Let’s talk about another important concept briefly.
Just like the concept of using your weight in my previous post, this one applies to various situations.
It’s going to sound ridiculously simple, but you have to break your opponent’s posture as much as you can.
How do you take someone down?
By breaking their posture.
When their posture is broken, they are more likely to lose their stability, and their position is so awkward that they can’t resist your takedown attempt.
How do you sweep someone from your guard?
By breaking their posture.
Sweeps from the guard are basically takedowns initiated from the bottom position.
Ok, how about guard passing?
Breaking your opponent’s posture plays a significant role here, too.
From a guarder’s perspective, what they need to play their guard successfully is to create, maintain, and dynamically adjust frames against the passer. And the guarder’s posture is what constitutes these frames.
So when you try to pass your opponent’s guard, you should be actively getting rid of their frames by… breaking their posture.
Note that while breaking the posture is one of the essential actions in achieving your takedown/sweep/guard passing goal, it’s not the only thing you need to do.
I know these examples are abstract, but if you haven’t done so before, start paying attention to your partner’s posture as well as your own posture.