The BJJ fortress is part of a strategy that I have developed for myself which helps me with dealing with people that are better than me. Therefore, this is an extremely defensive game plan. The above pictures illustrates an example of the different stages of security that I have against an opponent. If someone is in my full guard - the danger of being submitted is rather small. However, as my opponent gains better positions, starting with breaking my full guard and going to open guard, half guard, turtle guard, and eventually mount/cross body/back, the chance of being submitted dramatically increases.
Many guard passes attempt to achieve a dominant position such as cross body. If you are facing an opponent who is much better than you, the chances of the oponent passing your guard is quite high. An aoopnent that is much better than me will always break my full guard, pass my open guard, and continously advance until they achieve a dominant posiiton, eventually leading to a submission. They are better, faster, quicker, and more experienced. I will always lag behind and be too slow.
However, knowing the above, I would start using an old BJJ wisdom to the extreme, for example, if someone is about to break your full guard, you don't let them break it, instead, you open it and transition to open guard. You go to open guard on your terms. This ensures that they have to react to what you do and you are one step ahead in the game.
The defensive strategy does not stop there. I try to use the same principle with all positions. Since failure is inevitable, you ought to give up every position voluntarily. Give up open guard and settle for half guard, then give hup half guard and settle for turtle. I never want a better opponent to pass my open guard straight to cross body without taking them through the stages of half guard and turtle first. Each time I give up a position, I can do so on my terms, stay ahead in the game, and try to attempt a quick sweep and maybe recover full guard, open guard, or even, heaven forbid, gain a dominant position myself.
It can be tough to put your ego aside and accept ultimate failure and therefore continuing to give up position but let's be real. If you go against a black belt, it will happen. You might as well take the little bit of advantage that you can get (and which is not solely based on luck) and give up positions in order to stay ahead in the game and maybe score a sweep or reversal.
The second part of the strategy includes the focus one should have on each stage of the defensive hierarchy. The ultimate defense, for example, would be if our game would become progressively better as our opponent advances. For instance, he might open our full guard easily but then have a little trouble with out open guard because we spend more time in the open guard position. If he passes and we end up in half guard, our half guard should be even better than our open guard and thereby increasing our opponents frustration. As the opponent advances, he will encounter more and more roadblocks because we get continously better in the positions that he achieves. Therefore, our best positions should be 1. submisison defense from one of the dominant positions (I would suggest back defense for reasons which I will explain in the next article called Platypus Guard), 2. turtle, 3. half guard, 4, open guard, and 5. full guard.
By using the above strategy you are essentially controlling the fight even though you are the much weaker opponent. You determine where the fight takes place. If I use this strategy against people that are better than me, they usually have no choice but to go through my open guard, then half guard, then turtle, and eventually get to my back. This happens over and over and everytime I roll, we go through the same sequences and every roll is very similar to the previous one because I am determining what is happening even though I am the one getting beat.
The next advantage, however, is that I continously get better and better at these positions because a lot of my focus is on them. We had an advanced blue belt in our class who used to be a wrestler and who had a very tough cross body. My instructor sometimes said - he has a black belt cross body game. He spend so much time on cross body that he could compete on a black belt level in that position once he obtains it. The same happens in our defensive game plan. By continously going through the same stages, our skill level in these positions increases faster than our overall skill level. Think of it has having in the end a black belt back defense, a brown belt turtle game, a purple belt half guard game etc. If you achieve that, your game will become increasingly frustrating to your opponent, because as he advances, you suddenly get harder and harder to beat! My opponents often spend lots of time getting better at any positions and the will get better each month by X amount. However, if I focus on back defense, turtle, half guard, open guard, and full guard according to our game plan, my skill will increase faster in these positions than his skill will increase overall. Sure, other aspects of my game suffer which is the sacrfice you make for maximizing your chances against better opponents. The nice part is that I can dictate where the fight takes place and I can dictate that the fight takes place in the positions where I am strongest in.
This brings me to the disadvantage of this game plan. I have found that this is effective against people that are better than you. However, you tend to roll similarly with people who are less experienced than you. If this becomes a habit, your offensive skills suffer a little and you feel like you maybe are doing less well against weaker opponents. What looks impressive against a black belt, will look poor against lower belts. You will give up positions unnecessarily against lower belt. While you feel safe from submissions with your defensive game, you will feel like you are losing to many positions.
I have used this strategy for over a year now and found that it actually works. You can dictate a fight even though you are losing the fight. You can maximize your chances against better opponents and appear competitive. The strategy will help your game also by for instance, not accepting positions like cross body or mount as you will abandon half guard in order to gain turtle position thereby not letting your opponent gain cross body. What used to happen to me was that as someone passes my open guard and is about to gain cross body, I was just sitting there for a few seconds being annoyed that it happens and waiting to be pummeled. the best time to defend cross body is right as the opponent is about to achieve it. The above strategy will sharpen your defenses by not letting your "accept" dominant posiitons too early.
