Posted on August 31, 2011 by Jason Claunch
Passing the Guard
The guard looked at from the top perspective is a simple thing: You have to pass your opponent’s guard. It doesn’t matter if you are passing standing or on your knees, or if you are in standing in the open guard position —or still inside your opponent’s the close guard—, the first and most important thing to do, before commencing to pass the guard, is posturing. Having a good posture is a must-do for the top guy in the guard.
So, before thinking about passing the guard, you should focus on your posture. In order to attack the top guy, the bottom guy —the one who’s defending the guard— must be able to break your posture, putting you off-balance. The bottom guy can hardly pull on any sweep or apply any submission hold if the top guy is well-postured. Pay attention, observe people rolling, and you will notice that sweeps, flips and submissions occur when the bottom guy can successfully break his opponent’s posture and . Every attack has a set up, and set ups to both submission holds and attacks from closed and open guards are —usually— breaking-the-posture moves.
Needless to say, a wrong posture —or even a lack of posture— may mean that the bottom guy may be able to go straight to his attack, or sweep you, without setting up a posture break.
Therefore, before thinking about passing your opponent’s guard, pay attention to your posture, see if your base is good, and if you are balanced and feel comfortable in standing up or breaking the kness of your opponent.
To conclude, one important advice: Be patient when posturing. Don’t rush and start passing theguard without a good, proper posture. As many times your opponent breaks your posture, fight back to put yourself in good posture, before you start make your pass.
Any good passing-the-guard starts with a good posture. Being caught in an armbar or choke invariably starts with a bad posture.