Open Mat

Once the hook is in, you see how quickly the camping position can fall apart. And we step away from defensive and cyclical guard retention and move to positions we can launch attacks from.

Second, with his free inside leg he quickly jabs at the top man’s inside knee to feed his butterfly hook in

First he aggressively fights to get the hand off his inside leg, the top man will get that grip back in short order so his next move comes quickly

Guard Camping falls apart if the guard player can insert a butterfly hook and go into off-balances BUT good positioning makes getting that butterfly hook very difficult

Keeping this in mind, Meregali has one of the most efficient counter sequences to inside camping I’ve seen so far:

On Guard Retention What it means to have “a good guard” has quietly changed within the last 10 years of the BJJ meta. Not too long ago there were quite a few notable players that would win competition largely based on pure guard retention going long stretches of time without getting passed by wrapping up opponents and winning on one advantage or a reversal. The explosion of Guard Camping as a tactic largely killed this. Many modern passers prefer to let their opponents retain guard in positions that either put weight to bear on the bottom person or that make them wildly uncomfortable by taking their body out of alignment. Being good at retaining guard can actually work against you to a degree in these situations. The solution? The best guard players today (with a couple exceptions) have very offensive guards. Rather than guard being a tool to immobilize opponents, it’s a platform to launch powerful attacks with all four limbs quickly after making grips. And what does that mean for you as a guard player? Now more than ever it’s important to have 1-2 attacks, sweeps, or reversals for all the fundamental guards of BJJ. Long periods of time stuck on bottom retaining guard most likely means the top player is purposefully exhausting you for his final salvo of attacks.

SPOTLIGHT Aaron Milam one of John Danaher’s early black belts that has managed to fly under the radar. Way ahead of his time in that even today you don’t see any grapplers with his style. If you’re a smaller grappler especially he’s someone to look out for.

Proficient leg pummeling is the cornerstone of an effective passing game. Maintaining a good base in top position, advancing to better positions, smoothly transitioning as your opponent makes escape and retention attempts are all downstream of learning how to leg pummel well. These drills help with that.

When playing top position it’s crucial that you give the position time to work (timer allotted) Top pressure is a tactic that requires time to be effective. Rushing through these positions is robbing yourself of their main benefit; fatiguing your opponent. Next time you find yourself in dominant position take the time to consolidate it. Tighten your crossface, disrupt their body alignment, make them carry your weight, and STAY there for 30 seconds to a minute. Then watch how much easier subsequent passes, pins, and submissions become.

From mount, it can work to give you some breathing room from a nasty cross face as well, but your hands will probably have to inevitably move to their hips or knees to actually escape.

Palm flat to your scalp, forearm close to your jaw and chest. It puts a shockingly robust shield in place that does a lot to take the power out of an oppressive crossface. Sliding your palm back towards the top of your head as you do a knee-elbow escape works REALLY well to start escape side control too.

Fighting to get this 👇 frame in place or preemptively setting it once you realize a pass is inevitable will save you

Close range framing has sadly become somewhat of an old school topic but against someone with good top side control pressure it’s essential.

A quick tip on defending cross faces and making sure you don’t end up like the poor guy on bottom: