If there’s only one thing you had to point out about the Jiu-Jitsu skills and success of Xande Ribeiro… There’s a good chance that you’d mention his guard retention – as Xande is someone who hasn’t gotten his guard passed in competition for over 20 years!
Twenty years! That just goes to say that you should, without a moment of hesitation, try to analyze and understand what Ribeiro does; so that you can improve your guard retention skills as well.

Bernardo Faria took the chance to explain one of Xande’s guard retention concepts on a recent video. More specifically, he demonstrated how to get out of a heavy shoulder pressure situation.

HOW TO ALLEIVATE SHOULDER PRESSURE LIKE XANDE RIBEIRO 

When stuck in bottom Half Guard, with an opponent who is putting a massive amount of pressure on their chin, a lot of BJJ students think that the way to an escape is through battling the underhook or through creating immediate space between their head and the opponent’s shoulder. However, the way Xande Ribeiro escapes and retrieves his guard from this position, is totally different from these two.

Namely, Xande first makes a good frame against the opponent; posting his hand on the opponent’s shoulder and grabbing the gi material. Then, he narrows in his bottom arm’s elbow, and uses that hand to grab the opponent’s gi material at his triceps muscle.
From there, Xande hip escapes bit by bit, until he gets the top of his head against the opponent’s bicep. He then connects his leg to his shoulder, so as to prevent the opponent from passing him. Then, depending on the opponent’s reaction (whether he just stays there or tries to do something), Xande retrieves his guard.

Watch Bernardo Faria explain how to do this in much more detail on the video below:

Stay safe and always keep your guard with Xande Ribiero’s revolutionary diamond concept of defense.

• Learn Xande’s diamond concept that lets him defend, escape, and reguard against the best in the world – everyone from beginners to black belts can learn from Xande’s methodical system of escaping some of the worst positions in all of BJJ.