No Gi Guard

The closed guard is your first barrier in grappling. Because you have your opponent trapped between your legs you have a fair amount of control and can take a bit more time working for attacks.
Once your guard is open and you cant readily close it again you are into the territory of the open guard. This is an extremely effective position to attack from and has many variations such as traditional open guard, De la Riva, Spider, butterfly, x-guard etc...
Ideally when training you need to keep in mind that your guard wether gi or no- is based on fundamental concepts that if you can keep in mind will make your guard much more effective.

You want to have a core set of basics that work for no-gi, gi, mma and self defense with few modifications. Once youve got them down you can then obviously add details and work on some adding details etc to them. Certain techniques dont translate as well to no-gi (such as spider guard) so you need to keep that in mind when working on your game-plan.

FUNDAMENTALS FOR AN EFFECTIVE GUARD:

1: Always keep your knee's to your chest.
When your knees come away from your body it becomes easier to pass, i.e using a bull-fighter pass. Ideally when in open guard you must be sitting up like getting ready to stand in base,back hand assisting with movement and lead hand working for a grip or defending but knees bent and pulled into your chest.
Always try to keep your partner at 12 oclock and your legs between you.

2.Maintain 4 points of contact with your grips and feet pressure.
You need to be activelycontrolling your opponent with both feet (hooks, on hips, biceps etc) and your grips on his wrists, behind his head, ankle etc...

3: Be Aggressive-constantly looking for either a SWEEP/SUBMISSION/STAND UP
The guard is generally considered a defensive position but to have an effective guard you need to be attacking and applying pressure all the time. Look to link your attacks into simple combo's so that you are always threatening your opponent with something. i.e basic kimura-hip bumb-guillotine.
You also need to always threaten with being able to stand up and out of your guard esp against really big guys with great base a quick escape back to your feet can put you on top of their turtle position ready to attack their backs.
sweep/submit/stand up

4:Guard Retention Early and Late-
Early guard retntion would be techniques you use to defend your guard with your back off the mat.
Late guard retention would be once you are on your back and your opponent is working to control your legs and hips to pass to side control:
-dont let him control both your legs
-dont let him control your hips
- try keep your back off the mat. being up or at least on your side allows you to be able to move your hips and torso out to set up attacks and defend
-dont let him pass an imaginary line in front of your knees. Your foot, knee and shin are an importent barrier in your guard defense.

If you can keep these 4 points in mind youll find youre guard will become alot more effective.
Have filmed some clips and techniques to illustarte each point will upload them soon.
Train hard
Micah