it's all hips baby

I was working with one of my training partners (Mike Grandinetti) on Saturday morning and something came up that I thought might help someone else out there. I will call this guard work for the fat guy with no hip or lower back flexibility.

I was trying to expalain to him how I went from having no guardwork ability at all (my butt was practically superglued to the mat as far as moblity goes) to having a decent game now. Since I had no game at this position, I was getting my guard passed all the time, so I found myself in half guard constantly. For survival sake, I tried to learn everything I could about 1/2 guard. There are three basics; near side underhook, far arm defend the crossface, and, most importantly, be on your side. Now, you never want to be on your back in full guard, but I couldn't stay there. However, with 1/2 guard, I found I could stay on my side almost all the time. When that happens, you will suddenly find yourself with a great deal of mobility. Formerly glued to the mat, I was now moving non-stop. I spent months and months working 1/2 guard, being fairly successful. The amzing thing though, was that went I was playing guard, I was much more mobile than before. My hips were all over the place and I was rarely lying with my back flat. That feel for movement I developed had a direct transfer to my full guard, as well as all of my bottom game. The reason is in BJJ, it is all hips. Period. If you don't have that, you will not have good jits. If you do have it, it transcends one area to aplly to all areas.

So, if there are any of you who had similar problems to me, give some dedicated 1/2 guard work a try. You might be pleasently surprised.