Let’s remind ourselves of the most important thing you need to do when you have someone in your closed guard: attack at all times.

Many jiujiteiros make a mistake of holding a closed guard for a longer period of time without doing anything. And, while simply holding your opponent in it and waiting for the right moment is sometimes a good thing to do, it is never a good approach to use the closed guard as a position of rest for yourself.
Remember: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a martial art, and in its essence lies the possibility of dominating and submitting your opponents through applying beautiful techniques, with a wide variety of colors to them. So you need to move towards that essence whenever you can – strive to be an offensive practitioner, not a defensive one. Never let your opponent rest. Make them uncomfortable and have them to always be on a lookout for what is coming next.

Chokes

Chokes from closed guard (performed in the Gi) work well because you have control over much of your opponent’s general movement; you are keeping him at a fixed distance and manipulating his posture, all the while applying the choking pressure to his carotid arteries with your hands.

When was the last time that you successfully used the cross collar choke from closed guard to tap somebody good? Maybe you need a little twist on this classic technique to make it more effective…

4th degree BJJ black belt Augusto Frota shares his secret weapon: a cross collar choke that uses the same principle as a bow and arrow choke. Frota uses one hand to block the opponent’s body and the other hand to to do the choke. He also scissors his legs to apply the right pressure in the right angle:

Augusto Frota is one of the most interesting and influential personalities in BJJ/MMA with a varied background in martial arts as well as in business and with a vast network in the industry. Frota knows the who’s who’s of BJJ/MMA and uses his contacts to bring in different world class instructors from various affiliations to teach class as his academy every week. They’ve recently had teaching class and conducting seminars: Braulio Estima, Gezary Matuda, Davi Ramos, Leandro Lo, Rodolfo Vieira, Marcus Buchecha…The list goes on and on.

Frota is also the man behind the luxury BJJ camp held in Ibiza, Spain which featured Leandro Lo, Rodolfo Vieira, Bucheha, and Braulio Estima. There will be another edition in 2016.

Frota himself is known as a top MMA and BJJ fighter and a successful coach from Frota Team Nogueira in Switzerland. Augusto, who is originally from Fortaleza, moved to Brasilia, Brazil, where he began his training in 1997 under Admilson Brites, a black belt under Royler Gracie. At that time Augusto competed in and won several national and state tournaments. He moved back to Fortaleza and began training with Marcus Aurelio (Pride/UFC-Veteran).

Due to academic commitments Augusto left for the United States and attended school in Fort Lauderdale. He completed his BIB (Bachelors in International Business) in Florida where he met the man who would change his competitive life and set him on the road to becoming an international fighter. That man was the legendary Minotauro Nogueira (Ex-Pride & UFC-HW-World Champion and founder of the famous Team Nogueira with world champions like Anderson Silva and Junior Cigano.

After he completed his studies Augusto moved to Switzerland and started to work for UBS (Union of the Swiss Banks) and he now resides in Zurich. Continuing to train under Nogueira, he established his own academy and soon earned his black belt in September 2005. He is now one of Europe’s top instructors.

Augusto is a consummate professional and likes to help everyone improve; he is also very open to new techniques and training routines which he is happy to incorporate into his ever improving skill set.

Since 2004 Augusto represents:
– Shooto Europe (Legendary MMA federation from Japan)
– ADCC World Grappling Federation (BJJ-competition of the highest level)
– BJJSC President and IBJJF representative in Switzerland.