Breaking up is hard to do.

So today we had a great class, taught by Brian. The guard breaks that I learned at the Barn were mostly done off the knees. At Maxercise the preferred way to break the guard is by standing up. I have a slight grasp of how to break by splitting my knee up the middle, but I'm terrible at the one where you grab the sleeve cuff, stand, and push on the knee. Tonight's class helped me a lot with that.

Brian started by challenging several of us to break his closed guard. None of us could do it. He didn't attack much, he mostly just took our base with hip movement. Then he explained how to do this guard break.

First, make a grip on both lapels together in your right hand. Your hand should be at about the solar plexus level. You should have good base and posture of course.

Second, make a cat's paw grip on the opponent's left sleeve. If he is hiding it, push on the knee until he grabs your wrist, then make your grip. Keep your elbow inside his knees, tight, the whole time.

Third, post your left leg fairly deep past his hip, and not too close to his side. He shouldn't be able to take your base by pulling you forwards with his legs. This is where I made my mistake when I tried to open Brian's guard.

Fourth, using your right hand as your second leg, step up with your right foot, keeping a fairly wide base. Immediately let go of his lapels with your right hand, while retaining your grip on his sleeve with your left. Arch your back up, you can even look upwards to help maintain your posture. Keep your left elbow tight, don't let it pass outside his right knee into omoplata land.

Finally, turn your right foot outwards, push on the left knee with your right hand, and shake to open his guard.

Then you go straight into the pass.

First, squash his left leg with your right shin, trapping it between your knee and foot. This should be a very uncomfortable position for your opponent.

Second, try to get head control, to go for the basic head control pass.

If he defends, switch to the cross knee pass, keeping low and tight.

Finally, enjoy your side control!