The closed guard can become a holding position. That is useful for slowing a fight down, but it is not enough. A good guard should threaten reversals. It should make the person on top defend their posture, hands, knees, and hips.

Guard passing gets messy when you treat every guard the same. That was the big theme in the eighth lesson of my couple client’s Submission Grappling course. We came back to guard passing, but this time we didn’t start with a single pass. We started with distance.

Back control seems simple when explained from the finish: chest behind their back, seatbelt grip, hooks in, staying glued to them. Easy enough. Then the person underneath starts moving. They get to their knees, hide their neck, peel your hands, and turn into you. Suddenly, the “best position in grappling” becomes a scramble, and the person escapes. This was the focus of hour nine in my client’s first personal training course.

Lesson eight showed clear progress. The client’s top control is becoming smoother. His transitions between pins are less forced. His escapes are also improving because he is starting to recognise pressure, frames, and timing earlier. That matters. In grappling, control comes before submission. A choke or lock is hard to apply if the position is loose. This session kept that order: hold the position, move between pins, isolate the back, then attack the choke.

When I first introduced my client to Submission Grappling, the focus was on building a solid foundation. By the seventh hour of his training, we zeroed in on two critical positions: the full mount and the arm-bar submission. These techniques are essential for controlling an opponent and finishing a match, but mastering them requires understanding not just the holds themselves but the transitions and escapes that come with them.

When starting submission grappling, controlling the top position is a key skill that sets the foundation for effective offense and defense. In my client’s first Submission Grappling Personal Training course, we dedicated the fifth hour to refining top position control. This session focused on knee-pin and reverse half-guard positions, along with transitions and submissions from these holds.

When my couple clients chose to focus their martial arts cross-training personal training course on Submission Grappling for their latest session, I knew it was the perfect opportunity to return to the basics. Submission grappling is a complex and technical discipline, but mastering its fundamentals is essential for any serious martial artist. This session was all about refining their movement, correcting errors in real time, and building a deeper understanding of hip positio