Guard Retention

The Egg

A Simple Way To Develop Water-Tight Defences

I remember when Alex started training Jiu Jitsu. He was athletic, good at scrambling, and had the heart of a lion.Because of these attributes, if he got on top, he would often catch his training partners in submissions or

However, the moment he got stuck on his back defending, he turned from a mat monster into something more like Bambi skating on ice. His arms and legs would be everywhere, and he’d try and bench press his partners off instead of using a solid technique.

Inevitably his opponents would pass his defences like butter and end up in a strong attacking position.

And at some point in your Jiu Jitsu journey, I’m sure you’ll have experienced this too. You got stuck on the bottom, and no matter how hard you fight your opponent breaches your defences and squash you like a bug.

Often the problem is not your ability to sweep or submit your opponent, instead, the problem is you are exposing your defences and making yourself vulnerable to attacks

A few years ago, I noticed this was a common problem in my beginner students. So set about creating a way to help teach them basic positional defence and guard recovery.

Enter The Egg Drill

After a little trial and error, the Egg was born (maybe laid is apter)

The fundamental principle behind the egg is to create a defensive shell. To do this you keep your elbows and knees tight to your body, and your chin tucked.

If you do this correctly, it becomes incredibly difficult for your partner to attack you regardless of the positionthey are in plus they will find it tough to stabilise any dominant position.

Now, before we go any further, this is just a drill or concept. It is not supposed to be specific technique, and if you’re sparring I would not advise you using this as your primary form of attack

However, if you are continually getting your guard passed or easily submitted, practising this drill will be of great benefit to you.

Essentially, there are three parts to this drill with each part building on the last. The drill starts by teaching you how to keep your defences tight, then progresses with how to recover guard, and finishes with how to you can use the concept in sparring situations.

Below you’ll find the thought process behind each part of the drill and video outline how to perform it.

Part 1: Understanding The Egg

The first part of the drill is simply getting used to keeping a tight defensive and demonstrate how easy it can be. To do this, you have to keep your elbows and knees tight to your body and keep your chin tucked in tight.

There should be no space for your partner to get inside of the frame and they shouldn’t be able to separate your limbs from your body.

When you can do this effectively, it becomes very hard for you opponent to set up any submission opportunities or stabilise a dominant position.

The video below shows how to perform part 1 of the Egg drill. The first time you do this, it’s a good idea to start slowly and gradually increase the pressure as your partner develops the defensive capabilities.

Part 2: Defending The Egg

Once you get comfortable with the defensive position, the next step is to stop them getting around your guard.

It is impossible for your opponent to be attacking both sides of your body at once. Consequently, you can use the side they’re not attacking to defend your opponents pass attempts or recover guard.

The second part of the drill is the start of integrating the Egg concept into sparring. Check out the video below to see exactly how to do part 2 of the drill.

Part 3: Opening The Egg

Obviously, keeping your hands connected to your shins and your legs tucked into your body isn’t an effective way to play Jiu Jitsu. Consequently, the final part of the drill is all about how you use the Egg concept within your Jiu Jitsu.

The video below shows how to perform part 3 of the Egg drill.

How To Become One With The Egg

Like almost technique or concept in Jiu Jitsu, you need to practice the Egg to make it instinctive and be able to use it when you need to.

However, this is relatively easy. Simply take some time before or after your regular Jiu Jitsu training and practiceeach of the drills in order.

A short training plan (less than 15 minutes) could look something like this.

The Egg Part 1: 2 x 1 min rounds (alternate attacker and defender)
The Egg Part 2: 2 x 1 min rounds (alternating)
The Egg Part 3: 2 x 1 min rounds (alternating)

Remember, gradually increase the intensity as your partner improves, and if your partner is struggling to take the intensity back a notch.

If you did this plan for a month I can guarantee your guard retention and defence would increase dramatically. This short training plan also at as a great warm up for any guard training or defensive work.

If you enjoyed this article or found it useful, leave a comment below and let me know. I always appreciate the feedback.

To get your FREE copy of Performance Drilling and discover how to train like a world champion click the button below.

Get your FREE copy now!

Four Solo Drills To Help Improve Your Guard

One of your greatest weapons in developing a killer guard is flexibility. The more flexible you are, the easier you’ll be able to transition in and out of attacks, and the less your opponent will be able to force you into positions you aren’t comfortable in and exploit the gaps in your guard.

The nice thing about flexibility and mobility is you don’t need a training partner to develop it. You can develop your guard anytime, anywhere through a little solo drilling.

