Become Fighter
Closed guard and posture: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu guide
Locking your legs round an opponent and keeping their posture broken.
Closed guard means your legs are wrapped round your opponent's waist with your ankles crossed. From there you control their hips, break their posture and set up sweeps and submissions.
Alone, you can drill the leg movement in the air: open, close and squeeze. With a partner, go gently. Do not lock your ankles over a partner's tailbone and squeeze hard. Closed guard is a control position, not a squeeze contest.
Key points
- Cross your ankles high on their back, above the belt line.
- Squeeze with your knees and thighs, not by pulling your ankles.
- Break their posture by pulling their head or collar down towards your chest, with your hips close.
- Keep your knees tight to their ribs so that they cannot stand tall.
- Open the guard if you need to. You can always close it again.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
- Crossing ankles too low. Put them high on the back, above the belt. A low guard slips.
- Squeezing hard with the ankles. Squeeze with the knees and thighs, and stop if your partner taps or complains.
- Lying flat. Keep your hips active. Shrimp and angle, and do not lie still.
- Pulling the neck. Control the collar or the head with the whole body. Never wrench the neck.
Combinations that use it
- bjj-shrimp-close-guard: Hip escape, Closed guard
- bjj-frame-elbow-guard: Guard frame, Elbow-knee escape, Closed guard
- bjj-elbow-elbow-guard: Elbow-knee escape, Elbow-knee escape, Closed guard
Related techniques
The rest is in the app
The step-by-step breakdown, the timed drill with the coach calling the shots and the quiz are part of Become Fighter Pro, where this lesson sits in the Closed guard basics module of Jiu-jitsu foundations.
Coming soon to the App Store and Google Play.
More from Closed guard basics
- The scissor sweep: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu guide
- The armbar from guard: safe entries: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu guide
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Combat sports training is hard on the body. Warm up, stay within your limits and check with a doctor first if you have a health condition. Practise in a clear space and stop if you feel pain or dizziness. Learn partner work only under a qualified coach.