Purple belt · Pass · Core
Headquarters position: knee slice and backstep options
You trap one of their legs between your knees and wait for their reaction before you pass. Use it when they have an active open guard and you need a safe place to start your passing.
Step by step
- From standing in their open guard, drop into headquarters: one of their legs between your knees, your inside knee on the mat by their butt, your outside foot posted wide.
- Pinch your knees on their leg. Keep your hips low and your head over their center.
- Control their other knee with one hand and their hip with the other.
- Knee slice: if they stay flat, slide your knee across their thigh to the mat on the far side, get the crossface and underhook, and settle side control.
- Backstep: if they turn in to block the slice, turn your back to them, step your outside leg back and around to their other side, then sit through and face them.
- Settle chest to chest in side control on whichever side you finish.
Details that make it work
- Headquarters is a waiting spot. Stay heavy here until they commit, then go the other way.
- Pinch the trapped leg. If it slips out, they re-guard.
Common mistakes
- Sitting up tall, so they push you off with their feet.
- Going for the knee slice when they have already turned in to block it.
Drill it
3 rounds of 2 minutes: start in headquarters, partner reacts, you pass with the knee slice or backstep.
If it fails, or what comes next
- Side control: pins & pressure Control · Side control
- Knee on belly and far-side armbar Submission · Side control
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