Ok so you are watching a mixed martial arts or MMA fight and every time the fight goes to the ground the announcer starts talking about all these different positions and what position there in now and what they are trying to accomplish from that position. You probably heard a number of unfamiliar terms like half guard and full mount but had no idea what the announcer was talking about. If you want to learn what these terms mean you could either go to a local austin jiu jitsu school and spend a few months training to learn all of these positions or you could spend a few minutes reading this article to learn what they mean.
The most common jiujitsu position in MMA is called full guard. Being in some ones full guard means that you are on top with the bottom person having their legs wrapped around your waste. The guy on top is considered to be in the dominate position as far as fighting goes because they are in a much better position to throw punches then the guy on bottom. For jiu jitsu purposes though this position is considered neutral, because the guy on top has very little chance of getting a submission while the guy on bottom actually has a number of different ways that they can submit the guy on top.
Usually the guy on top will try and get in a better position so that they can submit the bottom guy. The next position is called half guard. This is when the top guy is able to get one leg over the bottom guy’s leg, leaving the bottom guy to wrap his leg around the top guys other leg. Basically it’s like full guard but instead of the legs being wrapped around the waist they are wrapped around just one of the top guy’s legs. The next position is called side mount or side control, this is when the guy on top is laying with his legs 90 degrees from the bottom guy’s legs or in a T position. This is the position that you would see in your normal high school wrestling match. Once in this position the top guy is in a much more dominate position and has many more ways of submitting the bottom guy while the bottom guy has very little chance of submitting the top guy from this position.
The most dominate position is called the full mount. This is when the guy on top is on his knees pretty much sitting on the bottom guy’s chest. This position is especially dominate in MMA because the top guy can punch the bottom guy in the face and the bottom guy can only try and protect himself and or improve his position. If the bottom guy does not get out of this position in an MMA fight the fight will be over quickly. The other common position is called taking someone’s back. This one’s pretty easy to figure out, it just means that one guy is behind the other one usually with his legs wrapped around the other guys waist.
Some of the other less common positions include the rubber guard and spider guard, but they are a little more complicated to explain and until you have a basic understanding of the other positions it probably won’t make much since to you. So if you ever decide to go to an austin jiu jitsu school you’ll at least have a basic understanding of the different positions that you will be learning.
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