Open Guard

Knight Jiu-Jitsu explains that if your opponent pushes to the inside, you can swap to a secondary tripod sweep, or transition to a single leg X guard. If they continue to push out of single leg X, you have additional options available to keep them engaged.

According to Knight Jiu-Jitsu, you place one leg under your opponent's first leg from the hip position, then pull their hands to the floor to get them balanced before executing the sweep.

Open guard encompasses all guard positions where the bottom player's legs are NOT locked around the opponent, instead using feet on hips, hooks on legs, grips on sleeves/collars, and dynamic hip movement to control distance and create offensive opportunities. Open guard sacrifices the tight control of closed guard for greater mobility, a wider attack repertoire, and the ability to play at longer range — making it both more versatile and more technically demanding.

While open guard concepts existed in earlier BJJ, the open guard revolution began with Ricardo De La Riva in the late 1980s–1990s, who developed the outside hook guard that bears his name. The 2000s saw explosive innovation: Marcelo Garcia revolutionised butterfly and X-guard, the Mendes brothers developed berimbolo from reverse De La Riva, and spider/lasso guard became dominant in gi competition.

IBJJF: разрешён — Legal — guard is fundamental to BJJ, sweeps from guard score 2 points; IJF: ограничен — Guard pulling penalized as non-combativity — groundwork from guard permitted …; ADCC: разрешён — Legal, guard pull penalized -1 point in points portion; Unified MMA: разрешён — Legal — no penalty for playing guard; FIAS Sport Sambo: разрешён — Legal

Оценка опасности 3/10. Low-moderate — open guard is relatively safe but slightly more dangerous than closed guard because the legs are not locked; risk of being stacked, leg-dragged, or having legs pinned during passing attempts; in MMA, open guard allows more ground-and-pound than closed guard

Стандартная цепочка подготовки: Establish Open Guard → Manage Distance → Create Angle → Off-Balance → Attack → Retain Guard.

Стандартные контрприёмы: Grip Stripping — systematically removing the guard player's grips eliminates their control framework / Standing Passes (Toreando) — standing up and throwing the legs to pass at speed / Pressure Passes — driving forward with heavy chest pressure to flatten the guard player / Leg Drag — gripping and dragging one leg across the body to clear the passing lane.

Распространённые варианты: De La Riva guard (outside hook on the opponent's lead leg with same-side co…); Spider guard (feet on the opponent's biceps with sleeve grips; creates …); Butterfly guard (seated with both feet hooked inside the opponent's thighs…); X-guard (underneath the opponent with legs forming an X around one…); Lasso guard (wrapping the leg around the opponent's arm from spider gu…); Reverse De La Riva (inside hook on the opponent's lead leg; sets up berimbolo…); Single-leg X (ashi garami) (controlling one leg with both legs in an X configuration;…); Worm guard (using the opponent's lapel threaded around their leg as a…).

Open guard dominates modern IBJJF and ADCC competition, with the majority of black belt matches featuring open guard exchanges. Multiple World Champions have built careers on specific open guard variations.

Основные ошибки, на которые стоит обратить внимание: Lying flat on the back in open guard — open guard requires constant hip movement and being on one hip; flat = getting… / Allowing the opponent to control both legs simultaneously — if the passer pins both legs to one side, the pass is ess… / Reaching with arms instead of using legs — the legs are stronger and longer; overuse of arms in open guard leads to f… / Playing the same guard against every passer — different passers require different guards; a pressure passer requires ….

Open Guard также известен как Ōpun Gādo, Open Guard, Distance Guard, Non-Closed Guard.