Does anybody else recover guard this way?

Ever since I messed up my knees real bad (well, they had been messed up, but I took that to another level a few months ago) I've found myself doing little things differently. One thing is, that whenever I'm under side control, I almost always bridge/shrimp and recompose guard something like this:



That is, I never bring my bottom knee through any more. I sneak my top knee in just enough to catch their hip bone, and then I stretch out and regain guard. Unlike the picture above, my bottom leg would not be all the way through initially--it's the top leg that first gets between me and my opponent.

Any thoughts on the merits or demerits of this technique?

 

I was actually wondering about this as well.

I can't bend my left leg past 90˚ due to a nasty injury. Ask me one day and I might feel like telling the story haha.



Anyway, I do it exactly how you stated. I don't think it is as effective, but I eventually get it there.

 

If you're not controlling the arm on the side of the top leg coming across horizontally, you could be in real danger of ankle locks. Also having your knee horizontal like so makes it easy to smash them together and just repass to side.

 

I do this a lot. Cause I'm fairly small a lot of bigger guys will end up leaving space and I normally get that top knee in.

 

Yah, I feel like there are definite drawbacks. You aren't as tight and secure as you start to reguard from there, so it's not difficult for the guy to restart the pass. I've noticed you really have to move your ass once you catch the hip on certain guys.

 

The position is called Z-guard or knee shield. Look it up on youtube.

 

So thats what z guard is

 

I would think a decent guy would smash your top leg down, pin it to the mat, and pass around towards your back. Seems like it wouldn't be relatively difficult to do if you do cross your top knee through first and have the front of your body more pointed towards the mat.