Standing in the Guard

We visited our perennial favorite position again today – the guard.  Why?  Because so often in sport grappling that’s where things end up… somebody ends up in guard.

One interesting way to think about getting out of guard is to stand up.  Why not, right?  Why not stand up and try and stack your partner up?  Why not stand up and try to shuck their legs to the side?  It’s not a bad idea – so we tried it.

On the opposing end of things, why not sweep your partner when they stand up?  The simplest sweep is called the “lumberjack”.  You grab your partner’s heels and pull with your arms while driving your feet into their hips (or your knees into their midsection).  If you do it just right, you’ll end up with top mount position.

Hopefully this added option of standing up in guard will spice things up in our future rolls and make being in guard, if not less dreadful, at least more interesting.