The Most Important Details On The Knee Bar From Half Guard

Posted by Fanatics Authors on January 12, 2019

Knee Bar Fundamentals by Gabriel Arges

In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, one of the most feared submissions is the knee bar. In many respects, the knee bar in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is just like an arm lock. The knee bar relies on a hyper extension of the joint in order to cause your opponent to tap (or injure in a real life street fight scenario). A lot of schools will not teach leg locks as much as they teach arm locks, which gives the leg locks a somewhat taboo feeling. But leg locks certainly are not taboo. There is no logical reason to ignore an entire half of the body in a self defense scenario. Leg locks are often used in many high level Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitions. There are certain ones that are legal for IBJJF use. Depending on your competition’s ruleset, you should at least be familiar with leg locks. You want to be able to spot them coming and know how to counter them. So learn some leg locks and you will have a well rounded Brazilian Jiu Jitsu game.

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Today we are going to look at a specific leg lock known as the knee bar. This is a submission you should definitely have in your arsenal. It is really effective and, much like the straight angle lock, is pretty easy to do correctly. In the knee bar you use the leg to create a lever which allows you to apply force to the Achilles tendon. It can be very painful and happen very quick, so go slow when you are training knee bars, especially if you have not done them before.

What that said, let us explore some knee bar fundamentals with a master of leg locks, Gabriel Arges. Gabriel Arges is a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt under Romulo Barral and Felipe “Preguiça”, who also trained extensively with Marcelo “Uirapuru”, competing for the Gracie Barra Academy. Arges first made a name for himself during competitions at lower belt levels. He has conquered important titles in the international scene such as IBJJF World Champion in both gi and no gi, European Open Champion, as well as Pan America and American National Champion. Gabriel Arges’ list of achievements is quite impressive. Some his more notable titles are IBJJF World Champion (in 2017 and 2016), ACB 4 Grand Prix Champion (2017), UAEJJF Abu Dhabi Pro Champion (2017 and 2016), UAEJJF Grand Slam Abu Dhabi Champion (2017), UAEJJF Grand Slam Los Angeles Champion (2016), UAEJJF Grand Slam Tokyo Champion (2016), IBJJF European Open Champion (2016).

Let us explore some knee bar fundamentals with Gabriel Arges. Watch the video below and then we will break down the technique. Check it out now!

Gabriel Arges starts his demonstration in half guard. Often times you will end up in a situation where you have a cross collar grip while your training partner is putting a lot of pressure on your guard. There are two things that are very important to start with. You want to push away from your opponent every time he puts weight on your legs. In a case where your training partner pulls your leg out you need to fight to get it back, or you can force with your hands and push to reset. Those two details are very important in order to maintain your guard.

The next step is to push and pull. You want to push your opponent to create the natural reaction of smashing back into you. That is the momentum you want you use to go for the reach to his other leg. As your training partner pushes forward you want to start diving for the leg. Your free hand should dive under your training partner’s leg, and you want the thumb of your hand in back of his knee. As you go for the under hook on the leg you want to maintain the collar grip. The reason you maintain the grip is because it prevents your opponent from countering by reaching for your head, which you do not want. So keep that in mind. It is very important to maintain that grip from the minute your training partner pushes you knee shield away.

Now with your hand behind your opponent’s knee, reach and pull your arm all the way through. Now you want to switch your grips in order to create more leverage. Your current grip position will not be able to create enough leverage. Use 4 fingers inside your training partner’s gi, and establish a deep cross collar grip. This now gives you the power to push your opponent’s head away. Remember, where the body goes where the head goes. After that you want to take your leg out and hip escape up onto your side. Take the hook that you had inside and switch it into a foot on the knee. Now, place your other foot on your training partner’s hip so you can push him. As soon as you start to push you want to do a quick grip switch. Take the hand that was on the collar and feed it over your training partner’s leg, right above the heel. Use your other hand to post up and switch your head position so that your opponent’s toes are resting directly on the back of your head. This will allow you to get your hips up as you rotate your body into the knee bar submission position. Remember you need to get up on your elbow in order to have the leverage to come up and over with your body. As you come over the leg, kick your other opponent’s leg out from underneath him and continue to roll through into the knee bar finish position.

Talk about an impressive knee bar! There is a lot going on here, from the basics of half guard up to the mechanics of the knee bar. The truth is, if you understand the mechanics of the arm bar, you can start thinking about how to apply those same fundamental concepts to the knee bar. And much like an arm bar, the knee bar can be found in many different positions. The tips Gabriel Arges gives us here are great for half guard players. Half guard is one of those easy to learn, hard to master positions, so if you find yours getting stuffed often it would be wise to have some transitions into submissions in the back of your mind. Give this one a try the next time you are on the mats. Remember to start slow with it so you can understand the mechanics and avoid injuring your partner. Once you start to learn how this submission works you can add in speed and aggression. I hope you found this technique useful. Thank you Gabriel Arges for sharing this technique with us here today!

Learn arguably the best Knee Bar in the world today. Gabriel has been able to utilize this lower body attack at the highest levels on numerous occasions. He even won the FINALS of the BLACK BELT adult World Championships via Knee Bar

The techniques he lays out are exactly what he does, his best set ups and finishes coupled with his mind-set and analysis for each movement. Of all the DVDs we have filmed and edited here at BJJ Fanatics this DVD ranks up there with a chosen few as what we would best describe as a “Master Class.”