The 10 Essential BJJ Guards Every White Belt Should Know

Guard is the heart of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It is the position that separates BJJ from wrestling and judo — the ability to fight effectively from your back. A strong guard game means you are dangerous even when you are on the bottom, which is why guard play is often the first thing beginners learn and the last thing masters stop improving. This guide breaks down the ten guards that form the foundation of modern BJJ.

1. Closed Guard

Closed guard is the most fundamental guard in BJJ. You lie on your back with both legs wrapped around your opponent\'s waist and your ankles locked. From here, you have access to a complete arsenal: armbars, triangles, kimuras, omoplatas, and sweeps like the hip bump and scissor sweep.

The key to an effective closed guard is breaking your opponent\'s posture. Pull their head down, control their sleeves or collar, and prevent them from sitting up straight. Once posture is broken, their base becomes unstable and submissions open up. Closed guard is particularly effective for smaller practitioners because it neutralizes size and strength differences through leverage.

When to use it: Closed guard is your default guard as a beginner. It is the safest position to learn because it gives you the most control with the least risk. Focus on closed guard for your first 6–12 months before branching into open guards.

2. Open Guard

Open guard is any guard where your legs are not locked around the opponent. It is the most diverse category in BJJ, encompassing everything from collar-and-sleeve grips to leg entanglements. The open guard philosophy is simple: use your legs as frames and your grips as anchors to control distance and angle.

Unlike closed guard, open guard requires constant adjustment. You must actively push, pull, and re-frame as the opponent moves. This makes it harder to learn but far more versatile. Open guard is essential for no-gi grappling because you cannot rely on gi grips to hold the opponent in place.

When to use it: Transition to open guard when the opponent breaks your closed guard or when you want to attack with more dynamic sweeps and transitions. Start with collar-sleeve or butterfly open guard as your entry point.

3. Half Guard

Half guard occurs when you have trapped one of the opponent\'s legs between your own. Once considered a losing position, modern BJJ has transformed half guard into a dynamic attacking platform. The position revolves around one critical battle: the underhook.

Whoever secures the underhook (an arm wrapped under the opponent\'s armpit) typically controls the position. From the bottom, half guard offers sweeps (old school, dog fight), back takes, and submissions (kimura, guillotine). Top players use half guard to flatten the opponent and work toward passes like the knee cut.

When to use it: Half guard is your recovery position when the opponent is about to pass your closed or open guard. It is also a legitimate attacking position in its own right. Lucas Leite and Bernardo Faria built entire competitive careers around half guard.

4. Butterfly Guard

Butterfly guard is a seated open guard where you place both insteps under the opponent\'s inner thighs. This creates a powerful leverage point for elevating the opponent and attacking their balance. The signature technique is the butterfly sweep: as the opponent leans forward, you fall to one side while elevating with the opposite foot, flipping them over.

Beyond sweeps, butterfly guard is a primary entry into leg entanglements — single-leg X, ashi garami, and the saddle. Marcelo Garcia popularized the arm drag from butterfly guard, which leads directly to the back. The position excels in no-gi because it requires no sleeve or collar grips.

When to use it: Use butterfly guard when you want to attack sweeps and leg locks from a seated position. It is particularly effective against opponents who like to pressure pass on their knees.

5. Spider Guard

Spider guard is an open guard system built on two foot-on-biceps controls and sleeve grips. By placing both feet on the opponent\'s biceps and pulling their sleeves tight, you create a "web" that makes passing extremely difficult. The foot-on-biceps acts as a powerful frame.

From spider guard, you have several sweeps (lasso sweep, overhead sweep) and submissions (triangle, omoplata, armbar). The position transitions naturally into lasso guard and collar-sleeve combinations. Spider guard is most effective in the gi where sleeve grips are strong.

When to use it: Spider guard is your go-to when you have strong sleeve grips and want to control an aggressive standing passer. It is less effective in no-gi due to the lack of sleeve grips.

