMA knee shield.

 

[ganssle]

To be honest, I thought that Rickson's Jiu Jitsu was not that great in this fight (yeah call me a blasphemer). He did lost his mount 3 times against TAKADA. That scrambling of Rickson's mount with a foot lock attempt was beautiful though, I have to give you that.I was not expecting Takada to come with something like this.

And that guard was too lose. Rickson or not, he would be passed or GnPed to oblivion nowadays. The reason he won the top position was imply because Takada was reverted by a very basic sweep that now one will fall nowadays, after a very weak submission attempt.

Agreed. Watching the match objectively: The mount control didn't seem strong or tight. And judging by that god awful foot lock attempt, Takada's grappling is absolute rubbish... which makes his mount escapes even more surprising.

 

[Supereem]

Agreed. Watching the match objectively: The mount control didn't seem strong or tight. And judging by that god awful foot lock attempt, Takada's grappling is absolute rubbish... which makes his mount escapes even more surprising.

Even though he supposedly had 500 fights or whatever, I think he was still a bit green when it came to no holds barred and his technique may have been thrown off by the fact he couldnt take Takada down and Takada was tagging him with strong punches and knees. He might have dropped Rickson at one point. I think Rickson had a sense of urgency to finish the fight.

This is just pure speculation though.

 

[ganssle]

Even though he supposedly had 500 fights or whatever, I think he was still a bit green when it came to no holds barred and his technique may have been thrown off by the fact he couldnt take Takada down and Takada was tagging him with strong punches and knees. He might have dropped Rickson at one point. I think Rickson had a sense of urgency to finish the fight.

This is just pure speculation though.

I wouldn't try to draw too many conclusions... partly because Rickson fans will start sending you death threats. But whatever the reason may be, the fighter in white undies in the aforementioned video seems to exhibit little effort in maintaining the mount. Maybe he's just KEEPING IT PLAYFUL?