To help you get started here are four of my favourite solo drills to help improve your guard. These drills have been incredibly beneficial in my own training, hopefully, they can do the same for you.

Try these stretches and tactics out for the next 30 days and see how they help you.

Want more great BJJ content delivered straight to your inbox?

Click the button below to get your FREE copy of Performance Drilling and discover how to train like a world champion.

Get The FREE eBOOk

Guard Retention 101

How To Develop An Impassable Guard

Click the links below to jump straight to a section…

Go to Video 1: 5 Essential Guard Retention Concepts
Go to Video 2: The Squashing Drill
Go to Video 3: The Stepping Drill
Go to Video 4: Real World Retention Example

If you develop an impassible guard, you’ll never have to worry about escaping bad positions. I know that’s a bold statement, but let me explain further and hopefully, you’ll understand what I mean.

Firstly, let’s start by defining what I mean by a bad position. I’m not talking about these fancy leg entanglements that have become common, although the concepts covered later will help defend them too. What I’m talking about are the traditional positions you’d hate to find yourself in if you were fighting a 300-pound gorilla (i.e. side control, mount, and back).

If you think about how you end up in those positions, there are only a few circumstances you will end up in a bad position. You’ll end up with a bad position if your opponent passes, if you get swept or taken down, and from a failed submission.

In any of those situations, an impassable guard will stop your opponent progressing.

It’s pretty obvious why an impassible guard would stop your opponents passing, but in either a takedown, sweep, or failed submission, you can usually to scramble back to your guard.

If you look at you’re training from this standpoint, it makes far more sense to focus your training on guard playing or guard passing. After all, the top or bottom of guard is where you’ll spend 90% of your time.

So now we’ve established why you absolutely, positively want to develop an impassible guard, it’s time to look at how you can develop one.

5 Essential Guard Retention Concepts

During your Jiu Jitsu career, you’ll encounter hundreds of different guard passing situations. You’ll meet speed passers, pressure passers, passers who jump, and everything in-between.

However, regardless of how your opponent is trying to pass, there are a few essential guard retention concepts that apply to all passes. The video below outlines five of the most important.

Just to recap, here are the five concepts:

Hide the hip to armpit space – become the egg!
Keep your guard wide.
Get your opponent on your feet.
Square your hips.
Create layers of guard.

To help you develop these concepts, I want to share with you two drills we regularly use in our academy. These drills are simple, effective, and can be done very quickly, which makes them ideal to be used as a warm-up anytime you’re working your guard.

The Squashing Drill

The Squashing Drill is a great way to develop your ability to hide the hip/armpit space and keep your feet facing your opponent. The nice thing about this drill is you can also use it as a way to improve guard retention flexibility and core strength.

The Stepping Drill

The second guard retention drill is the Stepping Drill. As with the squashing drill, this drill reinforces hiding the hip/armpit space but also teaches you to square your hips and keep your guard wide.

Try doing 2 – 3 one minute rounds of these drills anytime you plan to work your guard build from there.

Real World Retention Example

Talking about concepts and drills is great, but I wanted to give you an example of how you apply these ideas in the real world.

For our guard retention example, I choose one of the highest percentages passes in Jiu Jitsu; the Knee Slide. Whether you’ve been training 6 months or 6 years, you’ve probably encountered this killer pass.

Check out how you can apply these concepts to counter the knee slide in the video below:

Putting It All Together

Hopefully, this article has given you some idea of why developing killer guard retention is so beneficial, and some of the most essential concepts, but how should you start improving your guard retention?

The answer to that is simple; practice your guard retention every time you train.

Rather than playing your A-game next time you roll, sit to your butt the moment you slap hands and fist bump. Don’t worry about having grips or even being in a specific guard, and try to prevent your opponent from passing by using the ideas we discussed here.

Also, don’t worry about sweeping or submitting your opponent, that can be added later and will be much easier once you have developed your guard retention skills.

The first few times you do this, your training partner will probably pass your guard easily, but over time you’ll have more and more success retaining your guard.

Once you feel confident in your retention abilities against most people (regardless of age or skill level), start connecting your retention to guards, then sweeps and submissions.

This whole process could take several months or even a year, but you have time. Your goal should is to be a world class black belt, not a champion white belt, and guard retention is vital for that.

Did you download your FREE copy of Performance Drilling?

To get your FREE copy of Performance Drilling and discover how to train like a world champion click the button below.

Get The FREE Book Now