I was talking to a friend of mine at the gym about the inverted guard, aka the upside down guard, and how some guys use it in jujitsu to stuff guard pass attempts. It works more or less like this : from regular closed guard, a guy breaks the connection between your legs (unlocks your ankles) and starts to pass to one side, controlling a leg. If he’s passing to the right side, you dive into him and roll to your right and get upside down, making an new connection with your legs. Then, you can pull off a few forms of triangle chokes via inverted guard.
Anyway, I was wondering about the validity of inverted guard in MMA. On one hand, punching someone’s face from this position seems devastating. On the other hand, the inverted guard is a legitimate branch of the jujitsu tree and perhaps can still be used effectively. (You can see MMA fighter Nick Diaz move in and out of the inverted guard in the fight video above).
In a way, I see the rules of the MMA match playing a big part. Is the guy on bottom allowed to up-kick a downed opponent? Is the guy on top allowed kicks to a downed opponent? What about knees to a downed opponent?
The thing is, I can’t fully recall a fight where a guy has utilized the upside-down guard in MMA. You see it in flashes, when guys drop and roll for knee-bars, roll out to escape the turtle position, etc. If you can remember a fight where the inverted guard was used (or abused), please let me know!
Here are a few matches that showcase the inverted guard, and again, you tell me what you think.
I was surfing the net and found a video of Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira that I hadn’t seen before. It’s 30 minutes long, and shows Nog teaching 11 MMA specific techniques. The video was shot back in his Pride fighting days, for a Japanese audience. It’s pretty cool – Antonio speaks in broken English and it’s translated into Japanese.
30 minutes is quite a long time (for web surfers anyway), so I’ve listed the techniques in the video below. The video has nice technique recaps, so it’s easy to navigate to any distinct part of the video.
Open guard ground and pound defense, up-kicking into a triangle.
Closed guard ground and pound defense, transition to a belly down armbar.
Half guard G&P defense, sweep into side control, finish via headlock.
Attacking within the G&P, then defending the calf crusher.
Sprawl counter to a low single-leg take down, finish via a gator roll/anaconda choke.
I’ve seen Big Nog use almost all of these moves in MMA fights. Watch one of his highlight vids and you probably can check off more than half of the above list. (There is even an amusing compelation named after the anaconda choke he uses).
If enjoyed that kind of material, I hear that Big Nog’s book, “Mastering Mixed Marital Arts: The Guard” is excellent. After reading the amazon reviews, I’m saving my extra pennies to buy it.
Here are some moves for you to boost your dangerousness when you’re in the guard. Be careful, it doesn’t take much to blow out your training partners knee or ankle. These moves ha ve a very small tolerance between pain and injury. Train wisely.
The foot/ankle lock
This is a great submission to try when you’re attempting to break your opponents guard.
Now watch a slightly different variation, from standing position. This video is of Jean-Jacques Machado at ADCC (the toughest no-gi submission tournament in the world) slapping an ankle lock on his opponent within the first few seconds of the match. JJ Machado is awesome!
Sambo Leg Manipulation
The position in this video is a little bit different than the guard, but you can wind up there in several ways. You could have just gone from single/double leg takedown and had difficulty in going to side control or may have just thwarted a sweep attempt from your opponent. You may have also just transitioned into the leg lock position if the guard you’re in is open or loose.
Bruce Foster goes through a bunch of different submissions in a short time – so watch out. Notice how his hips are swiveled all the way to the side. If you aren’t sideways, on hip on the floor the submissions won’t work well, as his leg isn’t trapped very well.
A couple of tips:
Remember – when locking in the submission, squeeze your knees together.
Get those hips sideways.
Get the other leg out of the way – you don’t want it interfering, be careful not to overextend it. At very least, your overextended leg will keep you from getting sideways. Worse yet, your opponent may grab your leg and try something.
Use your radial bone (thumb-side forearm bone) to dig into his tissue.
Get your radial bone under his Achilles tendon, close to his foot. Don’t choke up onto the leg – you have the most leverage and damage dealing potential at the end of his leg.
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.
