We focused on the closed guard last night. Damian reminded us that as a group we tend to give up on closed guard too quickly. It’s a defense in depth tactic. Pass my closed guard? Fine, I have an open guard for you to work through next.

Specifically, we worked an fail arm drag/overwrap attempt. The overwrap is one of my go-to moves lately, so this was a nice option for when they yank their arm back. We escape our hips and set up a closed guard at an angle, with their yanked arm trapped against our chest. We can than underhook their other arm, and pull it in to prevent them from posting and posturing up. From there, we grip or underhook their knee, pivot, and pendulum our leg to sweep to mount. I was paired up with Brian, who is a stocky white belt. He had some trouble with it, but started to get the hang of it eventually.

We then did variations. What if he posts with his foot to prevent the sweep? We work around to take his back. What if, while doing that, he reaches for our posting arm to escape? We trap it and flip him over and finish the armlock. What if when we do that, he pulls his arm back? We reach for his other arm, pull on it, and flip him over into mount.

For sparring, we did 5 minutes on top, 5 minutes on bottom, starting in closed guard, twice. I had Brian and Renato. With Brian, I was a little frustrated. I was trying to work these flower sweeps and some other closed guard techniques we’ve done recently, but not having much luck with them. I did end up taking his back from half guard though. With Renato, I was a bit passive, and “let” him get away with things I shouldn’t have.