Always know what to do from Guard 💀: An algorithm for “Guard Retention” and Keeping your “Offensive Cycles” going.

A Guard Guiding Algorithm

I've been studying guard retention for a couple of months. Having an unpassable guard is probably the most satisfying and confidence-building thing you can have in jiujitsu. Especially if you're small and end up playing guard even when your plan is different. But it is freaking hard if you don't have a system to follow.

In my quest to make my guard less passable, I've discovered some fundamental things that usually cause my guard to fail.

The quest to improve my guard retention actually started at the wrong place. I started drilling and practicing guard retention movements. Still, I quickly noticed that I was actually doing the moves perfectly fine, and the real cause of my guard failure was something more conceptual and strategic that was happening before I was even in danger of getting passed.

All credit goes to John Danaher's Open Guard instructional (in the first couple of volumes, he goes over the most basic guard retention elements), which shed light on my underlying problem.

Apart from knowing the basic guard retention movements, etc. There are 3 fundamental elements that are the basic foundations for having an unpassable guard.

• "The best defense is attacking. Offensive movement"

  • As long as you keep attacking and keep your opponent defending your moves, they won't be able to initiate an effective pass. This is what we call an "offensive cycle".

• Keep the Offensive Cycle going: always go from one offensive movement to another: I'll give you an algorithm or plan so you're not just moving for the sake of moving.

• Kuzushi is at the base of keeping your opponent from initiating an attack. Keeping your offensive cycle going and not letting your opponent start an offensive cycle themselves is going to be impossible without the use of unbalancing or kuzushi. They need to be in constant fear of getting swept to keep them from committing to an offensive move.

The problem is that this is obvious! Right?!

But the following framework or algorithm makes following these 3 foundational principles much more straightforward and gives you a prescriptive way of:

• ⭐️ Always knowing what to do next so you can stay in charge of the offensive cycle,

• ⭐️ Always being one step ahead and making your opponent reactive instead of proactive,

• ⭐️ Being able to impose your offenses instead of answering to your opponent's moves

And it's almost entirely based on the creation of Kuzushi.

Framework/Algorithm for Playing and Retaining Guard 🤯:

There are only 3 possibilities when your opponent makes contact with your guard:

1. His weight distribution is in such a way that it is easier for him to fall forward or backward

2. His weight distribution is totally neutral (aligned over his base)

3. His head is either higher or lower than your head

Think about it… There's no other possibility.

Stay with me; I know it still sounds dumb as hell 🤣

The framework is a suggested next step for each of these. And every one of these next possible steps includes some unbalancing and/or offense.

Here are the options. Remember, they work in conjunction (Push/Pull Dynamics):

Framework #1: His weight distribution is in such a way that it is easier for him to fall forward or backward

Option 1: If His weight is forward, then you Pull them or get under them:

The visual queue is: His Shoulders are in front of their hips, and/or His weight is on their toes (when standing.)

Option 2: If His weight is backward, then you Push them and try to get on top of them:

The visual queue is: His Shoulders are behind their hips, and/or His weight is on their heels.

Option 3: If His weight is perfectly balanced over their his center of gravity":

Then you unbalance them by using push/pull until you encounter one of the 2 previous scenarios (I personally prefer to push first and play with their usually overcommitting reaction forward)

Framework #2: His head is either higher or lower than your head

If His head is higher than yours, then you get under their center of gravity or play framework #1

Ashi Garami entries, lifting sweeps, etc

If His head is lower than yours, then you get up and pull them into turtle position and get into head/arm position or on top:

Guillotines, Around to the back, Darces and Anacondas, Loop Chokes, etc

The most important thing to understand is that as long as you manage to keep your offensive cycle going and you are in charge of the tempo, your opponent won't be able to start their own cycle. They'll adapt and respond to your cycle… and as you can already guess, they won't be very effective in their attacks.

So the trick isn't to get fixated on one thing. The trick is to use these visual and sensory queues to know how to keep your offensive cycle going until you can capitalize and improve your position or get a submission.

If you only remember one thing this week, let it be this: You should absolutely always be either pushing or pulling your opponent. The second you stop, you give them a chance to start an offensive cycle of their own.

That’s it for this week! 🫱 👊  🤼‍♂️

PS.

As you can see, I’m trying new things with this. Being a bit more conceptual and broad is always helpful for me. What do you think? Do you prefer to go over specific techniques?

Let me know!