Fixing Common Rubber Guard

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Fixing Common Rubber Guard Problems 29 November 2006 149 views 6 Comments I was going to save this for after I’d covered everything about my tournament, but I couldn’t resist the urge to share it after receiving my copy of Mastering of  Mastering the Rubber Guard by Eddie Bravo yesterday. From what what I’ve I ’ve seen, the most common problems problems with (and arguments against) against) rubber guard are getting stacked, getting passed too easil ea sily, y, the demands de mands on one’s flexibility flexibility and the risk of injury. I’ve experienced experienc ed all of these problems myself myself and had mostly mostly given given up on rubber guard because of t hem. It wasn’t until I attended Eddie Bravo’s seminar that I gained renewed interest and faith in the rubber  guard. He taught details that handily fix fix most these problems. Seeing Seeing him teach teac h it in person and hearing hea ring him repeatedly stress certain points made me realize how I’d be doing it wrong all along. I was missing all the little details det ails on the grips and positions positions that are hard to pick up from photographs. photographs. I now think most complaints complaints about the rubber guard come from people who are studying studying it out of pictures in books and websites, websites, like I was. It’s hard to learn lea rn the right right pressure to maintain while while doing rubber rubber guard and you’ll miss little but important details without seeing and learning it in person. I’ve only just gotten into the book, but already I see that Eddie has devoted a lot of the book to breaking down these details de tails and the strategies that are missing missing from his previous book and online tutorials. Let’s see if I can’t offer something he didn’t with a couple little details I’ve worked out.

A Common Problem I want to open with a common problem I used to have with rubber guard, and one I suspect many others are still having. having. If you’ve played with rubber guard, you’ve probably had t his happen more times than you care to count.

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You’ve broken the ir posture and gotten mission mission control.

Your opponent reac hes back. Oh boy, you can c an feel fee l your triangle coming! coming!

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But before you get anywhere, he’s he’ s blocked your leg with with his elbow and is crushing it to the mat. He’s not out yet though, so maybe maybe there’s the re’s still hope for you.

Oh no, now you’re screwed. He’s gotten his knee in and really rea lly killed killed your rubber guard.

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Maybe you’ll catch them in a “half rubber guard” of sorts and try to work from there (as I’ve seen done, and as Eddie shows in his book with moves like the Carni), but I’ll bet they’ll just keep driving through and try to t o explode your groin.

You’ll likely likely let go of your rubber guard because of the pain pa in and pressure, and if you’re lucky and they don’t pass outright, you’ll end up in half guard.

The Fixes In his book, Eddie devotes an e ntire chapter chapt er to t o troubleshooting common problems problems from rubber guard, including what to do when you they’ve stepped over your free leg. But I’d rather just avoid the situation entirely.

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I worked out t hese details deta ils by by experimenting with with what he showed at his seminar, seminar, but I now see he describes them in the introduction to the rubber guard chapter of his book, in the section “Troubleshooting Mission Control”. Consider this the pictorial companion to his words. To start fixing this this problem, we’ve got to move back t o before we’re we ’re even eve n in rubber guard.

I’ve got a normal closed guard and I’m breaking brea king their posture. posture.

I step with my right foot on the hip as I climb my other leg up the back. bac k. This is is actually where you start sta rt setting it up so he can’t pass over your leg. It’s hard to see, but you need to understand that I am squeezing my knees together with constant pre ssure, pinching them to his sides. sides. I call c all this the “thigh master”.

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When I grab my foot and go to mission control, my free leg is still thigh mastering against his ribs. Compare this to the first picture in this tutorial, paying special attention to the position of my knee, and the relationship of his arm to my thigh. My knee is up under his armpit and my thigh is behind his triceps,  blocking him from behind his elbow or reaching back and pressing down on the inside of my thigh. Eddie stressed this point over and over ove r again at his seminar, saying the ability to maintain this constant squeezing pressure with your legs is extremely important to a tig t ight ht rubber guard (or any closed guard). He also said (and writes in his book) that it takes a while to build the endurance to keep the thigh master on all that time, t ime, but it will pay off when you can. I’ve been trying to work the constant thigh master into my closed guard, and it’s one factor I attribute my tournament wins to. If you kee p a constant c onstant squeeze (a s well as pulling pulling your heels to your butt butt), ), any high guard game game becomes drastically drastica lly tighter tighter and a nd harder to t o posture out of. Once you’ve got your legs conditioned, it’s harder to high guard well with with loose legs legs because they’ll t hey’ll be able to posture up and rip out whenever they feel in danger. So putting in a little extra effort beforehand will prevent a lot of problems from arising later. I can ca n cover the basics ba sics of defending the stack stac k as well as minimizing minimizing flexibility flexibility abuse and joint joint injury (which go hand in hand) at the same time.

