My Take On X Guard

[Shemhazai]

Straight footlock? I hit them all the time from single leg x-guard, how do you hit them from regular x guard?

There are a few different ways, depending on the variation of X-guard you're playing. I actually don't use the standard straight footlock from 1LXG, as I feel that it's hard to pull off on guys with longer legs, and I'm not very tall for my weight class. If I do go for footlocks from 1LXG, I usually pass the leg across and hit the cross footlock, which is generally the stronger footlock when turning to the outside, but even then I use that leg configuration mostly to set up the leg drag.

What I do a lot when setting up footlocks is play with the near side hook from X-guard, i.e. my top hook goes to the opponent's near hip instead of the far hip. Leandro Lo uses this type of hook a lot in combination with a spider control. You can also switch from the far hip to the near hip after establishing conventional X, or after sweeping the opponent backwards.

With the foot on the near hip, you can take the same-side footlock by bringing the other foot to the same hip (one foot flush with the other) and turning to the outside. This is Victor Estima's favorite straight footlock, aka. the 'Serbian' footlock in a vid by some Serb BJJ guys on YT. Here's F12's own Oli Geddes demonstrating it:



You can also pass the leg across for a cross footlock variation here (which I personally tend to set up from the RDLR spin-under), bringing the opposite leg over into 50/50, but keeping the near side X hook (so I have dominant leg position), and preferably moving it down to my opponent's knee to force a good bend in his leg as I scoot close to his hips and finish. Ary Farias goes for this finish around the 4 min mark in this vid:



It's also possible to hit the cross footlock after passing the leg across from a conventional 'X', in which case the top hook stays at the far hip, while the other foot moves to hook inside the near knee as you turn belly-down. Davin Maxwell shows this one as an option from a berimbolo leg drag here:



I'm sure there are countless other variations, but these are a few interesting options for anyone who plays a lot of X-guard, IMO.

 

[BJJArsenal]

Man, thanks for the long post and taking time to explain that all.

For the issue with the footlock from single leg x when the guy has long legs, I realised this with a bit of improv in the absolute at the english open. I hit the regular sweep and as he fell back, rather than hip out to get the foot right under my armpit, I joined my arms behind my back to hit the finish.

It's the only time I've hit it in competition and I've tried it a few other times and it's worked pretty well for me when joining behind back. Although, it's probably developing a bad habit and I really should just learn to hip out to get the right length.

 

[Shizzx]

Thanks that Makes a big difference in the way i was doing it and that hand it is huge adjustment

Thanks.

 

[Uchi Mata]

All of what Uchi Mata said there was gold.

For me, however, I hold one leg at the knee, one at the collar, shoot myself underneath and spin directly to x-guard or wrap one leg up for a single leg x-guard while they're in the air.

But I like the sound of transitioning from RDLR.

It's really easy, though you don't even have to get the full X guard for it to be effective. I'll often just underhook the far leg and feed my other hook under without switching into full X, you end up with a really easy two on one (legs) push sweep against the leg you were originally RDLR hooking...it feeds very nicely into a knee slide pass as you might imagine.