On the Mat Day 442: Working on Guard Defense

I think I may have come to another stage of my BJJ training on Wednesday night. My plan was to be observant and see how people would pass my guard. Since there are only a finite number of ways a person passes the guard and it's also dependent on what guard you play, I thought it would be a good idea to preemptively watch for their grips and then move myself into a pattern to block their pass. Until now, all I've done is go on instinct, try to get my knees and legs in between our bodies and straighten back up but it's not always possible to do this, especially with the x-pass.

I'm at the moment trying to develop sensitivity towards my opponent's grips so that I can move my body into the correct position. For example, if they do the bullfighter pass, I sit up, push their closest elbow and hip away. This means I have to be more aware of how they put their hands on me. I've not really given enough thought to this which is why I am often late in shrimping or scooting etc.

I really like the videos about working on guard defense by Ostap Manastyrski, he brings up a good point about too many people work too much on offense rather than defense from the guard.