In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, everybody talks about sweeps and submissions from varied guards. However right here’s the factor, most individuals be taught the arduous means and none of that issues if you happen to can’t hold your guard within the first place.
Guard retention is the artwork of staying within the combat. It’s the way you cease your opponent from passing and placing you in survival mode. It’s not flashy, and it’s hardly ever taught with the identical pleasure as armbars or triangles. However with out it, your guard sport crumbles.
So let’s break down what guard retention really is, how the perfect gamers construct it in layers, and why the “4 Corners” rule may be the only most helpful idea for retaining your hips within the combat.
What Is Guard Retention?
It’s simple to think about guard retention as simply “not letting them move.” However that’s solely a part of the image. Actual guard retention is about managing distance, angles, body, and doing all of it earlier than your opponent totally breaks your place.
When your guard will get handed, it doesn’t normally occur in a single transfer. It occurs in phases, like a wall slowly being chipped away. The hips get pinned, your leg is managed, your frames collapse and also you get tilted or flattened. Then earlier than you recognize it, you’re mounted or smashed within the aspect management.
Guard retention is about stopping that chain response earlier than it ever will get to step two.
The Layers Of Protection
Consider your guard like a fortress with layers. The deeper your opponent will get, the extra hassle you’re in. The secret’s studying to note every stage and combat to regain management. With time, even the chaos turns into manageable. Let’s dive into the completely different layers of protection in ascending order.
1) Your Toes And Legs
In any guard guard, your legs act as shields. Managing distance, disrupting motion, and alerting you the second an opponent breaches your house.
Your toes, knees, and shins are your entrance line. They handle distance, hook up with your opponent’s physique, and disrupt motion. Whether or not you’re utilizing lasso, De La Riva, collar sleeve, or only a easy open guard, your legs are your shields.
When somebody steps inside your legs, the primary alarm goes off.
2) Your Hips And Angle
Guard retention is all about retaining your hips free. Keep in your aspect, not your again, to maneuver and get well.
In case your hips are free, you possibly can pivot, invert, and finally get well. However as soon as your hips are pinned or flattened, you’re in peril.
Guard retention typically comes right down to combating to remain in your aspect, not your again. Shrimping, hip escapes, and granby rolls are all constructed to maintain this line alive.
3) Your Frames
Guard retention begins with sturdy frames. Elbows in and posture as much as cease strain early and purchase time to get well earlier than the move.
Elbows and forearms in opposition to the physique, inside bicep ties, shoulder posts, these aren’t simply placeholders, they’re the way you cease your opponent from collapsing into tight management.
Good retention means retaining frames alive whilst you get well guard, not simply as a response after the move.
The 4 Corners Rule
Guard retention comes right down to this: by no means let your opponent management three of your 4 posts—shoulders and hips—or the move is theirs.
This idea comes from high-level guard retention methods and is stupidly easy, however extremely efficient.
Your guard is outlined by 4 key factors:
Your two shoulders
Your two hips
When your opponent controls three out of the 4, they’re more likely to move.
Let that sink in. In the event that they management your near-side hip, your far-side shoulder, and also you’re flat, you’re getting handed. The answer? By no means allow them to safe three.
This offers you a transparent objective in the course of chaos. Even when they’re deep on a knee lower or smashing in a physique lock, ask your self: “Can I free one of many 4?”
In case you can wiggle your far hip out or publish on a shoulder and reframe, the move is stalled, and the sport resets.
It’s a small shift in pondering that makes an enormous distinction, as a result of it turns each second right into a manageable micro-battle.
Motion Issues Extra Than Muscle
Guard retention isn’t about uncooked power. It’s timing, sensitivity, and clever motion. You’ll hear phrases like “float your hips” or “use the frames earlier than the scramble.” All of it boils right down to: don’t wait till you’re flat.
Practice actions like:
Hip escapes and aspect shrimps
Technical lifts
Inversions and granby rolls (even fundamental ones)
Shin pivots and leg circles to reset frames
However extra importantly, observe guard restoration drills. Begin in unhealthy positions and work your means again, many times. Practice your weak factors and switch them into your strongest swimsuit.
Construct The Behavior, Not Simply The Response
The perfect guard gamers don’t react to the move. They preempt it. Meaning they begin recovering earlier than the move is locked in. They don’t wait to get crushed earlier than transferring, they’re already midway again to the guard whereas their opponent remains to be celebrating the knee lower.
That’s the extent you need to work towards. Guard retention that looks like a reflex.
Ultimate Thought
You don’t want a dozen flashy guard methods. You simply want the flexibility to maintain the combat in your world.
Be taught the layers. Defend your 4 corners. Transfer earlier than you’re compelled to. And all of the sudden, your guard isn’t one thing folks move, it’s one thing they need to survive.
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