Closed guard is the first guard most people learn in BJJ. You are on your back, your opponent is between your legs and your ankles are crossed behind their back. It controls their distance and their posture, and it is the base for four major attacks. If you only drill one position in your first year, make it this one.
Why closed guard is still the foundation
It is stable. Your opponent cannot pass without opening it first, and opening it costs them time and energy. Meanwhile, you attack.
Closed guard also teaches the principles behind every other guard: control posture, manage the arms and move your hips. Someone with a good closed guard picks up the half guard and open guards faster.
Judoka see it from another angle. In judo it is a defensive holding position that the referee stops quickly if nothing happens. In BJJ it is an attacking post.
Breaking posture comes first
An opponent sitting tall, back straight, hands on your hips, is almost untouchable. Every attack starts by taking that posture away.
The key moves:
- pull them in with your legs, knees toward your chest, the moment they place their hands;
- control a wrist or sleeve with one hand and the collar or the back of the head with the other;
- once their head drops below the line of their hips, their posture is broken.
Beginners most often go wrong by lying flat with lazy legs, waiting for an opening. Closed guard is active. Your legs squeeze and pull, and your hips keep shifting from side to side.
A rules note: IBJJF white belts may not squeeze the kidneys or ribs with crossed legs. The details are in our guide to IBJJF rules.
The main attacks
Armbar
With their arm controlled, you pivot your hips to get perpendicular, put a foot on their hip and swing your leg over their head. It is the judoka's juji-gatame (cross armlock), applied from guard. Full breakdown: the BJJ armbar.
Triangle
It punishes the opponent who leaves one arm in and one arm out. One leg goes over the back of their neck, the other locks under your knee, and their own shoulder presses into their carotid. See the triangle choke for the angle adjustment, which makes all the difference.
Kimura
When they post a hand on the mat to sit up, grab their wrist. Then thread your other arm over their shoulder and grip your own wrist. The shoulder lock comes from turning their arm behind their back. It is judo's ude-garami (entangled arm lock), covered in our kimura guide.
Scissor sweep
One hand on the collar, one on the sleeve. One shin goes across their belly and the other leg sits on the mat behind their knee. You pull toward you and chop with the bottom leg like a pair of scissors: they fall to the side and you come up on top. That scores two points in competition, often with the mount right after.
Chaining is what makes the guard dangerous
A single attack can be defended. Two linked attacks, much less so.
The most useful sequence to learn: your opponent defends the kimura by sitting up, so you hit the hip bump sweep, driving your hips into their chest. If they drive forward to block it, their arm stays behind and the kimura is back on. If they pull the arm out, the triangle opens up.
Another classic pair: the armbar fails because they pull the arm out. That leaves their head and one arm inside your legs. The triangle is already halfway there.
How to pass the closed guard
From the top, rule number one is not getting broken down. Back straight, head up, elbows tight to your ribs, hands on their hips or belt. Never leave a straight arm inside, which is a free armbar.
Then you have to open it. There are two main methods:
- Kneeling: one knee in the center, under their tailbone, while the other leg steps back to widen the angle. Push on their thigh with your elbow or hand until the ankles uncross.
- Standing: get up while keeping your posture, one foot next to their hips, and let gravity open their legs. It is safer against very tight guards but demands more balance.
Once the guard is open, the rest is guard passing.
Closed guard in no-gi
Without the gi, collar and sleeve grips are gone. You control the head and the wrist and use the overhook, wrapping your arm over theirs. The guard gets more slippery and the opponent sits up more easily. The triangle and the guillotine become more important.
A drill for the week
For five sessions, start your rolls in closed guard, on the bottom. Set yourself one rule: every time you break their posture, throw an attack, even one that is bound to fail. Count how many times you break them down in a five-minute round. At first it will be two or three. When you reach ten, your closed guard will start to scare people. To see where this position fits in the art as a whole, read our Brazilian jiu-jitsu page.