24/08/2016 - Teaching | Closed Guard | Standing Break

Teaching #552
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 24/08/2016

I went with the standing break today, which adds the power of gravity to your guard break. Start by shoving their sleeve/wrist into their belt knot/belly button. With your other hand, push into their sternum, but be careful you aren't tempted to lean forward as a result. Keep your posture upright. If you can't get the sleeve, then simply grab their collar with your chest bracing hand (you have the option of grabbing a sleeve with that hand too, it doesn't have to be the hip hand: just make sure it's always the same side).

Raise your knee on the same side as your sleeve/wrist gripping arm, stepping forward with that foot. Basing off your hands (again, don't lean forwards), stand up into a crouch, then stand right up, thrusting your hips forward. Pull up on their sleeve/wrist (again, if you've lost it, grab their collar, if they are wearing a gi). You then want to push their knee off your hip on the other side, stepping back with your leg on the non-sleeve/wrist gripping side to help.

If you're having trouble getting that knee off, try bouncing your hips to open their ankles, like you were struggling to take off a tight pair of jeans. At the same time, splay your hand by the knee you want to shove (Roger Gracie calls this 'making his hand big') in order to help push down.
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Teaching Notes: I should emphasise pulling up on the arm when you stand, perhaps tucking the elbow in too. That is a good habit to get into, but there aren't going to many people omoplata sweeping just yet. The question is if it's good to get them into the habit now even if they aren't facing the problem that often? Or I could make a point of trying to omoplata sweep everybody who stands up in my guard, I guess, or simply teach the omoplata sweep some time near the standing up in closed guard lesson. That would be something to try, see if it has an effect (then again, standing up is hard enough, so plenty of people still struggle with that. I'm still not great at it, and that's after a decade ;D).

The big thing is keeping the head up, which I think is getting better. I should probably stick with one way of standing up too. I added in the armpit push today, which may be confusing things. Next time, I'll just go with a single option to really pin that down. In sparring, I was concentrating on knocking them off balance, testing their ability to stand up. I was also playing around with pulling on the gi. Controlling the head from side control was fun too, trying out pushing their head rather than getting a mega crossface.