This week on Gracie Barra Blog we are taking a look at the most common forms of leg entanglement guard styles. These guard styles are especially prevalent in no-gi as in the absence of sleeve grips and collars to hang onto, the guard player needs to look to entangle the legs as an available method of control.

Without a means to control your opponent, a standing guard passer has a significant advantage in speed to move around your legs.
Let’s see some different forms of leg entanglement guards as taught by Gracie Barra instructors.

1) De la Riva Guard
Extremely common in IBJJF tournaments, this guard is a MUST learn position for all competitors. a very powerful control and sweeping guard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrcFudEaVRg

2) 50/50 guard
Sweeps and leg locks (especially in the submission only competition formats) this can be very difficult to escape. The downside however, is that your opponent has the same control as you do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOW6hYSN_DA

3) Single Leg X-Guard
If a major part of your game is attacking leg locks, you must be proficient in the single leg guard (aka ashi garami) control.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWpKh1upR4g

4) X-guard
This leg entanglement style combines well with those who like to play butterfly guard. This is one of the strongest sweeping positions and very adaptable to no-gi. Nice back take options from X-guard as well as the threat of the sweep.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxAoVVIjkGA

5) Reverse De la Riva
This is a common leg entanglement guard commonly used to counter the opponent’s knee slice guard pass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVGNR8SMWEI

See also on Gracie Barra : 4 Most Important Guard Attacks You Should Learn
https://graciebarra.com/2017/04/gb-learning-4-most-important-guard-attacks-you-should-learn/

Credits: Mark Mullen
Gracie Barra Black belt based in Saigon, Vietnam
Instagram: facebook.com/markmullenbjj