Trouble passing the guard?

You aren't alone.


I love it.

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Sent from my grapefruit using smoke signals.
 
Well it depends on what I eat. Sometimes my guts get all twisted up, nothing moves-oh what?? You said passing the GUARD??!!

Never mind.
 
I'll have to remember this, incase anyone ever attacks me by laying on their back yelling 'get in my guard!'
 
I'll have to remember this, incase anyone ever attacks me by laying on their back yelling 'get in my guard!'

Yeah, the chances of you ever getting caught in a high level guard in a self defense situation is pretty slim.

Frankly, most Bjj practitioners now-a-days aren't even learning how to deal with punches while in guard, so you could theoretically get out of a Bjj black belt's guard by socking them in the face a few times.

I say "theoretically" because there's definitely Bjj black belts out there that will take your arm home as a trophy if you tried to punch your way out of their guards.
 
Yeah, the chances of you ever getting caught in a high level guard in a self defense situation is pretty slim.

Frankly, most Bjj practitioners now-a-days aren't even learning how to deal with punches while in guard, so you could theoretically get out of a Bjj black belt's guard by socking them in the face a few times.

I say "theoretically" because there's definitely Bjj black belts out there that will take your arm home as a trophy if you tried to punch your way out of their guards.

It seems to be making a comeback, thank God. Rickson et al's. push in recent years has made a few waves.
 
It seems to be making a comeback, thank God. Rickson et al's. push in recent years has made a few waves.

Yeah, but it's still far too rare for my liking.

The lack of stand up game is becoming a problem too. Starting to see upper belts getting tooled by simple takedowns, and winding up in inferior positions. Granted they get saved by their superior ground technique, but if they were on the street or in MMA their face would be hamburger and they would get carried out in stretchers.

Kids these days are more into learning fancy guards than learning basic guard to save their asses if crap hits the fan. Don't see much of a point learning DLR guard if I can just punch you in the face (though DLR is awesome!).
 
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Hindsight being what it is, I wish I had practiced the DLR more. I sure get worked in it enough.
 
Yeah, but it's still far too rare for my liking.

The lack of stand up game is becoming a problem too. Starting to see upper belts getting tooled by simple takedowns, and winding up in inferior positions. Granted they get saved by their superior ground technique, but if they were on the street or in MMA their face would be hamburger and they would get carried out in stretchers.

Kids these days are more into learning fancy guards than learning basic guard to save their asses if crap hits the fan. Don't see much of a point learning DLR guard if I can just punch you in the face (though DLR is awesome!).

Can't disagree with any of that.
 
Yeah, the chances of you ever getting caught in a high level guard in a self defense situation is pretty slim.

Frankly, most Bjj practitioners now-a-days aren't even learning how to deal with punches while in guard, so you could theoretically get out of a Bjj black belt's guard by socking them in the face a few times.

I say "theoretically" because there's definitely Bjj black belts out there that will take your arm home as a trophy if you tried to punch your way out of their guards.

Closed guard is a big trap there. Because you are pretty safe from submissions.
 
Yeah, but it's still far too rare for my liking.

The lack of stand up game is becoming a problem too. Starting to see upper belts getting tooled by simple takedowns, and winding up in inferior positions. Granted they get saved by their superior ground technique, but if they were on the street or in MMA their face would be hamburger and they would get carried out in stretchers.

Kids these days are more into learning fancy guards than learning basic guard to save their asses if crap hits the fan. Don't see much of a point learning DLR guard if I can just punch you in the face (though DLR is awesome!).
I didn't realize there'd been that much degradation of the standing game. Kind of the opposite of what we've seen in Judo, where the ground game is mostly gone from Olympic competition.
 
I didn't realize there'd been that much degradation of the standing game. Kind of the opposite of what we've seen in Judo, where the ground game is mostly gone from Olympic competition.
Same forces are in play - focus on tournament rules at the expense of the art as a whole. The most commonly used BJJ competition rules don't reward takedowns enough to make them a major area of study for practitioners who only care about the sport and not the martial art.
 
Same forces are in play - focus on tournament rules at the expense of the art as a whole. The most commonly used BJJ competition rules don't reward takedowns enough to make them a major area of study for practitioners who only care about the sport and not the martial art.
That does sound like the same forces, just the opposite direction. A shame. I hope more BJJ schools will keep up the full curriculm than I've seen (in my limited experience) has happened with Judo.
 
That does sound like the same forces, just the opposite direction. A shame. I hope more BJJ schools will keep up the full curriculm than I've seen (in my limited experience) has happened with Judo.

The difference between Bjj and Judo is that Bjj orbits MMA very closely. MMA will continue to fuel Bjj's evolution for the foreseen future, so Bjj will never reach the level of degradation that Judo has. If anything, you'll simply see Bjj split into different branches of the same general style, yet each style will be respected as an integral part of Bjj and simply a choice that a practitioner makes when they choose a school.
 
I didn't realize there'd been that much degradation of the standing game. Kind of the opposite of what we've seen in Judo, where the ground game is mostly gone from Olympic competition.

It depends on who you train with. My instructor teaches Brazilian jujitsu judo. He got a black belt in both and we frequently spend whole classes on standing only.


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I think I've said it here before but I think I can count on one hand how many times I practiced any kind of takedown at my old school. I knew the body fold from clinch and that's because I learned it while traveling from another school. There was still a number of solid BJJ players at the school. I think they practiced them a bit at the Friday classes designed around tournaments that I never attended.

Then I came to my current school and every other class we're doing some sort of takedown and shooting is part of our warmups. It's so Hit or miss.
 
Frankly, most Bjj practitioners now-a-days aren't even learning how to deal with punches while in guard, so you could theoretically get out of a Bjj black belt's guard by socking them in the face a few times.

I say "theoretically" because there's definitely Bjj black belts out there that will take your arm home as a trophy if you tried to punch your way out of their guards.

Yeah, there's a whole bunch of BJJ purple belts with a closet full of arms, too. But I'm guessing you probably knew that.
 
The difference between Bjj and Judo is that Bjj orbits MMA very closely. MMA will continue to fuel Bjj's evolution for the foreseen future, so Bjj will never reach the level of degradation that Judo has. If anything, you'll simply see Bjj split into different branches of the same general style, yet each style will be respected as an integral part of Bjj and simply a choice that a practitioner makes when they choose a school.
Let's hope that's true, Hanzou. BJJ has the very real possibility of carrying on what Judo could have been, but only if it remains a more complete art. Let's hope MMA stays popular enough to keep informing that.
 
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