Imagine you are a military member given the order to assault an enemy position. Hearing this task, you evaluate the situation and determine that if you go straight at their position, you will run into significant enemy firepower which will greatly increase the risks of mission failure. However, if you attack from the flank (side), enemy firepower will have to be repositioned to take aim at you, providing you valuable time that will increase your odds of success and lower risks.

Which one will you choose?

In this scenario, everyone says they will obviously choose to not go head on with the enemy. Good!

So why do you go head on through your opponent’s guard?

An opponent’s guard is the space between their knees where all their weapons for attack and control are concentrated right at you. This is literally their battlefield that you are walking into every time you willfully enter their guard. You are walking into their kill-zone.

STOP WALKING INTO THEIR KILL ZONE!

Here comes the next wave of crying, “but the knee-cut is the most dominant pass in Sport Jiu-Jitsu! It goes right through their guard!”

Yes, it is very dominant and a very solid technique. Keep it in your repertoire.

So, what should you do?

I am not saying to discard all the passing that involves going through the guard and exposes you to their attacks. I am saying to spend more time on bypassing their guard and limiting your exposure to their guard. 

Let’s play out a scenario:

Butt-Scooter spends 5 days a week on their guard game. This is all they do and they are damn good at it.

Smart-One spends 3 days a week on bypassing the guard, and two days a week on controlling top positions. They are also damn good at it.

Let’s assume every other measurable about them is equal.

If they end up rolling and Butt-Scooter cannot put Smart-One into their guard, who do you think will win? How likely do you think it is that Butt-Scooter will get Smart-One (who works on bypassing guards) into guard?

Lots of crying on this one from afar – obviously there are tons of other variables you could throw at this to argue my point, but you cannot argue this…

There is no guard to be played if you bypass it.

My Recommendation:

Your guard passing should be primarily focused on bypassing the guard, not entering it. Entering the kill-zone to pass should be seen as contingency, not your primary plan.

Note:

While being on top, even in an opponent’s guard, is still considered a dominant position as far as I am concerned (to be further discussed in ‘Spectrum of Control – Part 2’), the reality is that guards are the best positions of the inferior positions (back/butt on the ground). This is to say, guards, while inferior to top positions, increase chances of survival and success over the absence of them while in an inferior position. 

Mathematical Jiu-Jitsu focuses on guard bypassing as a fundamental skill and guard passing as an important fundamental contingency. We seek to avoid entering positions that expose us to opponent attacks.