The Modern Guard

The Guard.

Any serious martial artist will include the guard position as a component of their training. One needs to learn how to pass the guard, when trapped in it. One needs to learn how to use attacks such as submissions and sweeps from the guard, when applying it. And one also needs to try and how to stand up from the guard position, whether you find yourself on top or on the bottom.

Some quick guard facts.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Some people in the Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) community will claim that BJJ developed many of the submissions and sweeps from the guard. This is completely false. Virtually all modern arm locks, chokes, leg locks, and sweeps were documented long ago in Judo. Judo is well-documented has the parent art of BJJ. Certainly, BJJ practitioners have developed a plethora of setups and transitions to the arm locks, chokes, leg locks, and sweeps - and for this reason we must give credit to the art.

Judo & (Japanese) Jiu-Jitsu
Credit must be given to Judo for preserving some of the ancient ground fighting techniques from some of the older schools of jiu jitsu - the Fusen-Ryu and others.  As Judo became an Olympic sport, and naturally started drifting away from its self-defense roots, credit must again be given as Kano had the foresight to set up the Kosen Judo schools. This would help preserve the ground fighting traditions.

Furthermore, credit must be given to the ancient Japanese ground fighting jiu-jitsu Ryu (schools and/or styles) for developing all of the attacks from the guard. Although most of these attacks existed during the ancient gladiatorial combat days, there is no evidence that the Japanese had access to any of this information. It is fairly safe to assume that the Japanese Jiu-Jitsu schools developed these techniques independently.

Western wrestling
Western wrestling certainly dealt with the topic of the Guard. Most notably, in catch wrestling, it is called the leg scissors. Since Western wrestling can trace its roots to the gladiatorial combat days, the catch wrestling systems made sure to include techniques that were preserved from the guard use of old.

However, sport wrestling became much more prolific than catch wrestling. In folkstyle, freestyle, or Greco-Roman wrestling, the person utilizing the guard would be pinned, and therefore lose the match. This concept certainly has merit, as we see many guard fighters get knocked out in modern MMA matches.

Recent history
When MMA went mainstream in the 1990s, BJJ practitioners were able to stymie many opponents using the guard. This was primarily because very few other styles paid much attention to this position. Any man can be beaten with a technique he does not know.

Since modern MMA athletes train extensively in the guard, there are very few who can consistently use the guard as an offensive weapon effectively anymore. Ironically, the Western wrestling, catch Wrestling, Judo, and BJJ approaches to the guard all have a degree of merit in modern fighting. The best majority of MMA fights see guard use about like Judo or catch wrestling would see it.

Training the guard
The modern martial artist absolutely must train the guard. Specifically, the modern martial artist ought to train attacks from the guard, defenses from the guard, and standing up from the guard.

Attacks - when the opponent makes a mistake - Guillotine choke, triangle choke, arm triangle choke, double wrist lock (aka the Kimura) , coil lock (aka the Omoplata), scissor sweep, elevator sweep, hook sweep, double ankle sweep, and taking the back.

Defenses - also known as passing the guard - passing when posture is broken, underhook passes when kneeling, knee slide passes when kneeling, and getting past the legs when standing.

Also, the person that utilizing the guard understand some defenses - breaking the opponent's posture, and keeping the opponent's posture broken, blocking punches from broken posture, blocking punches from an opponent who is kneeling and has postured up, and blocking strikes  and kicks from a standing opponent.

A person must know how to stand up from the guard. When utilizing the guard, a person must be able to stand up when the opponent is kneeling, when the opponent is kneeling and postured up, and when the opponent is standing. A fighter who is defending his opponent's guard attacks must be able to stand up as well.

Both fighters must have a thorough understanding of how to strike from the guard position, top and bottom.