Ankle Grabbers

[MUFC]

Agreed, lol.

I also have really long legs with really bad knees, with some meniscus tears, so I can't flex them all the way and when they are flexed to the limit of my ROM it hurts to extend them against resistance. I can probably still get OK at butterfly guard with enough practice, but it's never going to be my best guard. X-guard is even worse for me, I just can't get my legs in that position against a resisting opponent. When I drill x-guard in class I have to actually stop and use my hands to place my feet in the proper position. That's how bad my knee flexibility is.

I'm trying to work on my deep half these days as an alternative to the DLR which I used to use anytime my opponent stood up. Deep half seems to be coming pretty naturally to me. Although it's not completely safe from leglocks--I have had guys try to kneebar me from there. I think the leglock risk for deep half is lower than for DLR, though.

And yeah bagelgod, now that I think about it you can pull deep half guard on a standing opponent. You can literally even dive straight into deep half guard from standing at the start of a match, for a quick sweep. I think Oli Geddes does that in almost all of his matches.

I tried transitioning to deep half a bunch of times today against a guy who kept standing up in my guard, and to great success--I was sweeping him left and right.

I'm probably a bit shorter than you (I'm 6'1) and have bad knees as well (meniscus, same as you), and I can get into x guard just fine and if I do get to x guard, I'm very confident from there. I am also really flexible now that I've been doing yoga consistently for a while.

I just can't comprehend butterfly guard. The spacing, how to close the distance when you're a little disconnected (more in the seated guard type role). To be fair, I've never put much time into it. I get discouraged and bail to HG too often.

I have had guys crank toe holds and never have I felt enough discomfort to tap. I have flexible ankles, but I'm worried my team mates just suck at them and someone in competition is going to take my ankles home because I leave my feet dangling from spider and dlr.

 

[MUFC]

Well, I just tore my MCL due to a leg reap type position. It wasn't even off a real attack to my knee. I think when I come back, I'll heed some of the advice in this thread and hide my feet in butterfly guard.