Different Guards Explanation

[Chad W. Getz]

Hey I posted at the underground to Roy Harris and he hasn't answered yet. So maybe someone here can help out.

What are all the different guard positions? For example: open guard, half guard, closed guard, long range guard, etc., etc.

Thanks in advance.

[dan downard]

Spider guard
Butterfly guard
The upside down, blood pumping to my head,knees in my own face,back about to snap in two,grimising in pain,hopeing he doesnt know what I'm trying to do guard.

[SweepEm]

I am not fully qualified to answer all the different guards, but the simple ones are:

Closed guard is where you have your opponent with you on your back and your legs wrapped around their waist and you cross your ankles.

Open guard is where your opponent is between your legs but you don't have your ankles crossed and there are variations as Dan mentioned, the spider guard and butterfly guard.

Half guard is where you have one of your opponent's legs trapped by your legs.

There is also the De La Riva guard, the X guard and many many more.

It's late and I will have someone else describe the other guards.

[Karlinhos]

why don't you just e-mail roy DIRECTLY?

pfs@sprintmail.com

or check out his site?

Roy Harris' Site

[dan downard]

Look up BJJ techniques on every BJJ page you can find.A little surfing and you can probably find a pic of most every guard position.Or wait till the wintercamp and we can have Rigan show us all the variations.

[Edited by dan downard on 01-06-2001 at 01:44 PM]

[Chad W. Getz]

1. Closed High Guard-Feet hooked high up on his back
2. Closed Low Guard- Feet hooked hooked lower around his waist
3. Open High Guard- Same as #1, but feet not hooked.
4. Open Low Guard- Same as #2, but feet not hooked.
5. Open Guard Hooks In- With hooks into his legs
6. Toes In Guard- Toes between your opponents leg and knees keeping the guard of him passing.
7. One Hook In, One Toe In Guard- Half of #5, half of #6, both for right and left sides.

Just some of the variations of guards we've been using, but the names might sound funny, because we don't know the names.

[Chop Wisby]

guard

karlinhos' suggestions sound good, & i know you've already posted to the q&a at the UG;

if that all doesn't work, try bjj.org & intheguard.com; or mark tripp's judo/sambo q&a forum at the UG.

[dan downard]

There are so many positions you can hold guard in,I'm not sure if they all have names.I mean ,having both feet on the hips and holding the back of both elbows may still be considered just an open guard.Bring your legs up and cross the feet to a high closed guard may just be that,no matter where you put your hands.A few like the spider guard and the butterfly guard differ enough to get a name.But weather you have one foot in or both feet in or visa versa in an open guard may not have its own name.I have never thought of each position having a name as it is alot to remember.Instead,just small things like what I've mentioned.Also I would think that your foot and hand position would be more for setting up sweeps and subs than being a specific type of guard.Have you emailed the staff at jiu jitsu .net ?They may have a better answer.(better informed?)

[Edited by dan downard on 01-07-2001 at 03:59 PM]

[dan downard]

Dan,
Some schools have different names - the ones I'm aware of ... or that my teacher and I use would be; Closed guard, Open Guard ... :-)
Under the open guard category there are a few people use to describe the foot positions:
Butterfly, Spider and DeLaRiva ... some of the others are just describing the exact positions ex: "2 feet in hips" or when coaching, "put your left hook in and your right on his bicep". etc ...

That's all i really use - Hope it helps.

Gene

http://www.jiu-jitsu.net

Kinda what I thought.

[Chad W. Getz]

Thanks, appreciate it, I'll follow up on some of the suggestions and post here when I come up with comprehensive list. I know its not important what you call it, but I'm getting tired of saying, put your toes between my legs and your knee outside my hip, etc., etc.

Thanks again...but just for my immediate curiosity...

Butterfly?
Spider?
DeLaRiva?

Thanks guys.

[dan downard]

Does this mean that you are planning on naming all the positions you can think of as guard positions?
This could be alot.

[Chad W. Getz]

Hey Dan. No, I know there are probably countless minute variations on the technical spectrum of it, I'm pretty much just looking for the principalistic (is that a word?) so I don't have to say, hey put your foot by my groing, and so forth. I figure if some guy has already done all the work, I can just use the definitions of the principles of the ones that I think fall into the same or similar category. For example, instead of calling a guard with the left foot between the guys legs and knee keeping guard and the right foot spreading his other leg one thing, and then the mirror image calling it another thing, I cna just say put your right foot in ******* position and your left foot in ****** position.

I was planning to make it up to the Winter Camp, but these guys at work are telling me that I have about three weeks to get the property and tenants ready for renovations at theend of the month, so unfortunately I can't make it up there now. I'll be sure to look you up when I make it up there, though...probably sometime in November.

Thanks.

[dan downard]

Work scheduals are hard to get around sometimes.Other than the training,you wont miss much.It was like 28 degrees this morning.And I dont ski or like to play on the mountain.So the only thing left to do is steelheading.And thats slow too.Maybe next time.

[SweepEm]

Well, I have some time and now I can explain a few of the other guards. Keep in mind that instructors call the guards by many different names. But these are supposed to be the classical styles that were shown to me. So, correct me if I am wrong.

Spider Guard is when you tie up your opponent with you on your back and you are grabbing your opponent's sleeves and you put one or both of your feet on your opponent's biceps.
and you extend and lock one of your legs or both of your legs. A variation is when you use one leg to put on the bicep and with your other leg, you circle it around the forearm to trap the other arm down low. (if you can picture this, but it's much easier to show than to write and describe)

Butterfly Guard is when you are sitting on your butt and usually your opponent is on their knees. With your feet, you hook the inside of your opponent's thighs to trap and you can use sweeps from this position, but you need to have one hand under your opponent's arm and grab the back of their belt.

De La Riva Guard is when your opponent is standing and you are on your butt, with your butt on one foot, controling the ankle of that foot and grabbing one of the sleeves of your opponent. Example, your opponent is standing and you put your butt on their right foot and with your left hand, you grab and control their right ankle and with your right hand you grab for their left sleeve and with your left foot, you wrap around and rest your left foot, on their left inside thigh. From here, there is the X guard, but this is a transition from the De La Riva where you place your feet in an X pattern on your opponent's left thigh, going to your opponent's right side to control the left leg. Instead of controlling the ankle, you would shift your grip to reach from the back to one of your opponent's sleeves, preferably the right sleeve.

Well, I don't think I did a good job in describing this, and the best person that can articulate this is of course Roy Harris. His writing style and knowledge is remarkable.

Instead of writing to describe guards,
the best is of course, a series of pictures

[dan downard]

Sweep,now is your chance to be a star.Go through it and have someone take pics.Then post them.