I don't think I can embed on here (?) so I'll just post permalinks.

In relation to "The Frontiers of Submission" post (http://damagecontrolmma.com/th…..submission) Dr Sick brought up the 50/50 guard. On first look I thought maybe Demian Maia had covered it (he called it the snake guard) in his "Science of JiuJitsu 2″ DVD set.

But actually it looks like the 50/50 is slightly different although I think both could be blended pretty easily.

I did some searching and Ryan Hall has a DVD set focusing on the 50/50 guard.

Here are some official promotional videos from Groundfighter.com who stock it.

VOLUME 1: 50/50 Illuminated

3. Controlling The Trapped Knee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..IULIMWa-ic

VOLUME 2: Transitions, Skill Drills, and Entries

3. Transition #3: Kneebar To 50/50

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..LNvuks3AJo

VOLUME 3: Volume 3: Progressing Position, In-Depth Entries, And Advanced Finishing

17. Advanced Heel Hook Finishing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..hILU1of2zU

Now, there seems to be some controversy and mixed opinion with this guard since experts within submission wrestling either recognise it as a useful perspective for sub grappling, or dismiss it as a nonsense and that a guy like Ryan Hall who's been developing it is using it in an attempt to cash in on gullible or 'noob' practitioners. Who knows, it may be as divisive as Eddie Bravo's Rubber Guard philoshopy.

Here's some of these experts opinions:

Xande Ribiero on the 50/50 guard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..85iyvcuXko

Rani Yahya on the Jiu-Jitsu move 50/50 guard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..DtPC0GiptI

Paulo Guillobel on the 50/50 Jiu-Jitsu Guard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..nGi2kAlQoA

Fabio Santos on the 50/50

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..Dna8gYOJDg

There's also quite a few videos on youtube on escaping the 50/50 (though in the videos the guy doing the 50/50 either appears to be flat on his back, which could be from a misunderstanding of the technique, or is put flat on his back by the counter grappler) and it seems to be mostly leglocks.

I don't know if this comes up in Ryan Hall's 50/50 set, but just from the promotional videos he neither goes flat to his back (except to initially lock on the reverse heel hook in video 2) or leaves his legs exposed enough to grab a lock easily. In my opinion the counters or escapes from 50/50 work on those who don't realy know how to use 50/50 in the first place.

So it could be that much of the derision comes from not knowing how to effectively use the 50/50 (much like people dismissing Rubber Guard saying you'll damage your knees and you need to be super flexible, when in reality they miss the importance of breaking posture and the importance of your own hip movement which compensates A LOT for lack of flexibility. Having said that, could the Postureless Guard Pass be the ultimate counter to the Rubber Guard?)

Just in the videos above a lot of the experts first say they don't really know much about it, and either show a willingness to learn more about it at some point, or dismiss it even after admitting ignorance which to me shows an incredibliy blinkered attitude. For these latter experts I would think not only as practitioners but as coaches it is their duty to investigate it fully themselves rather than jump to conclusions. However it's this kind of attitude I've come to expect from some BJJ diehards. You know the ones, they have posters of Rickson on their bedroom wall :P

This is a fairly good blog post by someone who talks about how new positions often have a time period before they become widely accepted. He seems to be a 50/50 advocate, and aside from posting a photo of him and Ryan Hall he's not trying to shill the product.

http://anderslamjiujitsu.blogs…../5050.html

Now, akin to the philosophy of 'There's nothing new under the sun' (which I will probably keep quoting way past the point of tedium) the 50/50 is a position that can be found in Sambo as well according to this blog post which also shows a couple of escapes from a Combat Sambo perspective.

http://www.no-gi-grappling.com…..nters.html

And finally Ryan Hall himself addresses the 50/50 controversy (and obviously defends it).

http://5050bjj.com/archives/947

At the end of the day when looking at the evolution of grappling, and martial arts in general I keep thinking back to the philosophy of Bruce Lee:

Accept No Way As Way

We should never be rigid in our learning, or playing or fighting. We should not restrict ourselves with dogma as we will surely stagnate. Instead our learning should flow freely just like our training and fighting.

Be Like Water

Thanks for reading

KJ