How To Improve Your Crucifix For BJJ
Posted by Fanatics Authors on
There is one position in Jiu Jitsu that just does not get enough love in the community. And that position is the crucifix. The crucifix was popular from the mid 1990’s to the early 2000’s, but seemed to fall out of favor due to the abundance of new school BJJ techniques that came about. Why the crucifix was so favorable was due to the fact that it allowed for choking techniques to be done one handed. Two BJJ black belts that used the position to its potential were Baret Yoshida and Marcelo Garcia. And here, Marcelo Garcia black belt, Joel Burgess shows the way that he uses the position to dominate his opponents. Check out how Joel uses the crucifix…
Knee in &knee to heel
For any successful crucifix, you will have to get your knee inside your opponent’s defense. As you can see, he punctures his opponent’s defense and gets his knee right up in his business. He shows that if his opponent’s guard is tight, that he can angle in his knee and still puncture right through. Just because your knee is in doesn’t mean the work is done. After that, you will have to connect the heel of your foot to your knee for a solid connection. Once you’ve done so, you can sit down towards your own knee and end up in the crucifix.
Keeping the far arm defeated
Most times when people enter into the crucifix, they end up just triangling their legs over the opponent’s far arm to control it. While that is not incorrect, it is inferior. When you only triangle, you give your opponent the chance to start moving that far arm and give him the chance to start making moves so that he can escape. You can easily take that away and keep that far arm defeated. After your legs are triangled, you can use your top leg to lace over his far arm. This will keep his arm from doing anything effective. It is a small but important detail.
Attack immediately
Once you have controlled your opponent within the crucifix, do not sit and wait. This is the time to attack. While his arms are being wrapped up, you will be able to use your top arm to attack. The two main attacks from crucifix use only one arm, but work great. You can either do a one armed rear naked choke. Or you can do a one armed collar choke. Either way, you’ll look like a pro by choking out your opponent in that fashion.
The crucifix is a position that works great to attack the turtle position. Any time that you have an opponent that turtles up, you will be able to use the position, and its attacks to defeat that opponent. If you’re looking to improve your top side turtle attacks just like this then check out…
Attacking &Defending The Turtle by Travis Stevens. Click here!
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