It's all been said before, but there are just too many people that romanticize playing the guard to the detriment of standup or even just learning to pass guard.
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Since no one wants to play the objective in this game, and solo dom flag cap times are so long, can I have a grappling hook which I can shoot teammates with to pull them to the B flag to help cap it with me? Seriously though, no one knows what an objective is in this game
Short story: I (training about 2 months, havent trained since covid) recently got into a little in house friendly wrestling with the boys, all whom are untrained, and i noticed i always ended up in half guard. Either they would tackle me , or single leg or double leg or just some sort of imbalance that made one of us fall to the ground. I was just curious as to what position other people notice they get into when grappling with friends or just messing around. Thanks for sharing :)
I understand it when the opponent could arm trap them or something like that, but for example if Iβm in a dominant side control or thai clinch, I spam elbows and knees as much as I can. Iβm kinda new to this game so is there something I donβt get?
Welcome to the first edition of my new weekly/twice weekly/whenever i get around to it series, Grappling Concepts for Pure Strikers. These posts will provide a sort of "quick and dirty crash course" on the goals and concepts of grappling to those who don't grapple themselves. Today's topic is the basic positions of groundwork.
When fighting on the ground, there are hundreds or even thousands of different positions and variations to deal with (infinite really). In order to get a handle on this huge myriad of positions, we find what the most common types of positions are and work with everything else as some variation on one of these. you may hear differing lists of these positions from different sources (is open guard a different basic position than closed guard? is standing in guard a whole separate basic position than kneeling in guard? etc) In Stephan Kesting's A Roadmap for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, he lists six basic positions. I will be using this list with one additional position (standing/post takedown) and with less time given to the turtle position in these posts.
The positions this gives us are:
- Rear Mount (or "the back")
- Mount (the "recess bully" position)
- Knee on Belly (Stephan Kesting refers to this as "knee mount". it is sometimes abbreviated "KOB")
- Side Control (stephan kesting calls this "side mount." I've never heard it called anything but "side control" in person)
- the Turtle (for our purposes, this could also be called "being totally fucked)
- Guard
- Post Takedown (one fighter grounded, one standing)
This gives us fourteen places we can be in a ground fight since we can be on either side of each position. These positions are listed in order of greatest advantage to smallest advantage for the top fighter (except Post Takedown, which i just put at the end because it doesn't really fir that sorting criteria).
I will now give a summary of each position.
In Rear Mount, the "top" fighter is hugging the back of the bottom fighter with their legs without crossing them. The Top fighter's arms are free to attack the bottom fighter. Here is a picture of the position. This is the only position in which the "top" fighter is sometimes physically under the bottom fighter in some variations.
When any experienced grappler sees or hears of this position, they have one technique in mind. This technique is called the [Rear Naked Choke](https://en.wi
... keep reading on reddit β‘Welcome to the third post in my series on basic concepts in grappling. This post will focus on the most varying basic position, the guard, and the most consistent basic position, post takedown. As always, prior posts are required reading (I will expect you to know terms I have already covered). Here is a link to the previous post.
The most important position we train in grappling and the position that really defines modern submission grappling is the Guard. This one is a little trickier to define than the other positions because there are so many different variations that all fall under this basic position. Because of this difficulty, I will be giving a few different definitions of guard. The first, simplest, and least immediately useful definition is any neutral position between actively grappling fighters.
It may be difficult to tell which positions are "neutral," so we must deal with a concept I alluded to in Volume II, but have not defined. This concept is what's called "giving your legs." In a factory model human being, the legs are longer, stronger, and closer together than the arms. This is what makes kicks hit harder than punches and from a longer distance, and it is the reason that almost anyone can bear their bodyweight on their legs for long periods of time but many people cannot do the same with their arms. Because of this, legs are the ideal body part to attempt to control someone else's body with. When you place yourself in a position to control someone with your legs, you are "giving them your legs." Doing so often lets you engage with all four major limbs, but is better than using just your arms either way. The top fighter gives the bottom fighter their legs in Mount, Rear Mount, and some forms of the guard. The bottom fighter only gives their legs to the top fighter in one position, the guard. From this, we have our second definition: any active grappling position in which the bottom fighter is giving the top fighter their legs is a guard.
Unlike the other positions, you will have to learn a bit about the variants of the guard for even basic familiarity with how to utilize it.
Guards come in three flavors: Open, Closed, and Half.
If there is a default guard type, it is closed. This is the type of guard most easily used by beginners, the one that gives the most complete control, and the one that serves as the "go to" f
... keep reading on reddit β‘Welcome to the second edition of my series on basic self defense grappling. This post will cover Knee on Belly, Side Control, and the Turtle. This may read a little differently because I am typing it on my cell phone. The first post is required reading (I will not be reviewing concepts or terminology).
Today's first position is Knee on Belly. This position is just what it sounds like. The top fighter has one knee folded on the bottom fighter's torso. The top fighter will usually post (i.e. use the mat for balance) with their other leg, but not with their arms. This position has the unique distinction of sometimes acting as an attack on its own due to the large amount of weight placed on a relatively small surface area of the bottom fighter's body. This effect can be greatly increased by putting as much weight as possible on the knee (instead of the posted foot) and by getting grips on the torso of your opponent and pulling them into your knee.
Most of what can be said about mount can also be said of KOB. The distance vs arm length advantage here is even greater than it is in mount. The top fighter's full body weight can be used for control. Escaping KOB is a little different. The simple and intuitive "push knee off of belly while rolling to uncontrolled side then shrimping" defense can actually work as well if your opponent isn't greatly skilled. Overall, this is another ground and pound position you don't want to be on the wrong end of (no matter how good you think your chin is) because with your head braced against the ground, strikes will do far more damage than from a standing position.
When playing the top of KOB, you want to use your arms to control your opponent. KOB can be a better top position to take in self defense situations than Mount because it is very easy to disengage from this position. This comes into play especially when multiple attackers are involved because you don't want to be "tied up" with the first guy when the second guy gets there. This position is much less stable than mount because one side of the opponent's body is not restricted from horizontal movement. One advantage this position does have in stability is that it is fairly easy to get it high onto your opponent's chest so that they cannot buck you by bridging their hips (as in Stephan Kesting's mount escape video)
... keep reading on reddit β‘
