Your offense will be only as good as your defense is. In that way, your ability to impose attacks from the bottom… Will be only as good as your ability to prevent the opponent from passing your guard.
In other words: you have to learn how to improve your guard passing skills. Here are some great tips on how to do that, as demonstrated by Jordan from the Jordan Teaches Jiujitsu YouTube channel.
GUARD PASSING: PREVENT IT EVERY TIME
First and foremost, when playing Open Guard, it’s extremely important that you establish four points of contact whenever possible. This will not only prevent your opponent from passing your guard, but it will also make it possible for you to impose dangerous sweep and submission attacks.
To make this easier for yourself, start by playing Open Guard on your butt. If you’re laying on your back, it’ll be much more difficult for you to establish grips; and much, much easier for your opponent to do so. Also, don’t wait for your opponent’s grips; rather, look to win the grip battle as soon as possible.
If the opponent imposes their game a bit more than you’d wish to, then you can resort to some late guard retention tactics. The most important one of them is tucking your elbows in and playing the “T-Rex arm” game that Jordan explains extremely well in the video below.
Also, look to prevent them from gaining head control and keep their far arm as far as possible from you. This will go a long way in your defense.
Make sure to check out Jordan’s demonstration below, as he explains these and other important tips in fantastic detail:
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