The foundation of our approach to bottom position ground grappling – kuzushi: There are many ways to play effectively from underneath your opponent in grappling. Some play a game of reactive game of waiting, when their opponent makes some kind of tactical or technical error, they seize upon it and attack. Others play a game of immobilization, they wrap tightly around their opponent to hold him in place and gradually work their way into offense, variations of closed guard and rubber guard are good examples of this. Our approach is to actively seek to break our opponents balance. This action is traditionally referred to as kuzushi. Kano made it the foundation of his approach to standing grappling in Judo. We look to extend that into ground grappling from bottom position. Our primary focus is always TO GET OUR OPPONENT'S CENTER OF GRAVITY BEYOND HIS BASE OF SUPPORT. Once this is done, we work of his reaction to gain either positional advantage or go directly to submission attacks. Many outstanding jiu jitsu players have used this method with great success in all weight categories. Specialized guards have been created over the years to facilitate kuzushi. If you are to make it the basis of your game, then you must train diligently in the means of creating kuzushi on a resisting opponent and learn to tie these in with the attacks of the sport. This approach to the game breeds a fast attacking style that CREATES opportunities rather than waits for them. In addition it makes for a dynamic game rather than an immobilizing/stifling one. All the various approaches have their advocates and successes. In our experience we have found the kuzushi based method to be preferential given that we seek quick entries into our preferred submissions whenever possible. Here, Gordon Ryan does a fine job of elevating his opponent up where he will be forced to base out and leave extended limbs available for attack
