Guard (grappling)

The butterfly guard being used during Judo training. The judogi of the top combatant is grabbed to prevent him from moving away.

The butterfly guard involves both of the legs being hooked with the ankles in between the opponents legs, against the inside of the opponents thighs. The opponent is controlled using both legs and arms. The leverage in the butterfly guard allows powerful sweeps. The guard also allows one to elevate or set the opponent off balance and because of this it is particularly useful in avoiding damage and allows transitions to other dominant positions. The analogous technique in wrestling and catch wrestling is called double elevator.

The x-guard being used in BJJ competition

The X-guard is an open guard where one of the combatants is standing up and the other is on their back. The bottom combatant uses the legs to entangle one of the opponent's legs, which creates opportunities for powerful sweeps. The X-guard is often used in combination with butterfly and half guard. In a grappling match, this is an advantageous position for the bottom combatant, but in general hand-to-hand combat, the top combatant can attack with stomps or soccer kicks. Likewise, skilled use of the x-guard can prevent the opponent from attempting a kick, or throw them off balance should they raise a leg. The x-guard has been used in Judo[5] before being popularised by Marcelo Garcia.[6]

This position can be considered a type of spider guard.

The spider guard comprises a number of positions all of which involve controlling the opponents arms while using the soles of the feet to control the opponent at the biceps, hips, thighs or a combination of them. It is most effective when the sleeves of the opponent can be grabbed. The spider guard can be used for sweeps and to set up joint locks or chokeholds.

The De la Riva guard being used in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training

The De la Riva guard (also called jello guard) is an open guard that has been used in Judo[7] before being popularized in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by De la Riva, who was successful with it in competition. The guard consists of one of the legs wrapped behind the opponent's leg from the outside, the ankle held with one hand, and the other hand grips one of their sleeves. The De la Riva guard offers a number of sweeps, transitions and submissions, and is more recently used in combination with spider guard.

Rubber Guard diagram, a red figure holding blue figure in the rubber guard.

The rubber guard is a position that keeps an opponent down in your guard. Similar positions have been seen in Judo[8] before being commonly used in Brazilian jiu-jitsu by Nino Schembri, then popularized and made a system by Eddie Bravo. Many techniques have been developed from this position including sweeps, submissions, and striking defense. By using a leg to hold an opponent down, one arm is free to work on submissions, sweeps or to strike the opponent's trapped head.

Megaton Dias demonstrating the 50-50 guard

The 50-50 (Fifty-fifty) guard is a position popularized by Roberto “Gordo” Correa and extensively used by the Mendes Brothers, Rafael and Guilherme Mendes, Bruno Frazzato, Ryan Hall and Ramon Lemos from the Atos Jiu-Jitsu Team. In other grappling systems such as catch wrestling and Sambo, it is a form of the "outside leg triangle" type of leg control. In this position, the fighter on the bottom crosses a triangle on the opponent's leg, which allows for the leg to be dominated while leaving the arms free to work on sweeps and submissions. This position has been heavily criticized for use in competitions with restricted use of leglocks due to the potential of stalling a match when the fighter on top cannot pass the guard and the fighter on the bottom cannot successfully perform a sweep.[9][10][11][12][13][14][15]

Simple guard pass also known as the arm/leg pull is a guard pass demonstrated in The Essence Of Judo by Kyuzo Mifune, and it is an unnamed technique described in The Canon Of Judo.[16] In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu this pass is commonly referred to as the Toreando/Bull Fighter Pass.[17] The main characteristic of the pass is the practitioner side-stepping around the opponent's legs whilst simultaneously pulling aside the opponent's leg or pinning the opponents legs to the ground.

Stacking Guard Pass is also demonstrated in The Essence Of Judo by Mifune, and it is also an unnamed technique described in The Canon Of Judo.[16] The main characteristic of the technique is the practitioner lifting the opponent and stacking them, into a possible neck crank or blood choke submission, when the practitioner is in the opponent's open guard.

Near Knee Guard Pass is also demonstrated in The Essence Of Judo by Mifune as well as Canon of Judo by Mifune.[18] In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, this guard pass is commonly referred to as the Knee Over Pass.[19] The main characteristic of this pass is the practitioner driving their knee over the opponent's same side thigh while in the opponent's open guard.