I remember well when rubber guard started to become popular in BJJ academies across the United States. Several knees were blown out due to an overall lack of knowledge of the position. Nowadays, I advocate experimenting with some of the techniques with some reservations and caveats. Safety definitely comes first, and you should always, always listen to your knees and body whenever trying newer moves.

However, once you realize some of the limitations, rubber guard and the related types of closed guard with "leg overhooks" and the like can be incredibly useful tools. Here, we'll look at both the more flexible and less flexibility-required versions of rubber guard, and some very high percentage submissions you can hit from there.