Moth-Guard Month wraps up

This past month we have been focusing on the Moth-Guard game progression that I've come up with.

Every time I work this game, I like it more and more, the trouble is that it keeps getting bigger and much more involved every time I work with it too.

In a effort to simplify how I'm thinking about it and how to teach it, we've been looking at each part of the guard separately for the most part, and then working on combining them into an overall game.

So, this is an open guard game, and something I add into the regular spider guard and butterfly guard games we practice here. As with any open guard, the position we want is one hip on the mats, along with 3 point of contact with your opponent.

We started the drill progression talking about what it is that we are trying to achieve with the guard, along with how we are going to go about it all. The first series we worked was all about affecting your opponents base. We got the basic 'Shinzon' position (inside joke for any who worked this up at the 517 club), and experimented with the leg motions against light resistance, to feel for ourselves how we can use this position to create movement, and to exploit the motions we are looking for. This then becomes the platform to work all of the attacks to our opponents base.

But you have to start from somewhere....so we also talked about the options we have for our foot positions and the leg positions, in relation to how we want our posture to be. We did a getting to guard series from cross-sides bottom, that ends in our first sweep- technically this sweep comes out before we achieve the full Moth-Guard position, but the principals are what we are looking for. We then followed up with the other 5 common sweeps that I like to hit from this guard (although in going through the material, I think I'm adding in a couple more now). Anyways, work all 6 sweeps from active positioning and movement based upon light resistance from your partner. We finally wrapped up this section talking about the 3 main goals of any guard- being threaten to sweep, threaten to submit, and threaten to stand-up out of guard. This section was obviously the first of the list.

We then moved onto the second type of base attacks, namely the shooting series. This part of the game is set-up from the under-hook kick-up and diving for quarter position bottom. We explored a cycle of about 6 or 7 options that I use as my complete quarter bottom game. It  involves turn overs, peekouts, double leg shoots, and lots of turning the corner and circle running in a Bear Walk pose. After this general concept, we began working on the next threat from our guard- Submissions, particularly in this case harvesting the arms.

We began looking at the trapped arm first, exploring arm drags. Conceptually this is the first concept aligned with my own triple attack on the arms from guard. We began looking at cross drags to take the back, it also sets up some of our sweeps (but we worked that earlier), and to set-up the trapped side armbar. We also looked at straight drags to set-up our overwrap game which leads into a choke, armbar, and triangle options, as well as setting up a rear naked choke from not quite the rear...

Looking framing attacks next, the second of the triple arm attacks, this time beginning on the free arm. We looked at attacking the frame as that arm hits the mats (or your body- with some shifting). Grabbing the wrist and sitting into the arm side we explored our hip bump sweep, the kimura on the free arm, and both the arm out, and arm in, -guillotine chokes. We also looked at the 100% sweep from failed guillotine, and put it back into the cycle of movements.

While we moved onto the free arm, we looked at catching the arm there as well. These catches are circular movements to trap the free arm in motion (or sometimes from the posting frame). Although they are a little harder to catch, their usefulness is great, and I still use them as a go to move from this guard. Because we are only using one arm here, this was the way it ended up, catching the arm from the outside and using a circular motion to stuff it towards the centre. The first circle is quite small, and you are catching the arm in a telephone grip on your shoulder to set up the straight arm bar. If the circle becomes bigger the arm goes right over your head to catch on your hip and sets up the triangle choke from the hip shin.
I also use the small circle catch on the leg if the opponent steps up on the outside, but this sets up our pivot sweep and because we had already worked this too, we skipped this set-up for now. However if this catch on the leg is turned into a big circle catch then the foot is brought up onto your chest, stepping under the leg and standing up to turn the game around on your opponent.

Using the framing attacks on the trapped arm, we can use the kick-of concept of the drags to set up a kimura on that side as well, or if you continue through, you could turn it into an oma-plata on that arm.

The other attacking concept on the arms is the attachment movements. This usually comes up when using the circle catches for the arm bar or triangle set ups and the opponent grabs onto you, usually at the back of the neck. This attachment sets up our oma-plata attack. Attaching the far arm as in an over-grip arm drag also sets up our next sweep to that side as well.

Now up to this point, all of these motions have been completed from our backs and spinning under or around the opponent. There are a few other things that I do from off of the back and one hip and these include diving attacks moving underneath and inside the opponent for our old school series. Or used as last ditch efforts to save ourselves if we start getting passed to spin under to the arminator submission and the like. But what we have covered so far gives a good impression on how we begin to use the basic position. Moving onto the next point, we are attacking our opponents posture as our last main concept. This by its nature involves some more movement on our part.

The first option is the snap-down to stand-up out of guard and to take quarter top position from the front, and from here I have been following this with my new favorite cross-collar sweep direct to choke movement. Other than standing up though, we also have 3 main concepts from the guard to affect the posture. We start this drill section by reviewing all the possible grips on the body from the guard, and adding in the basic motions of: pulling you opponent down on top of you, of sitting up into your opponent, and of angling off to one side with a side crunch from your opponent. Using the pull is quite obvious from the rest of the guard motions we have already worked on, so we just filled it in with whatever came naturally to us from here. When using the angle, we are also looking for what one of my coaches called 'the invisible wall', of where their head is in relation to their lead hand and how this affects their posture and ability to resist the pulling motions, or other set-ups. Then comes sitting up into them. The movement from here is similar to the hip bump, except that the initial arm position is different, use a hug on the same side, and the pressure with your hips leads your legs in a different manner. It looks very much the same from the outside, but I think of this as a guard pass from bottom, more so than a turn over or heist. The other quick moves of catching someone sleeping like sitting up into a cross-collar choke, or single-lapel are there, but are hard to catch people with, but then again, anything sets up a reaction that can lead into other areas of the game, so go for it.

The last part of the game we worked on was the transition to the sitting game. Moth guard sitting up is a little different, but the concepts are the same as far as pressure. Underhook the arm with your arm in place of the leg, and wedge your shin across the front of your opponents base. Most of the time this comes about because the opponent has switched to combat base and is preparing to pass or stand. At this point, your movement becomes constant. Always try to take the back, and do it continuously without stopping. Use your underhook. This is also the set-up for our attacks to the combat base, as they all involve moving around to the outside of the opponent. The two options we worked from here were, underhook arm to take the back if the opponent drives into you, or ankle pick and drive in if the opponent tries to pull away. If they attempt to stand, we shoot in with a single leg in much the same manner as we pick the ankle.

So all in all, this game keeps on growing. What started out as a position and 4 movements, now leads into several areas of my game, to all my other guards, and most of my submissions. Even now as I type this out my mind is racing on new information, and redefining current applications. Have fun exploring it in your own games. Cheers.