Closed Guard Basics

One of the unique features of BJJ, other than its tremendous use of leverage, is the ability to defend yourself, neutralise or even attack opponents from your back. What made this possible is BJJ's guard positions.

The most basic form of guard, as well as the first one that I encountered, was the closed guard. The reason why this guard is taught as the first guard is the fact that this guard offers the maximum area of contact among other guards, thus allowing more control over the person inside the guard.

What are the principles of closed guard?

1. Lock ankles while not in the offensive
2. Break down opponent’s posture and keep it that way
3. Open up your guard for the offensive only after breaking up opponent’s posture
4. Create more angle between your body and your opponent’s for better offenses

The first one, locking the ankles, are often forgotten by many, especially beginners in the heat of battle. Without it, the guard will not be “closed”, and you’ll quickly lose control of your opponent. Crossing the ankle will create a ring which traps your opponent’s hips and allow you to control your opponent. If the ring breaks while you’re trying to establish control, then your guard is broken, and your guard is likely to be passed.

As the basic principle of breaking the ring is by “overloading” them, you will need to prevent your opponent to fix his hips against yours, therefore keeping your hips mobile while immobilizing theirs. Breaking down your opponent’s posture will achieve this, which brings us to the next crucial element of closed guard.

Breaking your opponent’s posture is essentially moving your opponent’s centre of gravity forward toward you and keep them there, ie: break your opponent’s posture is by “sucking” your opponent into your guard. This will make your opponent off-balance, minimizing their capabilities to use leverage, thus minimizing the damage to yourself, as well as setting yourself up for the offensive.

For the offensive, we have to keep coming back to basic principles in BJJ – position over submission. In the case of a guard, you’ll need to open up your guard to attack, but do so after breaking up your opponent’s posture and have sufficient control over him/her. Without it, you’ll lose the guard for a submission attempt, and you’ll end up worse than what it used to be

Lastly, while there are numerous ways to attack your opponent from closed guard, but generally, the more angle you create between their body and yours, the more effective is your submissions and sweeps. Take for example an armbar – the more you take your opponent’s arm across his/her chest (thus more angle between you and your opponent), the faster you get the armbar.

So, keep these principles in mind when keeping your opponent inside your closed guard, and once you’re comfortable with closed guard, don’t hesitate to try other guards to increase you offensive and defensive capabilities.

For more references, here are some of the videos that I find useful:

Closed Guard Principles - as usual, Stephan Kesting did well in his explanations


Closed Guard Crash Course


For all of you Eddie Bravo fans, the Rubber Guard Instructionals:
Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


For those who wants to have a deeper look at this guard, I have the book for the class to borrow, but make sure you understand the basics of guard, or you will not be able to fully utilize this unorthodox guard.