The next part of this is dedicated to a defensive position that I call the platypus guard and which is also an essential part of making the above strategy work.
Many guard passes attempt to achieve a dominant position such as cross body. If you are facing an opponent who is much better than you, the chances of the oponent passing your guard is quite high. An aoopnent that is much better than me will always break my full guard, pass my open guard, and continously advance until they achieve a dominant posiiton, eventually leading to a submission. They are better, faster, quicker, and more experienced. I will always lag behind and be too slow.
However, knowing the above, I would start using an old BJJ wisdom to the extreme, for example, if someone is about to break your full guard, you don't let them break it, instead, you open it and transition to open guard. You go to open guard on your terms. This ensures that they have to react to what you do and you are one step ahead in the game.
The defensive strategy does not stop there. I try to use the same principle with all positions. Since failure is inevitable, you ought to give up every position voluntarily. Give up open guard and settle for half guard, then give hup half guard and settle for turtle. I never want a better opponent to pass my open guard straight to cross body without taking them through the stages of half guard and turtle first. Each time I give up a position, I can do so on my terms, stay ahead in the game, and try to attempt a quick sweep and maybe recover full guard, open guard, or even, heaven forbid, gain a dominant position myself.
It can be tough to put your ego aside and accept ultimate failure and therefore continuing to give up position but let's be real. If you go against a black belt, it will happen. You might as well take the little bit of advantage that you can get (and which is not solely based on luck) and give up positions in order to stay ahead in the game and maybe score a sweep or reversal.
The second part of the strategy includes the focus one should have on each stage of the defensive hierarchy. The ultimate defense, for example, would be if our game would become progressively better as our opponent advances. For instance, he might open our full guard easily but then have a little trouble with out open guard because we spend more time in the open guard position. If he passes and we end up in half guard, our half guard should be even better than our open guard and thereby increasing our opponents frustration. As the opponent advances, he will encounter more and more roadblocks because we get continously better in the positions that he achieves. Therefore, our best positions should be 1. submisison defense from one of the dominant positions (I would suggest back defense for reasons which I will explain in the next article called Platypus Guard), 2. turtle, 3. half guard, 4, open guard, and 5. full guard.
By using the above strategy you are essentially controlling the fight even though you are the much weaker opponent. You determine where the fight takes place. If I use this strategy against people that are better than me, they usually have no choice but to go through my open guard, then half guard, then turtle, and eventually get to my back. This happens over and over and everytime I roll, we go through the same sequences and every roll is very similar to the previous one because I am determining what is happening even though I am the one getting beat.
The next advantage, however, is that I continously get better and better at these positions because a lot of my focus is on them. We had an advanced blue belt in our class who used to be a wrestler and who had a very tough cross body. My instructor sometimes said - he has a black belt cross body game. He spend so much time on cross body that he could compete on a black belt level in that position once he obtains it. The same happens in our defensive game plan. By continously going through the same stages, our skill level in these positions increases faster than our overall skill level. Think of it has having in the end a black belt back defense, a brown belt turtle game, a purple belt half guard game etc. If you achieve that, your game will become increasingly frustrating to your opponent, because as he advances, you suddenly get harder and harder to beat! My opponents often spend lots of time getting better at any positions and the will get better each month by X amount. However, if I focus on back defense, turtle, half guard, open guard, and full guard according to our game plan, my skill will increase faster in these positions than his skill will increase overall. Sure, other aspects of my game suffer which is the sacrfice you make for maximizing your chances against better opponents. The nice part is that I can dictate where the fight takes place and I can dictate that the fight takes place in the positions where I am strongest in.
This brings me to the disadvantage of this game plan. I have found that this is effective against people that are better than you. However, you tend to roll similarly with people who are less experienced than you. If this becomes a habit, your offensive skills suffer a little and you feel like you maybe are doing less well against weaker opponents. What looks impressive against a black belt, will look poor against lower belts. You will give up positions unnecessarily against lower belt. While you feel safe from submissions with your defensive game, you will feel like you are losing to many positions.
I have used this strategy for over a year now and found that it actually works. You can dictate a fight even though you are losing the fight. You can maximize your chances against better opponents and appear competitive. The strategy will help your game also by for instance, not accepting positions like cross body or mount as you will abandon half guard in order to gain turtle position thereby not letting your opponent gain cross body. What used to happen to me was that as someone passes my open guard and is about to gain cross body, I was just sitting there for a few seconds being annoyed that it happens and waiting to be pummeled. the best time to defend cross body is right as the opponent is about to achieve it. The above strategy will sharpen your defenses by not letting your "accept" dominant posiitons too early.
The next part of this is dedicated to a defensive position that I call the platypus guard and which is also an essential part of making the above strategy work.
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