Any time you see his arms “one in one out”, close your legs around his neck/shoulders for the high guard. Squeeze your knees. Grab his head.
You have his R arm on the inside. Open your feet, but keep squeezing with your knees. Put your L foot on his R hip, still squeezing your knees. Use your foot to push him away and prevent the stack. Now use it to angle off, and get the cut with your R leg. Don’t push him away with your R thigh, You want him upright. Grab your R shin with your L hand, with enough room at your left near the foot to close your L leg over your R ankle. Finish.
Triangle setup using the knee
Guard – you have both sleeves, both feet on his hips, arms between your legs. Pull on the arms, push with the feet and squeeze your knees to stretch him out.
Turn on your L side and put your R shin across his chest, like a basic sweep. Let go with your R hand and get a strong grip on his R elbow. Your R shin is now over the top of his L arm; when he moves, push with the L foot and cut with the R leg over/behind his head to get the triangle.
The armbar can be set up the same way, except this time you want to push his head down and away with your R leg. Put your L leg over his head and cross your feet for this armbar.
Keeping the open guard, using the knees
The knees are perhaps more important than the feet for open guard defence. Keep the structure, knees on their collarbone, parallel side. Back the knees up with stiff arm blocks, so that if they get past your knees or bend the angle between your torso and thigh closer than 90 degrees, they run straight into your stiff arm blocks.
Knee Drills
If he pushes one knee down from the inside, replace it with the other knee.
If he pushes both knees down, circle the top knee toward your chest and out, replacing it.
If he has pushed both knees to the floor to the left, R knee on top, and has them pinned, come up on your L elbow, use your R hand on his shoulder to move back. You can now move your R knee into the space between your torso and L knee, and circle it up and out asabove.
He has both knees wrapped and pinned so you can’t do 3. Roll across your stomach to your L and bring your L knee up to reestablish. Crocodile roll.
Half Guard Passes
He has your R leg in Half Guard.
You are able to underhook his L arm with your R. Place your head on the floor on the opposite side of his head to the underhook (the R side of his head). Tripod up on your feet. Shake until his legs drop below his R knee. Put your R knee on the floor on his R side. Reach out wide to your L with your L hand and foot. Now put your R hip on the floor where you R knee was. Slide your R foot out of his guard, pushing back on his top knee with your L foot if necessary. The head must remain on the floor to stop him from bringing his L arm over and back between your bodies to get the underhook.
This time you get the underhook on his R arm with your L. Head on opposite side of his to the underhook, tripod up and shake as in 1. This time slide your L knee across his body and put it on the floor on his L side. Push against his legs with your L shin to straighten him out and free you R foot. Turn toward him to get side control with the underhook.
He gets the underhook with his L arm on your R. Grab down near the waist with your R hand and crossface with your L. Tripod, shake, get your L knee in his stomach. Sit down on your L hip so your L shin and knee are between your bodies. Wait until he moves. The knee prevents him getting on top and when he moves and opens his legs, you get side control. Lazy man’s guard pass.
He gets the underhook and you cannot neutralise it in time. Crossface with your R arm and switchover to his L side. Keep his shoulders flat. Grab his R pants knee with your L hand and push away as you shimmy your butt away from his legs to start extricating your leg, You can push with your L foot/knee to free the leg.
The Visor
L forearm across your forehead. R forearm underneath, palm near your L armpit, pull your arms tight to your forehead so there is no slack. Just run at the guy. Most types of punches will be stopped, wild swings will eat elbows.
Start from a stance with arms partially folded, maybe L arm out as a fence. Drop level and go, per flinch reflex, if he kicks off. Move to “monster shoulder”, like keeping a door shut against intruders by driving your shoulder into it. Head against his chest, L arm grabbing the back of your head, so forearm and elbow protect the face. Underhook his L arm with your R. Wipe his face with your L hand moving it down his R arm to get wrist control on it. Hump his L leg to prevent him weight shifting to punch. Many options from here – you are now in grappling / attached striking range.
It is natural to only take things so far, so that you get to a level where you are comfortable with something and not push it any further. Evolution has us trusting the familiar and shunning the new. This is no longer necessary, and if you have made the effort to get from zero to comfortable, why not sustain the effort and keep climbing on the upward spiral?
