Nothing good happens when you're inside a closed guard: In a grappling match, as long as you are locked inside a closed guard there is an undesirable asymmetry insofar you don't have any form of offense while your opponent has many attacks that he can employ against you (obviously fighting is a very different story as there are many effective strikes that the top athlete inside the closed guard can employ). As such, you want to spend as little time as possible inside the closed guards of your opponents as possible so that you are not caught on the wrong side of this asymmetry any longer than necessary. As such you MUST develop reliable ways of opening a closed guard in a timely manner so that you don't waste long periods of match time in a position from which you cannot advance and score and where he can submit you with many of the best moves in the sport but you have only a few long percentage attacks on him. I strongly prefer standing methods of opening a closed guard and believe that these work best for most people in most situations (though some athletes have specialized methods of opening closed guards on their knees). Learning to stand inside a dangerous closed guard can be rather discouraging at first as you will often be knocked down – don't get discouraged – getting knocked down a few times before you succeed is perfectly normal even at world championship level – it's not as bad as sitting passively inside a closed guard letting time waste and defending yourself from submissions. Opening a closed guard is one of the first skills you must master if you are to make progress in the sport since without it you couldn't even get started in top position. Find a method that suites you and get to work!
