You know the saying: „Guard recovery – you can never be too good at it.“ Well okay, okay. It isn’t exactly a saying… But it should be, because your guard recovery will determine a lot of your success on the mats; both offensively and defensively alike.
This is why you need to have a trick or two up your sleeve for when the opponent is extremely close to passing your guard. For instance, here’s what you can do if they’re passing with a Knee Cut Pass – as demonstrated by Keenan Cornelius.
KEENAN CORNELIUS’ LATE GUARD RECOVERY TRICK
When the opponent already has your leg pinned to the ground with their Knee Cut Pass and when they’re already pushing your other leg away, rest assured that you’re in big trouble. And that this is the time to go for some unconventional techniques.
Keenan demonstrates that, in this situation, you should turn into your opponent. Don’t do it half-way, but turn all the way to your side, to your hip.
Also, reach out with your far arm towards the opponent’s leg. If you can grip their pants, great; if not, just make sure to reach towards it.
By doing this, you’re making it extremely hard for your opponent to finish the pass, because he cannot establish a Crossface. So, you can just follow their attempt to finish the pass and go for guard recovery. Or, if they try and go for your back, you can still follow them pretty easily and re-establish your guard yet again.
Keenan Cornelius demonstrates this late guard recovery trick in fantastic detail on the video below:
