Breaking Posture in BJJ

When you’re attempting to use an attacking closed guard then breaking his posture is essential. Your opponent is going to do everything in his power to keep his posture and try to keep a safe distance from you and by doing this it makes it easier for him to avoid submissions. For you to be effective you will need to break his posture and there are various ways you can do this. Some of the best ways include pulling down on his lapel, pulling his sleeves and drawing him on to you with the use of your legs. Below we will outline the best ways to break some ones posture in guard.
One of the first things you will notice when you have someone in your closed guard is that they will try to control you by gripping you by your GI most likely on your lapel and on your trousers. The idea behind this is that they can control your hips with the grip on your trousers and control you from sitting up with the grip on your lapel. If you allow your opponent to establish these grips then you’re making things so much harder for yourself because it’s harder to stop the grips than to break them. Stopping your opponent from getting these grips can be done in various ways and they include opening your GI out and by grip fighting.
As much as you try to stop your opponent establishing grips when in your guard there will be times when he will get the grips and you will need to know how to break his posture from this position. A great way to do this is by using his elbows to pull him forward. The way you do this is by taking an outside grip on his elbows and simultaneously opening out his elbows and drawing him with your legs. Another point to remember is that you should move your head to the side opposite to the side that you’re moving your opponent to, to avoid his head colliding with yours.
There will be times when your opponent will be stronger than you and certain techniques will be made harder because of the difference in strength. A great way to counter this difference in strength is to gain head control. This can be done by slipping one of your arms underneath one of his arms and then reaching round the back of his head and pulling him on to you. One other thing to consider is his other arm this can sometimes give you problems the best way to counter these problems before they happen is to use your free arm and to control his arm by gripping his sleeve. If your opponent is determined to keep his posture in your guard then it can get very difficult to break him down this is why you will need to know different techniques to achieve your goal.
As you progress in your BJJ you will not only want to survive you will want to attack and submit your opponent. A great way to do this from guard is to use the whizzer control. This is done by wrapping your arm around your opponents and then gripping his lapel. This is a great way to control your opponent and to also trap his arm and this position can then be used to setup various submissions including arm bars, triangles and omoplatas.