Guard retention is a basic but essential skill. It’s what keeps you from getting passed and lets you stay in the roll. Without it, you spend the round stuck underneath. Without it, your opponent will keep advancing until you’re flattened and stuck. With it, you can survive pressure, create space, and turn defence into offence.
The way you approach guard retention changes slightly depending on whether you’re training in the gi or no-gi. Grips make a big difference, but the core principles are the same. These are the five concepts I rely on most when I need to stop a pass and re-establish control.
1. Keep your feet between you and your opponent
This is the foundation of everything. If you’ve already locked into a guard like De La Riva or lasso, you’re no longer in “retention mode”, you’re actually playing guard. Retention applies when your opponent is actively trying to pass, and you don’t yet have that structure in place.
In those moments, the number one rule is simple: always keep your feet between you and your opponent. If they start to circle around, frame, make just enough space, and pummel your feet back inside. It doesn’t matter how much they pressure, you need to keep those inside lines.
At my gym they jokingly call this my “scuttle foot.” No matter how much someone closes the distance, I’ll find a way to sneak my foot back in and restore the barrier. It seems like a small detail, but this reliably buys me time and space to rebuild.
2. Frame with cross-shoulder or cross-lat posts
Pressure passing is all about collapsing your structure. When someone is driving into you, you need a strong frame to create the room to work. That’s where the cross-shoulder or cross-lat post comes in.
Posting across to the far shoulder or lat gives you the leverage to push away, recover, and get your legs back into play. Without it, your opponent will crush your hips flat and smother your recovery attempts. This links directly to first concept, the post is what gives you the space to bring your feet back inside.
3. Don’t let your knee cross your centre line
This principle takes a little more explanation. Imagine your centre line is always vertical – straight up, no matter how much you’re on your side. Your knees must never cross that line.
If your knee drifts across, your opponent can collapse it, pin you, and start to finish the pass. But if you keep your knee wide, you’ve got the strength to resist that collapse and the angle to pummel your foot back in.
This is a detail that makes a huge difference. Even when you’re turned onto your side, remember that “up” is always your true centre. Keep the knee wide and outside that line. That way, no matter which way they try to circle, you will still have the frame you need to recover.
4. Deny head control
Almost every pass is secured by controlling the head. As soon as your opponent gets their arms wrapped around your head or shoulder line, your ability to move disappears. You can’t shrimp, you can’t pummel, and you’re basically pinned in place.
That’s why denying head control is critical. Any time a grip starts to creep towards your head or neck, strip it immediately. Keep your head free, and you keep your mobility. Without that freedom of movement, the rest of your frames will eventually collapse.
5. Stay active and offensive
Guard retention isn’t just about surviving. If all you do is frame, frame, frame, your opponent will eventually find a way through. Defence on its own isn’t enough, and you need to keep them under pressure too.
The analogy I often use is that even a prime 1980s Mike Tyson, if he only covered up and never threw a punch, would eventually be beaten. You can’t win with defence alone. In the same way, if you just keep retaining guard without threatening anything, you’re giving your opponent infinite chances to pass.
Instead, you need to stay active. As they circle and pressure, you should be looking for hooks, grips, and entries of your own. Make them respond to you. If they’re forced to defend, they can’t pour 100 percent of their energy into passing.
Adjustments in the Gi
The gi changes the dynamic. Pants grips and collar grips can pin your legs and limit your mobility in ways that don’t exist in no-gi. That means you need an extra layer of strategy.
When your opponent clamps onto your trousers, some of the usual options, such as collar drags or stiff-arm posts, might still work, but only if they don’t switch directions or step around. If they change angles, those options become ineffective very quickly.
This is where inversion comes in. I think of it as “sticking my bum toward them.” If they push my legs one way, I invert onto my shoulder and rotate my hips back into the space. If they pull my knees across, I rotate the opposite way, using the same principle to re-square and avoid giving up my back. I sometimes call this the “bum frame.”
The key is never letting their grips lock you into place. Your legs are stronger than their hands, and constant movement will eventually break those grips down. But if you stay flat and let them dictate, the grips win.
Final thoughts
Guard retention doesn’t have to be complicated. For me, it boils down to five clear principles: keep your feet inside, frame across the shoulder, never let your knee cross your centre line, protect your head, and stay offensive.
In the gi, you will also need to account for grips, and inversion becomes an essential tool. But no matter what you’re wearing, the concepts are the same.
Guard retention isn’t about stalling. It’s about buying yourself enough time and space to reset, rebuild, and then go back on the attack. Done well, it doesn’t just stop your opponent, it frustrates them, drains their energy, and opens doors for your own offence.
You can watch a video of Leigh addressing these points below:
About Leigh
Leigh Remedios is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt and lifelong martial artist with additional black belts in Judo, Traditional Ju Jitsu, and Tae Kwon Do. He has competed internationally across multiple disciplines, including the UFC and Polaris, and has won titles such as the NAGA UK Championship and IBJJF European No-Gi golds.
A Chartered Principal Engineer, Leigh brings a sharp analytical approach to coaching and athlete development. He now runs a Jiu Jitsu and MMA academy in Wiltshire, where he continues to coach, compete, and mentor the next generation.
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