The seated guard keeps both hands working

Position and problem

You lie back to play guard against someone standing over you, reach for their sleeves out of habit, and find nothing to hold. Their hands are free, your feet slide off sweaty shins, and each time they step round you have to turn on your back to follow. Many supine open guards, as played in the gi, depend on cloth: a sleeve or lapel grip keeps the passer attached while the legs do the rest. Without that attachment, the flat-backed player has feet that push and hands that cannot reach. The seated guard answers by sitting up. Your seat stays on the mat, your chest comes up toward theirs, and your hands come back into the exchange, where they can take the ties and wraps that still hold without a gi.

Objective

Sit upright with your head near the height of theirs, your feet connected to their legs and your hands fighting for a tie, and use each connection to leave the seated position for a sweep, a leg or their back.

Core concept

A seated guard is a posture that keeps both ends of your body working. Your seat is on the mat and your shoulders stay stacked over your hips rather than behind them, so your weight is over your base instead of on your hands. From there your feet can touch their shins, knees or hips and move with them, while your hands stay in front of you and fight at the height of their arms and head. That is most of the advantage in no-gi. The connections that survive without cloth, a collar tie, an underhook, an overhook, a two-on-one or a body lock, are all taken with the arms from an upright body, and a player lying flat cannot reach most of them. Each one is an exit rather than a place to stay: the two-on-one opens an arm drag or a way to their side, a pair of butterfly hooks lets you elevate a leg, and a hand posted behind you lets you come up on a single leg as they back away. The contest in the position is about the head. While your head stays near the height of theirs, you can meet each step with your hands and turn to face them. Once they reach your head or your shoulders and push down or back, your seat stays where it is while your shoulders fall behind it, your hands come off the fight to post, and you are playing a supine guard you did not choose. So the passer's first job against a seated guard is usually to get past your hands to your head, and your first job is to keep them from doing it by fighting their hands and keeping your hips under you.

Key mechanics

1. 01Keep your hips under your shoulders. With your weight over your seat, your hands are free; with your weight back on your hands, you are propped up and the first push lays you flat.
2. 02Keep your head up. A head that drops forward can be snapped down or wrapped, and one that falls back takes your shoulders with it.
3. 03Fight hands before anything else. Their hands are what reach your head and your legs, so a wrist taken or pushed away early buys the time to take a real connection.
4. 04Keep your feet on their legs. A foot on a shin, a knee or a hip tells you where they are stepping and lets you turn as they step rather than after.
5. 05Take a connection that leaves, not one that holds. A collar tie, a two-on-one or an underhook is for opening a drag, a sweep or a leg.
6. 06Turn onto one hip as you move so you finish beside them. Sitting square in front of them keeps you in their path; an angle puts you next to the leg or the arm you want.
7. 07Wrestle up when they back away. A post behind you and a leg that swings through let you come up onto a leg rather than sitting and watching them reset.

Common errors

• ×Sitting with the weight back on both hands, which leaves nothing to fight with and invites a push onto your back or a leg drag.
• ×Letting the head drift forward into their arms, which gives them the snap-down or the guillotine before you have a grip.
• ×Sitting with the feet off their legs, so they step around you and you have to turn by hand to follow.
• ×Holding a collar tie or a wrist and waiting until they break it, with the seated position gone nowhere.
• ×Falling to your back every time they push, instead of turning onto a hip or coming up to your knees.

Safety

Training progression

1. 01Static: sit in front of a standing partner and find a posture where you can lift both hands off the mat without falling back. Your partner pushes lightly on the shoulders to test it.
2. 02Cooperative: partner walks slowly around you while you keep your feet on their legs, turning on your seat to stay facing them.
3. 03Hand-fighting game: your partner's one goal is to touch your head or shoulders, and your hands are your one defence. Reset when they touch.
4. 04Connection drill: from the seated guard, take one connection each repetition, a collar tie, a two-on-one or an underhook, and leave the position with it at walking pace.
5. 05Positional sparring: the passer starts standing and scores by pushing you flat or passing; you score by coming up to a leg, their side or their back.
6. 06Live rounds: when a pass starts, remember which of their hands got to your head first and what your own hands were doing, and compare notes when the round ends.

Related entries

• The two-on-one trades two hands for one arm
• Connection in open guard
• The butterfly hook as a lever
• The arm drag
• Inside position