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Here is a view of mission control from the side. The first point to notice is that I have ha ve my foot on the t he hip. This is is my first first defense defe nse to the t he stack, allowing allowing me to push them off when they t hey drive in. Simple Simple enough. enough. Eddie covers counters c ounters to the t he stack stac k in his book that actually actua lly sweep sweep and a nd submit submit them. the m. This This foot on the hip is also also what saves my joints joints and reduce s the demands on my flexibility. flexibility. Even before be fore I use it to defend the stack, I can use my foot on the hip to tell if I’ll be able to easily get rubber guard or  not. If I can’t get my foot on the hip, I know my guard guard is too low and I’ll have to t o pull my my leg too high high to work rubber guard. I’ve seriously seriously hurt my hip joint joint before by not keeping ke eping this point point in. Another way to gauge gauge this is by the position of his head relative relat ive to my stomach. If he is at my sternum or  above, I know I’ll have to really rea lly stretch to pull my my leg up for rubber guard. If his face is in my my stomach, down by my hips, hips, then I know I am high high enough that it won’t be hard to t o get rubber guard. Look at the angle between my back and my left leg, with my hip hip as the corner. It’s It ’s nothing extreme, extre me, like like having to  bring my foot to my face, fac e, and t his is is because I made sure to get my guard guard high enough enough that I could put my foot on the hip. I know a lot of people have hurt their knees and even their ankles while trying rubber guard. I’ve never  had problems with with this, thankfully, and I think t hink it is because I have always tried to bend at the t he hips more than trying t rying to pull my my knees or feet fee t around. a round. When you’re going going for more demanding moves moves like tight omoplatas or gogoplatas, be careful with how much you pull your foot and how much stress is on your  knee, and try to get your leg into place by bending at the hips. Rubber guard does demand a degree of flexibility that most people have trouble with at first. Go easy at first, and don’t try tr y it on anyone who’s going going to spaz out and thrash out of it. Work on your flexibi f lexibility; lity; Eddie’s stretching chapter is great great for this. Drill it for a while while to get the steps ste ps and positions positions down. If you want to t o really get into the rubber guard, I highly highly recommend picking up a copy of Eddie Bravo’s  book, Mastering the Rubber Guard. Guard . What I’ve shown here is just a couple little scraps of the complete game he’s designed.

6 Comm C omments ents »

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OldDog53  said:

Most excellent, although on my Training Log I’ve been banned from discussing or showing any interest in Rubber Guard until I have lost my newbieness. # 29 November 2006 at 4:23 pm

 Aesopian  said:

You are violating violating your parole. # 29 November 2006 at 4:24 pm

OldDog53  said:

This This isn’t a question about actual a ctual Rubber Guard techniques, just the general genera l theory, so hopefully I’m not violating my parole. But IYHO (in your humble opinion) do you think Rubber Guard is principally no-gi, or do the techniques work well with a gi? We know that tha t Eddie’s big thesis is is that a lot of gi techniques tec hniques don’t translate well into no-gi no-gi because you lose your gripping gripping points, points, but is the opposite true as well, that no-gi techniques lose lose their edge e dge when you put the kimono kimono back on because of all the added adde d gripping gripping  points? (By Rubber Guard I don’t mean just Mission Control etc., but rather the whole flow-charted and interrelated sequences Eddie shows in the new book, like Butte rfly Guard, Twister Twister Side Control, Half Guard, the gi-less gi-less guard guard passes, etc.) et c.) # 30 November 2006 at 12:24 pm

 Aesopian  said:

It all works with the gi on. The friction is just just different, sometimes sometimes for the better, bette r, sometimes for the worse. You can eve n add gi grips grips to most of his stuff to make it tighter, though your opponent ca n also use gi grips to defend it. # 30 November 2006 at 12:27 pm

 said:  Dochter  said:

Continue discussion discussion here: here : http://www.aesopian.com/forum/general/topic-2/ ? # 30 November 2006 at 2:01 pm

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 Aesopian  said:

Here, actually: http://www.aesopian.com/forum/techniques/topic-3/ # 30 November 2006 at 2:11 pm

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