Remember when there was only one guard?

Those who have been around the game a while whether as a competitor or a hobbyist will notice that there have been some major changes that have taken place over the years in which the way people approach the game and how the game has expanded. There are, however, a ton of people who have only been introduced to the game in recent years and they are unaware how "minimalist" the game was taught years ago. There is probably nothing better that illustrates the advancements of the game than the guard. In fact, the word "guard" is somewhat misleading because it is a singular word. There is, of course, more than one guard. However, there was a time when there truly only was one guard....or at least there was only one guard taught.

From the late 1980's until probably into the late 1990's, the closed guard was generally the only guard taught in a number of schools. There are obvious exceptions, but the number of schools that only taught the closed guard was significant. This, of course, is a recipe for being a blue belt student forever because it leaves you with not options if someone passes your guard. Then again, the common response many instructors would state was that if they passed your guard simply put them back in the guard. (If putting another jiu jitsu player into your guard was that simple all sports jiu jitsu matches would end up in a tie)In reality, we know now that a person must have at least 2 or 3 guards that he or she is solid with mainly because one guard simply isn't going to cut it as you need more lines of defense. Funny how progress works because a decade ago there were a lot of people who would argue the opposite.