Beginnings, and basics of the upright guard

This blog is my notepad. I found a couple of years ago while preparing for an 8-hour lab exam that it helped immensely if I wrote out everything I had just learned in a narrative. It forced me to explain things as if the reader needed matters presented so clearly that I couldn't assume they would "just get it." I often learned a topic in greater depth as I blogged about it, and that's what I'm hoping to get out of this. If anyone reads it ... even better.

It's the Thursday before Christmas, so I only have a couple of training sessions left before the gym shuts down for the holidays. It's probably better that way. Most of us there start to twitch if we take more than a week off at a time so we rack up nagging injuries that we just live with by doing things like duct taping bent fingers to straight ones. A couple weeks of forced relaxation will likely do us all some good.

Now, enough fluff, on to the mat work.

This week we've worked on the upright guard. This is an interesting variation of guard that I've been hit with many times, but never really spent much time studying so I wasn't entirely sure what was about to happen when I got dumped on my back. If I avoided a sweep it was instinct or luck.

Essentially to have someone in an upright guard means that you are sitting down with both feet in between the legs of an opponent who is facing you on his knees. One hip is slightly more forward than the other, and the corresponding foot is "hooking" your opponent's leg. Your upper body is perpendicular to the floor (hence "upright"), and one shoulder should be forward (the shoulder corresponding to the leg/hip that is forward).

Once you establish a dominant side, you probably want an underhook. So plunge that forward arm under the armpit of your opponent. If you can't get an underhook it's not the end of the world, but if he gets an underhook on you he has the dominant position, so it's probably a good idea back of and do something else rather than force the position.

If you can get an underhook, trapping the arm you're not underhooking will take away his ability to defend a sweep to that side. So just fall backward and to the trapped side until your head is touching the mat and use your hook to flip him. Using a lot of "kick" in your hooking foot is counter-productive; your opponent will end up flying so far away from you that he'll get away before you can wrap him up in a tight side control. Also, while it's possible to go directly to mount from this sweep, a quick thinker will snatch one of your legs and pull you into half-guard. The risk is there, the choice is yours.