What is 'guard' in jiu-jitsu?
You are on your back with the other person in front of you, controlled by your legs. It is the position that makes jiu-jitsu different.
Guard is being on your back, or on your hip, with the other person in front of you and your legs between the two of you. In every other fighting art, on your back means losing. In jiu-jitsu it is a place you can work from, and that one idea is the reason the art exists at all.
Closed guard is the simple version. They are kneeling in front of you, your legs are wrapped around their waist, ankles crossed behind them. They cannot reach your neck. They cannot put their weight behind a punch. They cannot move an inch without your permission.
Open guard is the same job done with your feet on their hips and knees and your hands on their wrists, instead of your ankles locked. Half guard is when you only have one of their legs trapped, and it is where most beginners end up whether they meant to or not.
From guard you want one of two things. A sweep, which means you reverse it and end up on top. Or a submission, which means you finish from underneath. Their job is to get past your legs. That is called passing, and stopping it is the whole game for a while.
For a beginner the honest goal is smaller than any of that. Do not let them pass. Do not let them flatten you out. Knees and elbows in, hips moving, keep breathing.
Once your guard actually holds, the finishes start showing up without you looking for them. The armbar, the triangle and the guillotine all live in this position, which is why the first submissions a beginner learns mostly come from here.
One honest note about the street version. Sitting in guard on concrete with somebody on top of you is not somewhere you want to be. Out there, guard is two seconds of space so you can stand up, not a place you settle into. How much of jiu-jitsu is useful for self-defense goes through that difference properly.
Guard is also where most people find out they have been holding their breath and squeezing everything at once. Normal. It goes away, and it goes away faster with somebody watching each rep, which is what the private sessions are built for.
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