Blue belt · Pass · Core
Posture up & open closed guard
The top player's answer to closed guard: posture up, protect your arms, then stand or wedge to open their legs. You can't pass a closed guard until it opens.
Step by step
- Posture: sit your hips back toward your heels, back straight, head up.
- Hands on their hips or belly, elbows tight inside their knees.
- Clear their head control and win the wrists. Don't let them overhook you.
- Open it: stand up one leg at a time while controlling their hips, then step back so their ankles unlock (or wedge a knee into their tailbone).
- As the legs open, control a knee and start passing.
Details that make it work
Common mistakes
- Reaching your hands to their chest or neck (giving up your arms).
- One arm in, one arm out.
Drill it
Posture game from top: 3 × 1 min while your partner tries to break you down.
If it fails, or what comes next
- Knee cut (knee slice) pass Pass · Passing
- Toreando (bullfighter) pass Pass · Passing
- Body lock pass Pass · Passing
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