6309 SW Capitol Highway, Portland OR, 97239
503 432 7450
info@southwestportlandmartialarts.com
What’s the point of rubber guard? Same as any guard – control.
Rubber guard gets associated with having to be extremely flexible and/or have crazy long legs but the truth is that the basic positions don’t require either and the majority of BJJ players will be able to do them. There are certainly moves within the corpus of rubber guard that require extreme physical attributes but this isn’t unique. There are some cool moves that require unusual flexibility, strength, or body type. We don’t avoid teaching those moves, but we don’t generally make them the core focus of a class because they aren’t for most people.
Don’t let the reputation of the rubber guard (or any other moves) scare you off. If we’re teaching it in class, it means we think most folks will be able to get it.
Interested in our BJJ classes? Click here for our schedule.
SW Portland Martial Arts Blog
Rubber Guard
April 21st, 2026Position
April 8th, 2026
In CrossFit, we sometimes break down movements into positions. How does this work? Let’s look at the push up as an example as to why this might be useful.
First, we all get into the top of a pushup and look at the key points of the position. The head, hips, and ankles are all in a line. The elbows are locked out. The fingers can be pointed straight ahead or rotated slightly outward depending on wrist comfort.
Second, we’d all get in the bottom of a push up and repeat the process. Again, the head, hips, and ankles are all in a line. The elbows are in against the body.
Finally, after feeling and talking about what both those positions are supposed to be, we’d do a few push ups. Why? Because with this sort of approach many students will see an improvement in technique.
Like everything, it doesn’t always work and it can be overdone, but better technique equals better fitness and we’re all about that.
Interested in our CrossFit classes? Check out our schedule and try a free week.
Jump
April 2nd, 2026
The Olympic lifts are incredibly complicated. They can be dissected into hundreds of tiny sections, drilled hundreds of different ways, and argued about for years.
Given all that, it can be useful keep things simple. Sometimes, when the lift looks flat, it can be super helpful to simply focus on jumping during the clean. Why is that useful? Because jumping, will almost always cause you to go into full extension and put all your power into moving the bar.
To be sure, this is not a failsafe method, or even the best method all the time, but if you find your lift is slow and your brain is overloaded, focus on jumping, then have the coach give you some refinement from there.
Interested in our CrossFit classes? Come on in and try a free week. Here’s a link to our schedule.
Under hook
March 31st, 2026
April’s BJJ theme is the under hook. What’s that? Well, anytime you get a grip under your partner’s arm, it’s usually called an under hook. If it helps, anytime you get a grip over your partner’s arm, it’s usually called an over hook.
Why is the under hook important? It’s a good initial grip. If you’re working with a partner who has no skill at all, it is 100% possible to “do a move” to them without any setup. You don’t need to do anything other than the move itself. However, if you’re working against someone with skill, or even someone strong or with some athletic ability, in order to “do a move” it is often very helpful to do some preliminary work first.
The under hook is preliminary work. The even better news is because the under hook is often the first step in many moves, that means if you prioritize getting it, you are actually set up to do any number of moves depending on how your partner reacts.
So, while there are no absolutes in martial arts, there are some pretty solid ideas. One of them, in BJJ, is to get the under hook.
Interested in our BJJ program? Come try a free week. Here’s the schedule.
Specials
March 29th, 2026
Why run one special when you can run three? Probably, for simplicity we should only run one at a time, but here we go anyway.
First, if you’ve got a kid who is ages 6-8, we’re offering a month of classes for $25. This gets you access to classes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday – all from 4:25-4:55pm. It doesn’t get you any of the other 6-8 classes but if your kid loves the program, we’ll throw in the next month at 50% off our usual membership fee. Buy it anytime until 4/30, use it anytime before 12/31/26.
Second, if you’ve got a teenager, or are a teenager yourself, we are offering a month of our teen classes for $25. This gets you access to classes Wednesday @ 6pm, Thursday at 6pm, Saturday at 11am, and Sunday at Noon. If you like the classes, we’ll throw in the next month for 50% off our normal membership rate. Buy it anytime until 4/30, use it anytime before 12/31/26.
Finally, if you’re 13 or older, we are offering a month of our striking classes for $25. This gets you access to our Muay Thai and Mo Duk Pai programs. Classes are Monday @ 6pm, Tuesday @ 6pm, Wednesday @ 7pm, Tuesday @ 11am, and Thursday @ 11am. If you like the classes, we’ll cut you a 50% off deal for your next month. Buy it anytime until 4/30, use if anytime before 12/31/26.
All of these offers are for NEW STUDENTS ONLY.
Go here for the kids and teenagers offer and here for the adult striking offer.