Now, I don't actually think that people who don't train Jiu-Jitsu are "dummies" (I just feel bad for them, because they have no idea what they're missing!), but I know I have a few readers who don't train, and I realized that sometimes they probably don't understand what I'm talking about. My mom has a working knowledge of Jiu-Jitsu (because I've explained it to her, time and time again ;), but for those who don't, I wanted to provide a simple tutorial. Mr. Incredible, SpongeBob SquarePants, and a dinosaur have offered to help me with demonstrating the techniques. Mr. Incredible is the defender.
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| Guard |
Guard: The attacker is on the bottom, with their legs around the defender. There are many,
many variations, but the basic is closed guard (where the attacker's legs are closed). Dino was unable to close his legs around Mr. Incredible (I feel ya, bro!), so this picture demonstrates "open" guard. Guard is the position that's probably the most closely associated with BJJ, but just because we know
how to fight from our back, that doesn't mean it's always our preferred place to be.
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| Side control |
Side control: The attacker is on the top, controlling the defender from the side of their body. Again there are variations, but this picture demonstrates the basic.
Knee on belly: Variation of side control, where the attacker has their knee on defender's belly, or solar plexus. SpongeBob asked me if he could demo this one, because it's his favorite.
Mount: Attacker is on top, with legs around the defender. Known in some MMA circles as "ground and pound".
Back mount: Attacker is on defender's back, with their legs wrapped around ("hooks in").
Commonly heard phrase- "Passing the guard": This means that the defender is in the attacker's guard, and they are trying to get out, or "pass", by going around, or over, the legs, most commonly to side control. If the defender gets past one leg, but the attacker traps the other leg, then they are now in "half guard".
This ends our lesson on basic positions for today. Maybe in the future I'll do another post explaining common submissions and other frequently heard phrases, but for now I wanted to keep it short (so you won't have as much to study for the upcoming quiz ;).
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| Back mount |
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| Knee on belly |
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| Mount |
