Purple belt · Defense · Key
Kneebar defense
How to defend a kneebar: keep the leg bent, fight the grip and pull your knee away from their hips. Use it when they hug your leg from a leg entanglement or while you pass, and tap early.
Step by step
- Prevent it: keep your knee bent and don't leave a straight leg between theirs when you pass or when they enter a leg entanglement.
- If they hug your leg, bend it hard and bring your heel toward your butt. They can't lock a bent leg.
- Sit up or turn toward them and fight their grip on your foot.
- Pull your knee back toward you so it isn't stretched across their hips.
- Free the leg, then stand or pass.
- Tap when they arch their hips and you feel pressure behind the knee. Knee ligaments can tear before it hurts much. Don't try to spin or roll out of a locked kneebar.
Details that make it work
- A bent leg is a safe leg.
- Their hips are the fulcrum. Get your knee away from them.
Common mistakes
- Pushing their head with your free foot while the trapped leg goes straight.
- Waiting for pain before tapping.
Drill it
Partner attacks the kneebar slowly from the top of a leg entanglement: 5 escapes each leg. Tap early in every rep.
If it fails, or what comes next
- Leg lock defense Escape · Legs attacked
- Straight ankle lock defense Defense · Legs attacked
This defends against
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