You might consider the Closed Guard as an „old fashioned“ position in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, but you can’t deny the fact that you still lock it up quite often. That is to say, no matter how much your Jiu Jitsu progresses and what the level of „fanciness“ you decide to add to it is, the Closed Guard will be side-by-side with you along the way. So why not revisit some of the attacks from there, and see how to make them work together?
This triple attack sequence, shown by JT Torres, is just what you’re looking for.

THE CROSS CHOKE

The first attack JT shows is a basic Cross Choke setup. With his fiance as his training partner, JT explains that the first goal needs to be breaking the posture. To do so, he swims underneath his training partner’s hands and branches them outwards; while simultaneously pulling her towards himself. This breaks her posture and gets her hands down to the mats.

From here, JT pulls out one of the training partner’s lapels out of her belt and punches it underneath her arm. Then, his other hand goes around the training partner’s head; he feeds the lapel to it. JT emphasizes that you should grab just the lapel, as grabbing the rest of the Gi material will make finishing the choke more difficult than it needs to be.
He pulls the lapel tight to himself, opens it up and then switches the grip to his other hand. This makes it nearly impossible for his partner to retrieve her posture.

Once here, JT reaches his free hand to another side of the training partner’s neck, shifting his body to the side as well. Then, he grabs the same lapel (albeit a bit lower, in line with the partner’s neck); he sits up and squeezes his elbows in to get a basic Cross Choke tap.

FAILED? THIS CHOKE WILL DO IT!

Now, most experienced grapplers will see that Cross Choke coming and they’ll defend it, mostly by grabbing your arm with both of their hands and trying to push it away.

When they do this, JT shows that you need to grab their arm in-between their tricep muscle and elbow. From there, you need to pull that arm across your body. However, don’t do it by just using your hand, as your opponent might be too strong for this approach to succeed. Instead, open up your legs and hip out as you pull their arm to the side. This will get their arm across your chest pretty easily. Then, open up your chest and glue their arm to it. Come up on your elbow and lock your Closed Guard yet again.
Now you have your opponent in a position where they can’t pull their arm out; it’s stuck and it’ll be very difficult for them to defend. All you have to do to tap them out from here, as JT demonstrates, is grab their lapel with your second hand and Cross Choke them again.

ATTACK THEIR BACK FROM CLOSED GUARD

But what if your opponent doesn’t tap to this choke as well? JT shows that you can let go of the second lapel grip and grab the opponent’s belt. Then, let go of your first lapel grip as well, open up the guard and use your leg to „chop“ yourself up.
Now simply get in your Seatbelt Grip, pull them towards you as you get your first hook in; once they’re on the side, place in your second hook – and you’ve successfully taken their back!

Watch JT Torres demonstrate this sequence below:

Become A Submission Master Off Your Back With The Most Efficient Collection Of Techniques You’ve Ever Seen From Brown Belt World Champion Giancarlo Bodoni.

• Closed guard is a position anyone can do, with countless options for attacks that will finish the fight.