Pulling guard, just like doing takedowns, is an art. Whatever your weight class or your level, you need to know how to pull guard. When you’re competing against someone with way better judo or wrestling it’s plain stupid to fight them standing up. In many other cases too, the person that pulls guard has a strategical advantage in competition.
In my recent White belt Wednesday videos I discussed three ways of pulling guard. These are quite basic ways, assuming the opponent wants to stand up with you. When the opponent tries to time your guard pull with a takedown, or wants to pull guard too, different strategies come in to play. In most matches at white belt however, these three pulls will get you to any guard you want to play.
For the butterfly, shin-on-shin or x-guard players, use the inside feet position. For de la riva, closed guard and even spider guard players, two feet outside.
For the halfguard or reverse de la riva players, the guard pull in this video will be your best bet:
Hope that helps you find a way that works for you, and that you can apply at least one of these methods to your game.
If you’re interested in the more advanced guard pull methods and strategies, leave a comment or send me a message!