Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 25/07/2018
X guard involves having one of your knees behind their leg, the foot hooking across their hip, while the other leg hooks behind their far knee. There are other variations, but this is the one I was taught by Henk Heneweer and find the easiest to use. In Henk's grip, your arm then hooks around their nearest leg. Another common x guard grip is to instead grab on the inside of their leg.
A simple entry, which is most typically a drill, is to stamp on the floor between their legs to pull yourself under, then quickly bring your legs into position. You could also enter from single leg x, swivelling the foot you have on their hip into position for x guard if they push it off. Alternatively, it is possible to spin into x guard from reverse de la Riva. See below video for a brief demo.
When you pull yourself underneath, it's important that you are right under their hips. The goal is to keep them off balance, constantly pushing and manoeuvring so they can't establish a solid base. The more under their hips you are, the more effective that off-balancing will be. Too far away from their hips, and they will be able to just drop their weight and prevent your efforts to establish a good x guard.
To sweep from this position, we're going to knock out their legs. If you can, secure their far sleeve, though the sweep will still function without it. Extend your hip-hooking leg, while your behind the knee leg drops and kicks their leg out. Follow them up, ready to pass the guard. It may be possible to establish a superior top position than that, but in the attempt you may end up vulnerable to being swept or reversed in the process. Hence why I prefer to settle for a solid guard passing platform.
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Teaching Notes: Looks like I don't have notes for it, so I must remember to do that next time. At least I got a ton of video to review for whenever I teach it in future. ;)
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