In Someone's Closed Guard

Core idea: gravity wants you to fold; your opponent wants to pull you down.

First principle: the straighter your spine, the more options you preserve; the rounder your back, the more options they gain.

Analogy: A car jack only works when it’s straight and extended. If it folds or buckles, it loses strength and collapses. Posture works the same way: extension = max structural integrity.

Core idea: their guard lives and dies by hip angle and hip mobility.

First principle: control their hips with pressure or framing, while freeing yours from being clamped or tilted.

Analogy: like separating magnets—control distance and angle, otherwise they snap shut again.

Core idea: they’re setting up frames (collar grip, sleeve, overhook) to build chains.

First principle: strip or neutralize control points before advancing; don’t drive forward into a loaded spring.

Analogy: disarming tripwires before walking through a minefield.

Core idea: guard works because your arms are inside their legs. That’s a structural disadvantage.

First principle: change the angle—stand, shift, or create pressure—so you’re not working inside their strongest lever.

Analogy: don’t try to push open a door at the hinge; step toward the handle.

Core idea: escaping closed guard isn’t “open → pass,” it’s a ladder of problems.

First principle: identify the immediate constraint (posture broken, wrist controlled, hips locked) and solve in order.

Analogy: like debugging code—you fix the red error first before optimizing performance.

Core idea: every movement trades stability for progress.

First principle: calculate whether breaking posture to attack is worth the exposure, or whether patience and incremental dismantling is safer.

Analogy: like chess—sometimes you sacrifice a pawn (hand control) to open the board, but you don’t drop your queen (your balance).