It is not Gumby's best written work, which I think has something to do with the complexity of the topic. But his focus on posture and his technique of reverse engineering (explained best in his "Hierarchy and Duality of Position" essay available here) alone remain worth reading.
Critical Thinking in Jiu Jitsu: The Guard
I've been thinking a lot about my guard, ever since my fairly pitiful effort last Thursday. And as it always happens, the jiu jitsu gods send along a little help in the way of Gumby's latest. Gumby's "homework" includes this assignment:
Assess your personal version of the guard. Figure out what your favorite grips and hooks are in the context of how you are going to break your opponents posture.
Which goes to the heart of what I've been struggling with guard-wise. What hooks do I want to use and for what purpose? What do I need to do to get the guy to react in the way I want? What position to I need to put my body, legs and arms (in that order) in order to make all of this happen?
One thing I've definitely decided on doing for the rest of the year is focusing on open guards, especially sitting/butterfly and spider (Tommy Gun). I think my legs are built more for hooking and lifting for sweeps than a lot of the swinging that makes up the great attacks from the guard (and not a few submissions). This means using a lot more hooks on one side and traps on the other. Load the guy's weight and then flip him over. If he won't come, then drive him back (code: Poosh tha Guy).
The other part of the hook strategy is to use double hooks and kick the guy out while pulling on the collar and sleeve. There's actually an abs routine that mimics this movement. If I break the guy down with this move, there are all kinds of attacks, from chokes to take-the-back, that I can use.
The point being this: I don't want to get so focued on my problems with the basic foot-in-hip closed guard that I forget there are other alternatives, especially when sparring. I only get so many opportunities a week to work on my guard and if I can find something that works for me right now, that will make the experience of fixing what I'm not so good at that much more enjoyable.
It's an extension of my Lloyd Irvin theory, a theory that makes more sense the more I think about it. If jiu jitsu, as Gumby was writing not too long ago, is about safety first, position second and submission third, then the first thing a person needs to do on the mat is figure out where he or she feels safest: on top or on bottom? The second thing is to figure out which position on the top or bottom is the most natural, most comfortable. The third thing is to figure out which way of finishing the fight, of getting the submission, is best from the position that has been determined to be the best.
This doesn't preclude learning about other positions. If anything, it is a perfect roadmap to learning everyposition. But what it definitely does is allow a person to achieve some level of talent in a part of jiu jitsu relatively quickly, a talent that, over the years, can grow into mastery while other part of his or her jiu jitsu game are allowed to improve at their own pace.
For me, the signature set was pretty easy: on top, side control, Americana. It is still the most comfortable, most natural way for me to finish a fight. But developing a talent with this set has also helped me develop a pretty quick "step" from side control (or Watch Dog, south-facing side control) to mount. That led directly to me determining that I need to learn more about how to maintain the mount, which I've gotten a lot better at. Developing this signature set has also helped me develop a halfway decent Americana from the bottom in closed guard, as well as the first few kimuras from side control that I've ever gotten in sparring. Unintended side benefits that have nonetheless become key parts of my game.
I've got a halfguard set that is starting to come into its own from the bottom. The twist--much more than the tackle--has been my main half guard sweep for the past few weeks. But I need to figure out a signature set for the full guard, and previous plans notwithstanding, that set may not originate with the traditional closed guard.
