Passing the closed guard is just something you need to know. Sure, you can always try ground and pound while you’re in the guard, but you expose yourself to the danger of submission. For a lot of guys, they want to pound away in a more dominant control position, like side mount, where blows are generally unanswered and submissions from the bottom are rare. In MMA, almost all closed guard passes are initiated in one of three ways:
Striking the face: This often gets the opponent to unlock the ankles either to free up the legs to go for arm submissions/defense or the guard pops open just because he is distracted by the pain. From here, the guard is open and the double underpass, knee through thigh lock-down, etc, become available.
Bicep control/Stack attack: Guard escapee holds down biceps as the first step, and from there he can pop up, weight forward stacking the opponent in the guard. The guard is broken by simply shaking his legs to the ground and pushing (simple shake) and executing a knee through or throw the legs to the side standing pass. If the guard remains tight, he can crab walk over the opponent or flip him on his front by to stepping over to one side using knee-lock pressure.
Wedging and Grinding: After posturing up, escapee wedges out with one knee behind him – stretching out opponents legs, and grinds down on a leg with an elbow.
Below are several of the more common MMA guard passes, with videos and written tips on how to pull them off.
“If you want the skills, do the drills.”
- Major Mark Cunningham
In the stand-up game, fighters string together punches in combinations – if the first one doesn’t connect the second third or fourth will probably slip through. On the ground, you want to do the same thing. Fire off one submission and if it doesn’t go through, instead of trying to muscle it through, immediately move to a new one. A lot of guys have the problem of just throwing one submission attack by itself instead of chaining moves that flow one to the next. The great part is that just like striking, certain moves naturally set up other moves so that if your guard sweep got stuffed by a guy posting out – your kimura attack is primed and ready to go. Getting good at chaining attacks makes your ground game far more dangerous – eventually one of your attacks will sink in and make your opponent submit, all without draining you in a battle of strength. The following videos will give you some ideas to work with.
From the guard position
From side mount/ cross body position
From top mount position
Take the time to learn the technical aspects of a submission and then make sure to drill it in the context of a series of other moves.
P.S. One of my favorite attack chains is very traditional Gracie Jujitsu and goes like this: go for the armbar from the guard, your opponent tries to pull the barred arm out by pushing with the other hand on my hips, I counter by letting go and pull the pushing arm across my body and get my legs going for a triangle choke, to avoid getting choked out my opponents chin tucks down and pulls on the leg with the free hand to get some space to pull the head out … and finally this attempted escape leaves the arm in the triangle weak to my omoplata attack.
Mike Tyson, Chuck Liddell, Roger Mayweather – there are just some guys whose punches hit like the sledge hammers. Even if one of these devastating blows doesn’t KO – it can change the whole feeling and destiny of a fight instantly.
For example, Saturady the 19th had two very interesting fights – Fedor Emelianenko vs Tim Sylvia and Anderson Silva vs James Irvin, videos shown below. (If you haven’t already heard, Fedor gets the win via rear naked choke and Silva by knock out.) Both fights were remarkably similar – the winner unleased a powerhouse punch early in the first round, sending their opponent to the ground stunned. Once on the ground, the victor took quick advantage of the dazed man, ending the fight.
The appeal of such power is obvious, but how do you get it?
The Bitter Truth
First, a dose of realism. Some people are genetically wired to be heavy handed punchers, some not. Your muscles have a predetermined number and ratio of different muscle fibers (fast-twitch glycolytic fibers {white fibers}, slow-twitch oxidative fibers {red fibers} and Type II-B fibers {intermediate fibers}). Furthermore, the length of your muscles, tendons and bones gear your body to have a mechanical predisposition for strength or speed. Frank Lotierzo over at www.Eastsideboxing.com goes as far as to say that despite strength training knockout power “... is God given, and punchers are born, not created.“
The Good News
You may have less-than-Olympic genes, but the good news is that with enough effort and intelligence, you can increase your punching power substantially. Initially, the best way to develop power is to have great form. You must develop a technical mastery for each individual type of punch, and a good boxing coach can certainly help out. However, there are a few over-arching themes that apply to all strikes.
Grounding and Kinetic Linking
Previously, I wrote:
All punching power ultimately comes from the earth. The reason you can bench press a barbell while lying on your back is because the ground is supporting you. The greater amount of weight you lift, the greater amount of force the earth “pushes” back to support you. To punch powerfully, you need to have a keen awareness with your relationship to the ground. A mighty oak doesn’t withstand harsh winds and weather because it has a large trunk or limbs. The oak tree has become symbolic of strength due to its prodigious roots. Similarly, great punching begins with great footwork and stances. Practicing stances and footwork is not exciting, but it is the foundation of the body’s ability to generate force.
Kinetic linking is a boxing concept involving the flow of power from the ground to your fist. In an article about punching power, Sammy Franco points out that you have three power generators that assist in kinetic linking: your feet, hips and shoulders. “Maximally torquing your body into the blow will increase both the force and penetration of the blow.” He further mentions that the timing and coordination of these generators is a tricky balance of speed and power.
Mastery of Relaxation and Tension
Without speed there is no knock-out power; without proper relaxation there is no speed. Frank Benn, in an article from Stickgrappler remarks, “…[Y]ou have to develop your kinesthetic perception if you really want to be able to hit with power. There is a correct sequence of muscular contractions for every punch, every kick, which happens very quickly in rapid succession. In addition to contractions, there is a correct series of RELEASES (very important) — i.e. when a certain muscle in the chain has done its job, and now needs to let go before it starts to hinder your function.”
In general, you tense muscles to throw the punch, relax, then tighten up right on impact.
The Right Muscles, The Right Exercises
I’ve always liked an exchange between Dan Inosanto and Bruce Lee in the book, ” Art of Expressing the Human Body”-
“I remember once Bruce and I were walking along the beach in Santa Monica, out by where the ‘Dungeon’ (an old-time bodybuilding gym) used to be, when all of a sudden this big, huge bodybuilder came walking out of the Dengeon and I said to Bruce, ‘Man, look at the arms on that guy! ‘I’ll never forget Bruce’s reaction. He said, ‘Yeah, he’s big — but is he powerful? Can he use that extra muscle efficently?”
The major muscles to strengthen for power punching are the following:
Lats, shoulders, and traps
Abdominals and lower back
Quads, hamstrings and calves
To a lesser extent you need to strengthen these:
Forearms and hands
Pectorals
Train the important groups most often and first. Out of the hundreds of exercises that could be done to strengthen these muscles, a few stand out:
Pull-ups, upright rows/seated rows, skipping rope and shadowboxing/heavy bag work with 16 ounce gloves
The combat abdominal twist, janda sit-ups and russian twists
Squats, deadlifts, tire flipping and kettlebell windmills
Bent press, Turkish get-ups, military press and bench press
For some more ideas, see this article from the bodybuilding forums.
In conclusion fighters who have that ability to drop bombs are hated, feared, imitated. Be one of those fighters.
Previously posted are two of ESPN.com’s MMA for dummies videos about the Muay Thai clinch. Since the readers of SLC MMA are no dummies, we’ve amped it up a notch with some advanced techniques from the plumb clinch.
Kenny Florian instructs on the Muay Thai Clinch and two attacks from this position, from ESPN.com’s MMA for dummies. This is type of clinch is also called the plumb clinch.