Inside the Guard, Part Three: The Breakdown Gets Broken Down

Now, the reign of Tito Ortiz did alot of things to jiu-jitsu in MMA, and, realistically speaking, Tito has had a deep affect on jiu-jitsu because of his innovations in the groundnpound. While it’s easy to credit guys like Fedor, who appear much later, with smashing many of the conventions of the jiu-jitsu game, Tito was there first, and was the biggest enabler of this style of fighting.

The problem for alot of guys with great grappling skills was that their opponents could wait through a few rounds and win on the judges scorecards. While the layngay attack was often booed, it became a popular style for wrestlers who cared more about winning than about pulling out the big finish.

That said, there was a development within alot of submission grappling circles that revolutionized all of this, that helped guys beat their opponents without breaking down their posture and without their opponents forcing their head into their opponents chest.

While the game has not become quite as popular in MMA (because of the way that the broken down guard has become popular among heavyweights and the way the rubber guard has gained popularity among lightweights) the intermediary between the two has found its way into alot of ground games and enables both of these other fighting styles.

Basically, the opponent postures up and, instead of trying to break them down, you follow them up and proceed for a hip-sweep, kimura or guillotine. These finishes have alot of power purely in the basis that they either force the opponent to drop their shoulder, breaking their posture for you, or that they put you in a top position or a finishing position.

The intermediary, sitting up position has been challenged by those who don’t think that it works, because it doesn’t seem to stand on its own. That, though, is why it appeals to so many grapplers, and has worked so effectively as a way to set up the well controlled guard or the rubber guard.

The reason it hasn’t become as prevalent in MMA is because, realistically speaking, the quality of jiu-jitsu is lower amongst MMA fighters than amongst guys who strictly train BJJ. Still, we’ve seen BJ Penn and Shinya Aoki sit up and threaten with the kimura to set up their rubber guard games, we’ve seen Fabricio Werdum use it to finish fights against Aleks Emelianenko and Alistair Overeem. It’s a game that works for guys who have the patience to make it work, and while it is not the final evolution of the guard, it is certainly a development that we are starting to see among the upper echelong of jiu-jitsu guys in MMA.

This is part 3 in a four part series. Here are links to parts one and two.