Interactive Map – Closed Guard Concepts

I had a few epiphanies a few weeks ago in class and they all came while working with two guys that had never done jiu jitsu before.

After working with guy #1 (while his girlfriend/wife watched) I realized a few things:

Make sure your partner knows what a tap means (that wasn’t very fun) Make sure your partner knows to not stand up while you are in an omoplata (this sucked even more) Some people just want to learn “moves”

I learned lessons 1 and 2 in very short order and needless to say I was done at that point. The fact that he was spazzing so much that drilling an omoplata made him sweat like a whore in church, may have also played a part. This was partly my fault, the guy was completely clueless and I should have explained tapping to him. And partly his fault because he was a total spaz showing out in front of his significant other.

The second guy is a S&C coach in town visiting a friend and has zero jiu jitsu experience. Obviously he’s strong and in shape but the most noticeable difference is that he wanted to learn basics, not just submissions. He was more interested in controlling my posture and getting out of my guard than trying to submit me. We rolled a bit, stopping several times to talk about what was going on and I enjoyed working with him.

So what did I realize in class?

Don’t train with a new guy that’s brought his girlfriend along to watch

Submissions, sweeps and passes are all cool but if your posture, grips and pressure isn’t right you’ll never get to use them while rolling.

Here a few really good You Tube channels for basic and conceptual training:

Jason Scully

Trumpet Dan BJJ

Below you’ll find the interactive map that I put together that breaks down the Closed Guard from the Top & Bottom. I hope you find it as helpful as I did.