The Closed Guard can be an incredibly frustrating and dangerous guard to be stuck in. Whilst here your options are limited whilst the guard player can attack a number of sweeps and attacks. Because of this, it is massively important to learn how to open the Closed guard and then start passing from there. We will not be talking about the various passes in this article as the sole purpose is about opening the Closed guard as this should be taught first before passing the position.
There are two ways to open the Closed guard. One method is from standing and the other is from the knees. Most commonly, passers will usually stand to pass the Closed guard. However, some people also favor passing from the knees. This is because there are some problems from standing such as Lumberjack sweeps and leg attacks. Because of this learning to open from standing and the knees are important and you should learn both.
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How to open the Closed Guard whilst standing up
The first way to stand in the Closed guard is by creating a dominant wrist grip. For instance, you should grab the opponent’s sleeve and then pin it towards their body. The next step is to put the same side foot on the floor and begin standing. To do this make sure you stand on the same side as the wrist being controlled. This is because if you stand on the side of their free arm then they can underhook and start attacking sweeps. However, by standing on the side of the pinned wrist their arm is effectively nullified so it cannot harm your leg.
The next step is to start standing on your other leg and standing up. To do this you can should stand as if doing a dead lift. This means keeping your head and posture upwards whilst dragging the pinned wrist with you. Whilst standing you should then twist you hips inwards to put pressure on their hips. It is important to do this as when the hips weaken they’re more likely to open the legs. Whilst keeping your legs wide to have a more powerful base, you should then be difficult to sweep.
Similarly putting your weight over the opponent from this position is also a good choice as it makes it harder for them to throw you backward. Remember to keep hold of their wrist whilst doing this however, as they may be able to hit a balloon sweep otherwise.
With your free hand, you should then push down on their far knee. With this done combined with the above, their legs should now be opened and you can start thinking about passing. This is probably the most common way of opening the Closed guard and is successful from white to black belt.
Another method for Nogi is to stick both hands in the opponent’s armpits. Next, you can jump to both feet whilst keeping your opponent’s arms pinned. From here you can posture up and forwards to open the legs. At this point, you can open the feet and now escape the Closed guard. Whilst this method is fundamentally fine, it is not good for those with bad knees as suddenly jumping to your feet can put strain on the knees whilst jumping and taking your opponent’s weight.
Below we will talk about opening the Closed guard from the knees.
Opening the Closed Guard whilst on your knees
From the knees, you want to put pressure on the hips which is also part of opening the legs from standing. One way of doing this is by again controlling the wrist. This once again stops the opponent from creating attacks as it immobilizes their arm and shows the importance of grip fighting.
Once there you can then hip to make a slight sideways angle away from the pinned wrist. Because of wrist control the opponent cannot threaten a back take. With this in mind, it’s important to keep the grip held as otherwise they can attack the back if their hand becomes free.
With the angle created you can then start pinning their far hip downwards. To do this put pressure on the hip with your hand whilst keeping your elbow attached to their upper leg. It’s important to keep the elbow down as they can attack it otherwise. This is a general philosophy whilst being in the Closed guard; to keep your limbs inwards and out of danger.
Next, you should pin the hip down whilst moving your knee underneath the opponent’s body. This will create immense pain on their lower back and tail bone. Combined with pushing at the hip and controlling the wrist, the legs should eventually open.
From here it’s important to quickly move out of the position to make sure the opponent doesn’t re-establish the Closed guard. With this achieved you can now start to think about passing the open guard.
Thoughts on opening the Closed Guard
As the Closed guard is so common in BJJ and also MMA, it’s imperative to learn how to open the legs. From there you can start passing with less danger compared to being inside the Closed guard. As mentioned throughout the article, grip fighting and wrist control are imperative; which goes for both the Gi and Nogi position. This also explains why black belts are so successful in BJJ as they approach grip fighting with huge importance.
Overall learning to open the Closed guard should be known by all BJJ students as otherwise it can hinder their game massively.
