Giving perspective on both sides of the equation

Lately, I’ve been making a change to my teaching methodology.

The focus has slowly been shifting to what I’ve decided to call physical demonstrations of what not to do.

Case in point:

There are two rules that when it comes to staying safe in someone else’s closed guard, and unlike many other tactics in the game, I haven’t found any exceptions for them.

The first is that we must always address the cross collar grip when possible, and the second is that we must avoid putting our hands on the mat.

Why?

Because doom awaits us if we choose not to adhere to those rules.

The cross collar grip can be used to break posture, set up cross chokes, hit scissor sweeps and unleash many other threats on us. And a hand on the mat is a trigger for opponents to lash out with kimuras.

Saying that is one thing though.

It’s far better to demonstrate it.

And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing while teaching methods for passing the closed guard this week.

We’ll work on a pass, then we’ll work on a counter when the top guy makes a mistake like putting their hands on the mount or failing to address the cross collar grip.

Just building out a basic understanding of what’s possible in the position by exploring both the top and the bottom in the same class.

I’ve found helpful to me as an instructor when it comes to identifying a few immutable laws about the topic at hand, and I bring it now as an idea for you to focus on in your training as well.

Drill both sides of a position and identify the specific reactions that lead directly into offensive options.

And if you want to see this teaching methodology in action, I plan to use this format in the next micro adjustments lesson, which will delve deeper into the topic of killing the kneecut at multiple stages of threat.

Grab access here if you so wish:

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