Surviving punches from Guard

[Aaron04]

Tonight I was training and we did some work in the guard position. While I have done this many times before, we really got into the punching and striking from the guard. When I was able to pull him down on top of me, I was able to get a submission, or at least stop him from punching. But I was not able to pull him down on top of me much of the time (one reason why is because he was much taller than me, with a longer reach). I kept having to go to the open guard, with my knee on his stomach/chest, to try to survive the punches. Because of his longer reach, he was still able to hit me quite a bit. Also, it was very difficult for me to cross my ankles behind him when I had the closed guard, which made it nearly impossible to pull him down and stop him from punching.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks guys

[BadgerFu57]

uh maybe you aren't doing anything wrong. Just mount him and you won't have to worry about it :-D

[Mr. Heel Hook]

How we are taught is to actually have an open guard when needed and not worry so much about it. Simply, sometimes you need to break your own guard to make a better defense. There are three different steps to fighting like this.

1: The person is very close to you and trying to punch you while not really pulling back for the hay-maker. (Close guard)

Reaction: Keep your right hand cupped over the part where the biceps ends and changes into the forearm. You use your left arm (bent) to hold the other person's arm (straightened for the most part) against your side, and you cover your face from blows with your hand of the same arm you are using to pin his arm to your side. You turn your face into that hand, btw, and you're blocking the opposite side of your face with that hand (as in, don't cover the same side of your face as the side you're pinning his arm). If he pulls that arms free simply cup the arm in the same manner.

2: The person gets frustrated and pulls farther back for added power to break through your defenses. (Opening the guard)

Reaction: If his arm (either arm) pulls back to get away from your control of it from the use of the cupping motion, slip a knee through the space. His right arm pulls back -- your folded left knee comes through. His strike will make contact (his biceps hits your knee) before he can clock you on the face; or at the very least, this takes a lot of power from the punch away.

3: The person franticly tries to strike you by stacking you up and trying to rain blows down upon you.

Reaction: Bring your knees to his chest and extend with the power of your hips. Make more distance to keep him from hitting you. This should only be done for a moment while he is trying to reach over and down upon you. When you feel his weight baring onto you, open your legs and hold both your arms straight up towards his head. You want him to fall right back down to position 1 and keep him from striking you hard on the way back down. So make sure to keep your arms ridged and straight. When he hits the ground (be wary of taking a head butt from him falling, so cock your head to the side) lock his arms up again with the cupping manner from position 1.

This is an excellent way to make a person use a lot of steam from trying to strike you and muscle through your small defenses. You on the other hand will use very little energy.

If the person opts to step back and way in your open guard ... well...BOOM, a boot to the face (or chest) will make them a bit more weary next time.

[MrPoopy]

Dunno what you're doing wrong, but I've found that it can be easier to armbar someone from the guard if he has long arms. And if he stands in your guard try a monkey roll if he gets over you just right. Easier to do to a taller person.

[Tom Yum]

Have you tried a guard sweep?

Get an overhook with one arm around his dominant arm (usually right) and an underhook with the other arm under his armpit and on his right back side. Its like getting the clinch in boxing.

bicycle your legs up. Get a right knee going across his ribs or belly.

Pull with the overhook around his right arm, push with the underhook and rotate your hips over to the left. It should effectively roll him from your guard and place you on the mount.

[Aaron04]

Thanks guys. I did most of those things and had some success with them. I occasionally managed to sweep, submit and tie up his arms. But for the most part, he was able to position himself in a way that he was pretty much sitting up. It was difficult to pull him down to tie up his arms (one reason why is because he pulled back when my guard was open, and it was then almost impossible to cross my ankles behind him). I was also pretty much unable to rock him forward with my guard open so I could grab his arms. He kept hitting and I was pretty much overwhelmed to the point that I wish he had me mounted instead, because at least then I would have had a better chance of tipping him forward by using the mount escape. Talk about frustrating, lol. This usually doesn't happen to me during regular rolling, but we were isolating defense from the guard this particular time. His suggestion was to open the guard, putting my knee on his chest to get away from most of the punches, and using my other foot to push his opposite knee, moving him and me away from each other, and allowing me to escape the bottom altogether.

What do you guys think?

Thanks guys

[Thai Bri]

If you're striking, why not totally openthe guad and kick his face in? As you connect, roll away and there you go.

[platinum_angel]

yeah but once you kick him wont he roll back. i would tinkhe would so then you can just get a mount on him. then from there do whatever.

[Mr. Heel Hook]

Originally posted by Thai Bri
If you're striking, why not totally openthe guad and kick his face in? As you connect, roll away and there you go.

You would only want to go for the kick if the distance was right or if he was trying to stand back up.


As for the other responses:

Going for an arm bar right away in a real fight where you are defending from the guard will more than likely get you nailed in the face several time. The same thing with sweeps. if you are going for a sweep on a person, you are letting your guard down long enough to get struck in the face.

This is why you rarely see sweeps in events like Pride and the UFC. It makes a break in your defense you don't want. Trust me on that...

The steps I gave are probably the best defense I have ever trained in. Its very similar to how Royce defends (which we all know win or lose, Royce doesn't take much damage) and in the latest pride Minatauro (sp???) was using this technique as well.

I am unsure if I articulated well what I was trying to express with the technique itself, but what you could do is pay close attention to how Royce defends from the guard and same thing with Minatauro.

[doubleouch]

In closed guard if you lift your hips high in the air the angle precludes him from hitting you with any great force.

[sercuerdas]

most people train pure bjj before they get into nhb. in pure bjj or sub. wrestling it is easier to get subs be giving the person some space in the guard. so alot of people are not use to pulling the person down and close like you need to in nhb. just practice keeping them close more.