Stop The Knee Cut Pass With Mikey Musumeci

By Fanatics Authors, December 27, 2018

Long Step Knee Cut Pass Defense by Mikey Musumeci

Mikey Musumeci is the most accomplished American Grappler on the planet. Mikey is a 2 time Black Belt World Champion. He is a black belt under Gilbert “Durinho” Burns and Jonatas “Tagarela” Gurgel. Mikey first made a name for himself in lower belt divisions by winning back to back world titles from blue belt, up to brown belt. Musumeci is the perfect example of modern style of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. His style relies heavily on the Berimbolo and crab ride positions. Mikey is also the 4th US national to have ever conquered an IBJJF world title in the male black belt division, as well as the first American to conquer this title twice in their career. Some of Mikey’s main achievements are IBJJF World Champion, IBJJF Pan American Champion, IBJJF American National Champion, IBJJF World No Gi Champion, UAEJJF Abu Dhabi Pro Champion, and UAEJJF Abu Dhabi Grand Slam LA Champion.

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Today Mikey is here to demonstrate the long step knee cut pass defense which comes straight out of his first video series. Watch the video below and then we will break down the long step knee cut pass defense technique. Check it out now!

Mikey starts off this demonstration from the bottom position where his opponent is set to pass his guard using a knee cut. In this case, your training partner will be controlling your far leg with a gi pant grip and your collar on the side he is passing to. As your training partner clears your far leg he will drop his shoulder, putting his head directly next your head. From here he controls the hips and passes your guard. To prevent this, Mikey evaluates where his training partner’s power is coming from. Mikey demonstrates that the power is coming from the far shoulder, making your standing framing a waste of energy. To do this properly, you want to establish a collar grip on your opponent’s far shoulder and reinforce it by also placing your foot on the shoulder. This is a very important part of the knee cut pass defense. It prevents your training partner from being able to do the knee cut, having shut down all the power in the pass. Because the power is off, you can take advantage of your opponent’s other arm. Pull your opponent’s tricep into your body, take your leg out, and now you have the ability to attack. Mikey likes to put the ball of his foot in his opponent’s hip as it helps him reposition his body. Keep in mind you do not want to switch to a cross collar grip, this will allow your opponent to pass.

This is a really cool defense to prevent the long step knee cut pass! What I like the most about this one is the way Mikey immediately stops the pass by addressing where all the power in the pass comes from. It is a very common mistake to frame on the shoulder on the side your training partner is passing too, but as you can see this is a huge waste of energy. By making this one simple correction you give yourself a huge advantage when it comes to preventing your opponent from passing. Keep this one in mind the next time you are fighting from bottom half guard and your opponent is setting up the knee cut. This could be the difference between getting passed and preventing it from happening. I hope you find this technique useful. Very, very cool stuff, Mikey, thanks for sharing this with us!