"Mastering the half guard allows you to be more aggressive in the mount and side mount because the fear of getting reversed and placed on your back is gone."
--Eddie Bravo, "Jiu Jitsu Unleashed"
For all the talk about Eddie Bravo and the rubber guard, it was his thesis on the half guard that provided me with the confidence to make the half guard my go-to position from the bottom.
And amid a bunch of convincing reasons why the half guard might be the solution for me guard-wise was the above idea: that mastering a position on the bottom should translate into greater confidence - or at least greater risk-taking - when on top.
Bravo applies it to being in mount and side mount. But I'm wondering if the same shouldn't apply to standing to pass the guard.
With competition time approaching, there's nothing more important than bringing some coherence to my guard passing attack. Like I've said before, my fights can almost always be divided into two outcomes: losses by submission when I get stuck in the guard, wins by decision when I pass. It's like clockwork.
Choosing the half guard was the greatest thing to happen to my jiu jitsu (well, one of many, but you get the point). That gift might continuing giving insofar as my biggest fear about standing to pass the guard is getting swept. Never mind that getting swept is better than getting triangled or armlocked or chokes. Never mind that Tommy told me years ago when I asked him about the danger of getting swept: "so what? Then you fight for the scramble." Never mind that Rodrigo had said more than once: if you can't pass the guard on the ground, then you are going to have to stand.
I hate the amount of time I spend in the guard. Saulo has this line, if you in the guard spending all your time fighting off submissions, you're not passing, you're drowning. Often, that's how I feel. And in that fog, I get into trouble time and time again.
Standing to pass will alleviate at least two things that are killing me in the guard right now: submissions and the fog. And standing is largely a function of will: you're tired, it would be so much easier to be able to pass without having to get up. But a "standing pass only" rule between now and the July revolution might be both the HICT training my legs need to attack from standing relentlessly, as well as the providing me with the skill-specificity that has proven to work in the past when I sold my soul to the half guard.
