Private Lesson Rapid Fire: First Line of Guard Retention, Intro to Foot Sweeps, Mount Control, Leg Entanglements for Beginners and more!
I have a confession
I’m a guard puller. It’s true.
In training and in competition, guard pulling is the “go to” opening for me because it’s easier.
In a recent private lesson, a student asked me what my thoughts were on guard pulling since I’m “always talking shit about guard pulling.”
I laughed and confessed to him that I always pull guard but I’m ok with it since I’m competent with my takedowns.
I train judo (1-2x monthly) and I train wrestling (weekly). I work takedowns in live training here and there but mostly I’m pulling guard for several reasons. The first one is laziness. The second reason is the mats are packed sometimes so I only work takedowns as a conscious choice.
Back to my student’s question, I talk shit about guard pulling because I believe that most people pull guard because they don’t know takedowns. They’re not competent on their feet and choose to sit on their ass. This is the problem. If I was not competent on my feet, I would be a hypocrite. But, since I avidly train takedowns, I’m ok with sitting on my ass when I train with my students.
Now, with this in mind, the goal of a jiu-jitsu practitioner is to get the fight on the ground. In a self-defense situation, you would NEVER pull guard. But, in jiu-jitsu (sport and practice), pulling guard is a viable tool to get the fight to the ground quickly, without expending much energy.
In this particular lesson, my student wanted me to re-introduce him to takedowns. My student was in a car wreck a few years back and since then has become afraid of reinjuring himself and has avoided takedowns, choosing instead to pull people into his guard. I get it.
My advice to him was to reintroduce takedowns with foot sweeps. We worked on grips, grip fighting and some tai sabaki (Body movement). By the end of our session we hit some basic foot sweeps because, in my opinion, foot sweeps are the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to takedowns; they are low risk and high reward.
In today’s email, I’m going to rapid fire some of the private lessons I had this month. There will be a few topics so you can peruse whatever you feel like you need most or dive into all of them.
We’ll start off with an older post on Ashi Waza (Foot or Leg Technique).
Ashi Waza
Foot sweeps are some of the simplest, easiest ways to get an opponent to the ground at a super low risk. The only downside to them is that they can take a while to master since they rely on excellent timing. I highly recommend practicing them sooner and using them to set up the rest of your takedown game.
How Tension Kills your Jiu-jitsu
I see beginners white-knuckling their grips all the time. I always have to explain that tension will kill your jiu-jitsu. When you are tense, you lack precision, you lack mobility AND you waste a ton of energy. This video will show you how to relax a little more so you can train more effectively and efficiently.
Mount Control
Often times the inability to control the mount involves one simple thing: Your head positioning. This video will help you correct that.
Leg Entanglements for Beginners
If you’re a beginner trying to get into the legs, this video will be helpful. It won’t be a be all end all leglock instructional (far from it), but hopefully it will help you understand the basics.
+ a bonus footlock finish video
Attacking the Knee Shield from Bottom Half Guard (My Go To Guard Game)
This one is my bread and butter. This is how I use the knee shield and set up all of my attacks.
The First Line of Defense for Guard Retention
Is the most important stage of guard retention the first stage? (There are four!)
Watch this video to help your guard retention plus enjoy a bonus video on setting up your attacks from the guard retention.
Let’s dive in!
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