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Use The Cross Knee Defense To Keep Your Guard!
What does it take to not have your guard passed for 13 years of competition? For most people this would require quitting Jiu-Jitsu! For Xande Ribeiro it took a fundamental understanding of DEFENSE that is matched by few. Xande is widely considered one of the best BJJ competitors of all time, he did that in part with his Unpassable Guard! Ribeiro made his guard this way by utilizing what he refers to as the “Diamond Concept of Defense”. Here he demonstrates the Cross Knee Defense.
The Cross Knee Defense is a common position that Jiu-Jitsu practitioners learn early in their career, but only few truly perfect it. It’s a fairly simple concept put your body in between you and them. As Xande demonstrates in this video, the nuances of the Cross Knee Defense are deep and detailed.
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First Ribeiro describes the role of his arms in the defense. Knowing where your opponent’s energy is placed is a huge detail here that can take a lot of mat time to truly understand. The top framing arm can adapt to what your opponent’s shoulders are doing. If the opponent is trying to hug your head the framing strength should be focused on that shoulder. If their energy is being driven the other direction to try and flatten you out focus your anchor on the corresponding shoulder. This back and forth shifting of your opponent’s weight can be adapted to by switching your anchors. One important detail to note is to not try to control both shoulders at the same time. Focus your frames on their corresponding shoulders!
Using the cross knee defense is something you will have to use on a pretty frequently. The knee slice pass is one of the most common passes in Jiu-Jitsu. Having a DIAMOND quality cross knee defense will ensure that you can not only slow down the knee slice pass, but eventually find yourself back in your guard. At the :50 second mark in the video you can see that an over eager passer will easily be put back into the guard by using these Defensive Concepts. Xande refers to this foot that leads us to the guard as “The Paddle”. The Paddle can steer you back to your guard!
The Diamond Concept of Defense by Xande Ribeiro is a MASTER CLASS in DEFENSE. If you find yourself getting your guard passed constantly, or you are getting stuck in side control Xande can help you out. These techniques don’t require extreme athleticism or strength, just the power of the DIAMOND! Know how to structure your body to form the Ultimate Defense regardless of skill level!
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