Lapel Choke Prevention

While it is very challenging preventing a strong, skilled opponent from getting an initial one hand grip of your lapel, once they have the grip, your focus should be on the other free hand, not the hand gripping your lapel. Unfortunately, once both hands are in, it's almost impossible preventing yourself from being choked.

Preventing the Triangle Choke

When you find yourself inside someone's triangle set-up position, try to get the inside arm out of the mix and under the opponent's legs by effective posture.

Preventing the Butterfly Guard

When your opponent is trying to underhook you to get you in the butterfly guard, sit low and back and keep your elbows tight to prevent the underhooks. As another option, try standing up, and then try to pass the opponent's guard.

Defending the Triangle Setup

Generally speaking, lower belts in jiu jitsu prefer to stack an opponent in their efforts to avoid being triangle choked, whereas higher belts like to posture up.

Guard Passes: Gi vs. no Gi

Gi grappling makes it much easier to pass the guard than fighting no-gi. The advantage of gi grappling is that you are able to control your opponent on the bottom much easier with respect to their ability to escape because of your control of the gi. Of course, we won't be fighting gi vs. gi on the street, so practicing guard passes with no gi is a cruical part of your training.

Wrestling match vs. Jiu jitsu match

One of the biggest differences between a wrestling and jiu jitsu match is the pace. In the former, the pace is very fast, and the fights typically go for three 2-minute rounds, with the winner declared by who has the most points. In jiu-jitsu, the pace is typically more relaxed, and the goal is to wear your opponent down, exhaust them, and then submit them.

Considerations in Guard Training

Something we should all consider when practicing the guard is that someone who is not trained in jiu jitsu, and that is in our guard, is going to use techniques with low skill but that can still hurt us, such as using a forearm across our throat or putting us in a headlock. In fact, these attacks are even common among wrestlers who are unfamiliar with the submission strategies of jiu jitsu.Therefore, practicing techniques against these common attacks is of utmost importance.