Monday and Wednesday gi Jiu-Jitsu classes are focused for a bit on the Spider Guard - an open guard that utilizes manual wrist controls along with angles on our back and our feet and legs engaged with the upper and lower body of our opponents. In this short technique video Coach Trip demonstrates the when, why, and how he enters into the Spider Guard.

He begins in the closed guard because, as he says, “this is probably where you’ll learn the ins and outs of the Spider Guard.” From there, Coach Trip says that a common scenario for entering into the Spider Guard is when we feel a loss of control of the posture of our opponent on top and that they may soon force open our closed guard if we don’t react, fast.

Coach Trip’s approach is to turn a reactive situation into a proactive and offense one, soon, by opening our closed guard on our own terms, before our opponent can force it open, and then getting our feet on the hips of our opponent with complementing sleeve/wrist grips, and a bowed knee position to exert push/pull pressure on the hips and arms of our opponent.

“I really feel like my guard is about to open. I, in general, don’t want him to force me to open my guard. If I feel like he’s threatening that guard-opening…I want to be offensive on this, here,” he continues.

Watch the full video to study and then get into classes! Also, stay tuned to the team Youtube page and blog, here, for more videos forthcoming!