6. Lasso Guard

Lasso guard is a variation of spider guard where you wrap one leg around the opponent\'s arm while maintaining a sleeve grip on that same arm. This creates a powerful mechanical advantage: the opponent cannot easily pull their arm out, and you have rotational control over their upper body.

From lasso guard, you can sweep (overhead sweep, omoplata sweep), submit (omoplata, triangle, armbar on the trapped arm), and transition to other guards. The key detail is keeping your knee pointing outward — this prevents the opponent from collapsing your leg and passing.

When to use it: Use lasso guard when you want to nullify one of the opponent\'s arms while attacking with your free leg. It is particularly effective against opponents who try to stack pass or pressure through spider guard.

7. De la Riva Guard

De la Riva guard (DLR) is an open guard where you hook your outside leg around the opponent\'s lead leg and control their ankle or pants. Named after Ricardo de la Riva, this guard revolutionized bottom-game strategy by giving the guard player active control of the passer\'s base leg.

From DLR, you have several powerful attacks: the classic DLR sweep, the back roll to back take, the Berimbolo (a spinning back take that has defined modern BJJ), and the knee push sweep. The position works best when the opponent is standing with one leg forward.

When to use it: DLR is your primary weapon against standing passers. It is a cornerstone of gi grappling and the foundation of many modern guard systems including reverse DLR and Berimbolo entries.

8. X-Guard

X-guard is a leg-entanglement guard where you position yourself underneath the opponent with one leg threaded between their legs (the "hook") and the other leg pushing against their far hip or knee. Your body forms an "X" shape with their legs, creating extraordinary leverage.

The classic X-guard sweep involves grabbing both ankles, extending your hook leg while pushing with your frame leg, and tipping the opponent backward. X-guard entries typically come from failed leg drag passes, single-leg takedown defenses, or transitions from butterfly guard.

When to use it: X-guard is your answer when the opponent stands tall and you need to get underneath their base. Marcelo Garcia made X-guard famous, and it remains one of the most reliable sweeping positions against larger opponents.

9. Single-Leg X-Guard

Single-leg X-guard (SLX) is a leg-entanglement position where you control one of the opponent\'s legs using both of your legs — one wraps around their thigh from the outside, and the other hooks their hip from the inside. Your body is positioned perpendicular to the opponent, creating a powerful lever system.

SLX is the primary gateway to modern leg lock attacks: from here, you can enter ashi garami, the saddle (411), cross ashi, and outside ashi. The critical detail is controlling the opponent\'s knee line — if their knee is free, they can extract their leg; if you control the knee, you control the position.

When to use it: SLX is the starting point of modern leg lock systems. If you train no-gi or submission-only, this guard is non-negotiable. John Danaher\'s "Enter the System" series extensively covers SLX as the foundation of leg lock strategy.

10. Collar-Sleeve Guard

Collar-sleeve guard is a foundational gi guard where you establish three points of control: one grip on the opponent\'s same-side collar, one grip on their opposite sleeve, and one foot on their same-side hip. This triangular control system gives you excellent ability to manage distance and angle.

From collar-sleeve, you have several powerful attacks: the tripod sweep, the sickle sweep, the omoplata, and the triangle choke. The position also sets up de la Riva and spider guard transitions. The foot on the hip is crucial — it prevents the opponent from closing the distance.

When to use it: Collar-sleeve is particularly effective for smaller practitioners because it relies on grips and angles rather than strength. It is an excellent "hub" guard that connects to many other guard systems.

How to Choose Your First Guard

As a white belt, you do not need to master all ten guards. Pick one closed guard and one open guard to start. Most coaches recommend closed guard and half guard as the foundation because they teach fundamental concepts — posture breaking, frame management, and hip movement — that apply to every other guard.

Once you are comfortable with those two, add butterfly guard for no-gi and sweeps, anddelariva guard if you train primarily in the gi. The other guards can wait until blue belt or later. Depth beats breadth — a sharp closed guard with three reliable submissions is far more dangerous than a shallow understanding of ten guards.