Open Guard

Last updated: June 3, 2026

What is open guard?

Open guard is the umbrella term for every guard in which the bottom player keeps their legs working freely instead of clamping them shut around the opponent. The defining detail is simple: the ankles are not crossed. The guard player lies on their back or sits up, then uses their feet, shins, and hands to control the person trying to pass.

It is the oldest guard in the sport. According to BJJ Heroes, the guard came to Brazil through Mitsuyo Maeda, a student of judo founder Jigoro Kano, and was developed into a leverage-based system by Helio Gracie, who built many of the sweeps and off-balancing positions still used today. Long before anyone labelled positions like spider or De La Riva, all of it fell under one heading: open guard.

That history matters because open guard is less a single technique than a family. Spider guard, butterfly guard, X-guard, lasso, and De La Riva are all open guards, separated by where the feet hook and which grips the player holds. What they share is the goal. The bottom player wants to keep the opponent at a managed distance, off balance, and reacting, so that a sweep or submission becomes available.

How open guard works

Picture a grappler on their back with the feet pressed against the standing opponent’s hips, hands gripping the sleeves or wrists. That contact is the engine of the position. Open guard runs on points of contact: feet and shins act as hooks or frames that hold space, while grips on the sleeves, collar, ankles, or wrists steer the opponent’s posture and balance.

Distance is the whole game. Get too close without a frame in place, and a strong passer flattens the guard; stay connected through the legs and grips, and the opponent struggles to close the gap. This is why commentators describe open guard as active rather than defensive. A skilled player constantly adjusts hooks and grips, inviting a reaction and using it to set up the next attack.

Open guard works in the gi and without it. Performance Jiu-Jitsu notes that gi players lean on sleeve and collar grips to manipulate posture, while no-gi relies more on hooks, foot placement, and leg entanglements. The grips change, but the job of the legs does not.

Open guard vs closed guard

This is the comparison most beginners search for, and the distinction is the cleanest in all of guard play. In closed guard, the legs wrap the opponent’s waist, and the ankles lock behind their back. In open guard, they do not.

Gracie Lake Norman describes closed guard as the more stable, beginner-friendly option because the locked legs limit the opponent’s movement and let a new student slow the action down. Open guard trades that stability for mobility. The bottom player gains more sweeps, more submissions, and freer hips, but a lost grip can hand a passer the opening they need.

Feature	Closed guard	Open guard
Leg position	Ankles locked around the waist	Ankles free, not crossed
Best for	Stability, control, beginners	Mobility, attacks, transitions
Main risk	Easier to stall, fewer angles	Vulnerable to pressure passing
Distance	Close, body-to-body	Managed through legs and grips

Most schools teach closed guard first for that reason. Open guard tends to come later, once a student can read movement and adjust on the fly.

Common types of open guard

Open guard splits into many named variations, each defined by foot position and grips. A reader following fight commentary will hear these names constantly, so recognising them matters more than performing them.

Guard	What defines it
De La Riva	A foot hooks the outside of the opponent’s lead leg, with a sleeve or ankle grip
Spider guard	Both feet press the opponent’s biceps while the hands grip both sleeves
Butterfly guard	The player sits up with both feet hooked under the opponent’s thighs
X-guard	The legs form an X around one of the opponent’s legs from underneath
Lasso guard	One leg threads under and around the opponent’s arm, trapping it
Reverse De La Riva	The foot hooks the inside of the opponent’s leg instead of the outside

These are not separate inventions so much as branches of the same position. Two-time world champion Nino Schembri told BJJ Heroes that many “new” guards are old positions that simply got names later, recalling that he played what is now called lasso for years before anyone gave it a label.

Open guard in MMA

Open guard shows up in mixed martial arts, but it behaves differently than it does on the sport mat. The threat of strikes changes the math. A guard player who opens up and exposes space can be hit, so fighters tend to use open guard to create distance, control a leg, or hunt a sweep rather than settle in for a long grappling exchange.

Leg entanglements that grew out of open guard, such as the positions used to attack the legs, have become a regular sight in MMA grappling exchanges. The core idea carries over from BJJ unchanged: use the legs and grips to manage range and off-balance the opponent, then improve position.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is open guard good for beginners?

It can be, but most coaches teach closed guard first. Open guard demands more timing, balance, and movement, which is harder for a new student before the fundamentals of guard retention are in place.

Who invented open guard?

No single person did. It predates the named modern variations, and BJJ Heroes credits Helio Gracie with developing it into the leverage-based sweeping system that defines the position in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Is open guard used in the gi or no-gi?

Both. Gi play relies on sleeve and collar grips, while no-gi leans on hooks, foot placement, and leg entanglements.

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Sources

1. BJJ Heroes. “The Open Guard.” Accessed June 2026.
2. NAGA Fighter. “What is the Open Guard in BJJ?” Accessed June 2026.
3. BJJ Fanatics. “Open Guard vs Closed Guard BJJ.” Accessed June 2026.
4. Digitsu. “Open Guard: Core Concepts.” Accessed June 2026.
5. Gracie Lake Norman. “Closed Guard vs Open Guard for beginners.” Accessed June 2026.
6. Performance Jiu-Jitsu. “Closed Guard vs. Modern Open Guards.” Accessed June 2026.

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