Ok, you have a competition coming up and you start things on your
feet. Do you plan to take someone down or pull to guard. For starting
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitors, that can be one of the toughest split
second decisions you will have to make. Considering strengths and
weaknesses of your opponents, do you plan to keep your faith “in Guard We Trust” or do some ape shit take downs?
There
are a lot of discussions on which approach is better. For wrestlers and
judokas, most would prefer to take someone down and get the first two
points. They have a point though. Case study of the 2012 Mundials showed 75% of competitors who scored the first point eventually won the match.
Are you now convinced to grab an uke?
Not
so fast. What better way than to look into the rest of the stats. Since
we don’t have BJJ in the Olympics (yet), the Mundials is the next best
event for any jiu jitsu practitioners. This is also the best time to
rake all the numbers and scrutinize high level match ups on what
transpired. This can give us an idea on what types of games are becoming
popular.
In Guard We Trust
58% of the Mundials 2012 matches ended up on the ground in less than 10 seconds. 65% opted to pull to guard while only 24% went for a take down. And for the remaining 10 percent, both actually pulled guard together. Another surprising turn out is that 48% of the guard pullers playing bottom actually won the match. It also showed that only 40% of those players who stayed on top actually won the match; a relatively smaller number than guys on bottom. And to prove a point why you should start concentrating on your guard game is the fact that there are more guard pullers who scored first than top players. Plus, those who winded up winning on top originally came from the bottom playing guard.
The Economy of Motion
Principles of motion economy suggest efficiency for the human body to maximize outputs while reducing fatigue. This is embodied in the core principles of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu as it was built to provide leverage for the weak and the smaller men to defend and win against larger opponents.
To have a concrete idea, on what it feels like to go ape shit against 24 other guys in 5 matches, watch the hammer time scene from the Old Boy.Yes, you will get mauled by faster and more conditioned guys if you don’t conserve the gas that you have.
Running on Limited Fuel
The bottom line is that going for take downs would require activation of more muscles than simply pulling to guard. Considering just how you need to change level, shoot in an explosive manner, it takes more ATPs to combine wrestling with your jiu jitsu than to go straight to newaza without any effort by pulling guard.
Given the number of modern research when it comes to running gait, and other new interventions to prolong fatigue and to improve biomechanics, it is also a good idea to consider guard as the most efficient option of approaching a BJJ competition given the IBJJF rules that we have today. Not unless you are up against a Rodolfo Vieira (Oh, wait you are so getting a judo throw anyways), maybe it is a good idea that you try to implement your game plan starting from the guard.
