Breaking a guard that's hard to break

[Jason Lopez-Ota]

I'm rolling with this one guy and I can't seem to break open his guard. I keep trying the one move where you put your knee in his butt and push his knee while turning your body.

It's like his feet are super-glued together.

I'm going to ask the instructor next class, but maybe you guys can help me.

[Grissim Connery]

this is kind of a loaded question, because there could be a number of things going on.

some things to keep in mind:

1. the basic concept of opening the closed guard is to lengthen his legs as much as possible. if somebody's legs are as straight and long as possible, then they can't cross their feet without shortening the length.

2. make sure to get his legs mainly around your pelvis or your ribs. you want him on bones, not gooey stuff. thus slide up or down to get his legs mainly on one of these areas. if his legs are more around your hips, then do the open that you're already trying to do.

3. you need to mix in other guard opens. if you only do one, then he can keep blocking it. it's kinda like how if you want to armbar somebody, you need to threaten to choke him first.

these are the most general pieces of advice i can give. how is your technique on the guard open that you're trying? do you need advice on how to perform that particular one? is the guy really flexible? is he breaking you down everytime you try to apply pressure? are you applying tension to his knees, ankles, and hips simultaneously as you try to open him up?

need some more info

[Ben Langford]

The guard break you are describing has two key components - pinning your opponent's hips to the ground and opening your hips wide after you've stuck your knee against their butt.

Assuming you're doing this correctly pushing on the inside of the knee will add additional pressure but only after you've done the above or you're simply pushing their leg into your own thigh. The timing on this is important: too early and you're simply wasting energy.

If it's still not working - and sometimes it won't if your opponent is tall or strong enough - you're going to have try a different guard break. Standing in some fashion is usually required to break this kind of closed guard if the guard player won't open their legs to attack.

Hope this helps.

[Leon Robotham]

Originally Posted by Ben Langford

Standing in some fashion is usually required to break this kind of closed guard if the guard player won't open their legs to attack.

Hope this helps.

I like the double collar grip with one hand, other hand has a waistline pant grip with the forearm flush along their thigh, stand up in staggered stance and then push the thigh down over your leg aand pass to side control in tripod fashion. Works a treat in a situation like this

[Yael Grauer]

Also make sure you don't put your knee too far forward... It should be under his butt but not under his tailbone. If that makes sense. Like, you don't want to be lifting him off the ground with your knee.

[Derek Simonds]

Originally Posted by Ben Langford

The guard break you are describing has two key components - pinning your opponent's hips to the ground and opening your hips wide after you've stuck your knee against their butt.

I think Ben has the key piece here. Most often when I see people struggle to break a closed guard in any fashion it is because they are allowing their opponent to move their hips to retain the guard. Yael also made a similar point in that you don't want them on top of your knee. If they are there their hips aren't on the ground and you will have a harder time breaking the guard. With their hips firmly planted you can increase the pressure significantly and most often get the legs open.

The other question is does this particular opponent have a significantly different body structure from others in the academy. Meaning does he have really long legs that allow him to retain closed guard where others couldn't? If so look at different ways of opening his guard. For really long legged people I love the standing guard passes.