Rubber Guard

Last updated: June 9, 2026

What is the rubber guard?

The rubber guard is a way of holding someone from the bottom that goes a step beyond the traditional closed guard. In a normal closed guard, the bottom player wraps both legs around the opponent’s waist and locks the ankles. The rubber guard takes one of those legs and drives it much higher, up over the opponent’s shoulder or across the back of the neck. The bottom player then reaches across with the opposite arm and grips their own shin or ankle to hold the leg in place. That grip is what pins the opponent’s head and upper body down.

Keeping the head pinned is the whole point. Once an opponent’s posture is broken and they cannot sit up straight, they lose most of their power to strike and a lot of their ability to pass. Eddie Bravo built the system around a single anchoring position he named Mission Control, which is the basic hold the rest of the attacks flow from. The name “rubber” points to the catch: the position asks the legs and hips to bend into shapes that not everyone can reach comfortably.

How the rubber guard works

Picture a fighter flat on their back with an opponent kneeling inside their guard. Instead of squeezing with both legs around the waist, the bottom fighter peels one leg off the hip and walks it up until the shin lies across the opponent’s shoulder or neckline. The same-side problem solves itself with the opposite hand: the bottom fighter reaches over and cups their own shin, locking the leg down so it does not slide off.

With the leg trapped high and the head dragged forward, the top fighter is bent over and stuck. They can’t posture up to throw clean punches, and standard guard passing depends on posture they no longer have. From there, the bottom player works through a connected set of grips and angles, each one baiting a reaction that opens the next attack.

The trade-off is flexibility. The position leans heavily on hip and hip-flexor mobility, and grapplers who lack that range struggle to climb the leg high enough or hold it there without tiring. This is one reason the rubber guard tends to suit longer, more limber athletes and frustrates stockier ones.

Rubber guard vs closed guard

Most people meet the rubber guard while trying to figure out how it differs from the ordinary closed guard. They share the same starting point, and the rubber guard is best understood as a specialized branch of the closed guard rather than a separate position.

The clearest contrast is what each one does with the legs. Closed guard uses both legs around the waist and relies on the player’s own posture management. Rubber guard sacrifices that symmetry, sending one leg high to actively pin the head while the arms do the locking.

Position	Leg position	Main job	Flexibility demand
Closed guard	Both legs wrapped around the waist, ankles crossed	Control distance and hips, hunt sweeps and submissions	Low
Rubber guard	One leg driven high over the shoulder or neck, held by the opposite hand	Break and pin the opponent’s posture for striking defense and attacks	High

There is also a close cousin worth separating out. The high guard keeps both legs up around the opponent’s upper back and shoulders without the deep one-leg clamp, so it asks for less flexibility while chasing similar control. The rubber guard is the more committed, more contorted version of that idea.

Submissions associated with the rubber guard

The rubber guard is a control position first, but its reason for existing is the attacks it feeds. Three submissions show up again and again. The omoplata is a shoulder lock applied with the legs. The triangle is a strangle that traps the opponent’s neck and one arm between the legs. The gogoplata, a choke credited to Nino Schembri, drives the shin into the opponent’s throat.

The system works by baiting. Once the bottom player has the head pinned, they threaten one attack, read how the opponent defends, and flow straight into the next opening. That chain of reactions is what made the position notorious. The best-known proof came at UFC Fight Night 49 in 2014, when Ben Saunders, coached by Eddie Bravo, used a rubber-guard sequence to finish Chris Heatherly with the first omoplata submission in UFC history, per MMA Junkie.

Where the rubber guard came from

The shin-control idea predates the name. Brazilian grappler Nino Schembri was using a heavy “shin game” from open guard in the late 1990s, leaning on omoplatas and his own gogoplata, and his approach influenced what came later. Eddie Bravo took that raw material, built a full method around it, and gave the parts memorable names.

Bravo announced himself to the grappling world in 2003, when he submitted Royler Gracie with a triangle in the quarterfinals of the ADCC championship. Beating a Gracie was a genuine shock at the time, and the win, amplified by Joe Rogan’s regular praise on UFC broadcasts, turned Bravo’s 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu and its rubber guard into one of grappling’s most talked-about systems. He laid the whole thing out in his 2006 book, Mastering the Rubber Guard.

The position is less common at the top of modern no-gi than it once was. As BJJ Heroes notes, elite grapplers have largely shifted toward more mobile open guards and leg-lock entries, and coach Sonny Brown has argued that the system’s reliance on hip-flexor flexibility puts it out of reach for most hobbyists. It still has a dedicated following inside the 10th Planet network and keeps a real place in self-defense and MMA, where pinning an opponent’s posture matters more than racking up points.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the rubber guard effective?

It can be, in the right hands and the right setting. It shines in MMA and self-defense by shutting down an opponent’s strikes, though it has lost ground at elite no-gi competition to faster open-guard and leg-lock games.

Do you have to be flexible to use the rubber guard?

Largely, yes. The position depends on hip and hip-flexor mobility to climb the leg high and hold it there, which is why it suits limber grapplers and frustrates stiffer ones.

Is the rubber guard the same as the gogoplata?

No. The rubber guard is the controlling position. The gogoplata is one of the submissions it can lead to, a choke that presses the shin against the opponent’s throat.

Who invented the rubber guard?

Eddie Bravo developed and popularized the system and named its positions, building on the earlier shin-game open guard of Nino Schembri. The exact origin of the underlying control is unclear.

Can you use the rubber guard in the gi?

Yes, although it grew up in no-gi 10th Planet jiu-jitsu. Many gi competitions allow it, and players have adapted it for the gi, even if it is most associated with no-gi grappling.

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Sources

1. BJJ Heroes. “The Rubber Guard.” Accessed June 2026.
   https://www.bjjheroes.com/techniques/rubber-guard
2. Evolve Daily. “Here’s What You Need To Know About The Rubber Guard.” Accessed June 2026.
   https://evolve-mma.com/blog/heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-rubber-guard/
3. NAGA Fighter. “What is the Rubber Guard BJJ Technique.” Accessed June 2026.
   https://www.nagafighter.com/what-is-the-rubber-guard-bjj-technique/
4. BJJ Fanatics. “Rubber Guard BJJ.” Accessed June 2026.
   https://bjjfanatics.com/blogs/news/rubber-guard-bjj
5. Grapplearts. “A Glossary of Guards Part 1: The Closed Guard.” Accessed June 2026.
   https://www.grapplearts.com/a-glossary-of-guards-part-1-the-closed-guard/
6. Sonny Brown. “Why I Don’t Teach Rubber Guard Anymore.” Accessed June 2026.
   https://www.sonnybrown.net/why-i-dont-teach-rubber-guard-anymore/
7. Bloody Elbow. “Judo Chop: Ben Saunders, Eddie Bravo, and the First Omoplata in the UFC.” Accessed June 2026.
   https://bloodyelbow.com/2014/08/26/ufc-judo-chop-ben-saunders-eddie-bravo-first-omoplata/

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