Ground and Pound...

[sccr06]

My tarining partner and I started to incorporate striking on the ground with our grappling lately. I was wondering if any of you who do that as well have trouble striking from the guard. I always thought the idea was to extend the hips, pushing the opponent away and then use that to execute good strikes from the guard.
Do any of you have luck with this or do you simply defend and go for a submission/or go for reversal?

[Ryu (non-working password]

You can elbow quite well from the guard, or just dig your knuckles into his temples, etc (ala Royce VS. Keith Hackney)
But the guard is probably the last place to be for effective ground and pound. You can sometimes trap arms from the guard and just deliver a number of unanswered fists to the side of the temple, nose, even eyes, etc.
But the best place to be is in side control, mount, or even in the half guard. You have gravity helping you, and the man below you has nowhere to go.

Ryu

[Ronin]

Ryu:

I think he means striking from the bottom of the guard, not the top.

Punches, elbows, and heel-kicks have all been shown to be effective from the bottom. Frank Shamrock had pretty good results palm-striking Tito on the ears with his hand cupped. None of these are going to knock anybody tough out, but they are painful and can help weaken the opponent and set up sweeps or subs, IMO.

In real fight, it's a lot more effective than lying on your back doing nothing.

[Ryu (non-working password]

Ronin, that's what I meant.

When you are holding someone in guard you can elbow, punch, and heel kick just like you said.
But it's probably not the best place for powerful ground and pound.

[Ronin]

Ryu:

My bad. I thought you meant top-guard. Some people seem to be able to do pretty good damage from inside someone's guard - others zilch. Probably has a lot to do with base and wrestling ability.

I agree that it is hard to pound someone from the bottom, but I think that all smart guard-players should incorporate some strikes to help wear their opponent down. Also, eye-gouges would work well from the bottom in a street situation.

[StrongerThanDeath]

well on bottom is where you dont wanna be in an NHB fight but if you happen to get there then for gods sake keep you hips moving and your hands up to block his shots coming down at you....the best shots from the bottom IMO are the elbows to the head, shoulders, etc and short str8 punches coming right up at your opponent when he's trying to move or setting up for his strike.....I'm also a fan of tying up your opponets head with a front head lock while you underhook your legs under your opponents hips and work for sweeps and the occasional rib punch from there...

keep your hands up though and protect your head, face, and chin.....

the way Frank Sahrock used the guard against Tito was a perfect example of a great NHB guard....he kept constantly moving and he kept his hips moving, and he was causing Tito to wear himself down by trying to control him....eventually he escaped and KOed the tired Ortiz....

[dan downard]

A very good way to punch when you have someone in your guard is to get an underhook and shrimp to that same side while pulling him up and down.His head ends up on the mat and you have a bootiful uppercut to his face.
I have been able to deliver up to five undefended full force blows to the face this way.And even ended the fight with it.

[Ryu (non-working password]

Dan, I'm going to give that a try.
Hadn't event thought about it.

[YeLLa-TiGeR]

I do elbows, lots of them. Its harder for the person to see what I am telegraphing when I employ elbow strikes. A trick for me is clinching their arms close, then I let go suddenly and while he pops up, I try for an elbow to the temple.

[Chad W. Getz]

I like Paul Vunak's striking methods of headbutts, eye gouges, and elbows in the guard.