I remember talking to a friend of mine once.
I consider this guy somewhat of a life coach —older than me, wiser, more experienced, smarter —he introduced me to a lot of new concepts and ideas that shaped me even before jiu-jitsu.
During this conversation, he said the words “dynamic problem solving”. Now, I don’t remember the context BUT I do remember that this conversation was before jiu-jitsu.
The idea behind “dynamic problem solving” was that a lot of problems are not static. Static problems are much easier to solve because they don’t change or evolve. The problem remains the same. Dynamic problems, however, are constantly changing. A problem that is always changing requires a solution that changes with it.
I’ve always thought of this when it comes to jiu-jitsu. You’re trying to solve problems in a dynamic environment and well, this makes things more complicated.
Often times when I coach my students, I see a person, as example, working a side control escape. This is always a perfect example because side control, despite being a pin position, is very dynamic. I wrote about it in an older post here —if you haven’t read it yet, I strongly encourage you read it to get a better understanding of why your side control escapes aren’t working.
I always say I’d rather have my back taken or be mounted because the escapes are more straight-forward. There are less options so I have a better idea of where to move.
In side control, however, you have to watch out for much more. So it goes when I see my students escape. I see them position their elbows for a hip escape and it doesn’t work.
Why doesn’t it work?
Sometimes it’s bad technique. But more often than not, it’s because the opponent is defending (read: transitioning to a new position within the position). This means that the initial technique worked.
How do you know it worked?
Because if it didn’t, the opponent would not have defended. Simple, right? Equally simple is the idea that when your opponent defends, you have to transition into a new escape protocol in order to stay ahead.
Now, this is just one example of dynamics in jiujitsu.
In today’s post, we’re going to look at Guard Passing.
Guard passing is even more dynamic than side control because there is much more movement. The more a person is able to move, the more dynamic the problems. This is one aspect of why control is so important in jiu-jitsu —if you can control a person, they move less. The less movement, the more static. The more static, the easier problems become to solve.
But I digress…
We’re here to understand why guard passing can be so difficult. And it’s because I often see beginners attempt to pass the guard without making their way through progressions of guard passing.
In other words, there are tiers of guard passing where the parameters of the guard pass change depending on what level or tier you’re at.
Back in Grad school, I learned about “degrees of freedom”. Degrees of freedom are basically joints at which your body is able to move. If you can control a joint (or in context of grad school, if a person was missing a limb), they move less.
Because of the nature of the guard, the guard passer MUST control the legs in order to pass them and immobilize their opponent (thus removing 3 degrees of freedom: ankles, knees and hips). So, as a guard player, your first goal connect and play guard.
If that fails, your next goal is to keep your feet in front by using the ankles. Then, if that fails, you keep your shins in front by using your knees. Then, if that fails, you get your knees back in front by using your hips to create space and so on.
So, with this being said, if you are the guard passer, your job is to move incrementally from ankles, to knees, to hips and finally beat the arms to get into a pin position.
There is an ORDER OF OPERATIONS that must be followed in order to effectively AND efficiently. If you don’t understand this, you’ll always be caught with your opponent retaining their guard too easily.
Make sense?
After the paywall, I’ll post an unlisted video on how this concept can be applied to your guard passing so that you can understand the dynamics of the guard player and their attempts to keep their guard. If you can understand and practice this, you should be able to move incrementally and thus, more efficiently pass the guard position.
Order of Operations!
Let’s dive in!
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