Building the Base Part 2: Spider Guard Retention and Off-Balancing
Tying the last few weeks of my learning together
Ok, maybe I’m not as bad at Spider Guard as I’ve been thinking.
Or maybe, I simply learned a new concept that has made my spider guard much better.
I’ve been thinking about this all last week as I’ve been demonstrating and playing spider guard with my students. I’ve been having more success than I anticipated and I’m starting to think it’s just one simple thing that I’ve changed (since learning it at the Romulo Barral seminar).
What is this one simple thing?
It’s changing up my grip variation.
Up until the seminar, I always played Spider Guard with two sleeve grips. I got stacked really well so I think this is the real reason I never enjoyed playing it.
Since using the collar grip (same side), I’ve had a much better ability to retain the position as well as attack.
Now, before we get into it, one house-keeping note. Initially I wanted to post a new Jiujitsu Made Simple article (Mount Control), but I thought this would be more relevant since I’ve been talking about Spider Guard over the last few weeks since my August training journal.
Since then, I’ve talked about how I’m building the base (working on the foundations of Spider Guard retention) and included a sparring narration illustrating some of these concepts.
I also wrote about a concept on anticipation here which you’ll see in action from a technical standpoint in today’s unlisted content.
Because all of my content the last couple of weeks is so relevant, I thought I’d get this article out first and send you the mount video next Sunday.
So, with all that in mind, what you’re going to get today is about 14 minutes of video content going into
The importance of the collar grip in the Spider Guard position
Retention techniques when your opponent strips the grip
How to connect and stay connected
How to reconnect when your opponent disrupts connection
[ANTICIPATION] An answer for each direction your opponent moves
Alright, let’s dive in!
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