Guard retention is the knee between you

Position and problem

They are passing. Their hands are on your shins, their weight is coming forward, and the counter you drilled last week fits a pass that is slightly different from this one. Guard retention is usually taught as a catalogue, one answer per pass, and the catalogue runs out the first time a passer does something you have not seen. What you need is a rule that still applies when the pass is new. A pass is finished when the passer's chest or hips have crossed the line of your knees, and until that happens nothing has been lost, however heavy it feels. Retaining guard is the work of keeping a knee on that line.

Objective

Keep one knee between your hips and the passer's body at all times, and use every other movement to return it there when it has been moved.

Core concept

The pass ends when their body crosses the line of your knees, so retention is the work of keeping a knee on that line. The knee is the best frame you own. It sits on the shortest lever, it needs no grip, it carries load through the thigh into the hip, and it points wherever the hips point. Everything else in retention exists to serve it. An arm frame at the shoulder or the hip buys the second in which the knee comes back. A shrimp moves the hips so that the knee has somewhere to point. A turn onto the shoulder swings the knee across the passer's path. The knee shield in half guard is the same rule with one leg trapped, a shin across the chest as the knee kept between. The failure that undoes all of this is reaching: throwing a foot at the passer instead of returning the knee, which places a long lever in front of a person who can pin it. Many rooms call the imaginary line across the knees the knee line, and past the knee line is what passed means.

Key mechanics

1. 01Point the knees at the passer before anything else moves. A knee facing the ceiling frames nothing, and a knee facing their chest is already a wall they have to go around.
2. 02Keep the knee bent and close to the chest, because a bent knee is a short lever. A straight leg is a long lever they can steer to one side; a knee pulled in has to be walked around.
3. 03Frame at their shoulder or hip with a bent elbow to buy the knee time, never to hold them off. The arm frame is a payment for the knee returning, and a frame held without the knee following is a wall on a timer.
4. 04Shrimp the hips away from the passer and put the knee straight into the gap the shrimp made. The shrimp without the knee gives the space back the moment their weight follows.
5. 05Turn onto the shoulder to swing the knee across when the hips cannot move away. Rotating on the upper back carries the knee through an arc the passer has to cross again.
6. 06Convert to the knee shield when one leg is caught, before their chest lands. A shin across the chest is the same knee between with a leg trapped, and it holds only if it arrives first.

Common errors

• ×Reaching with the foot instead of returning the knee, which offers a long lever the passer pins to the mat.
• ×Framing with the arms and leaving the knees where they were, so the frame holds the chest while the hips walk past it.
• ×Shrimping without the knee following, which buys space and hands it straight back.
• ×Letting the knees fall toward the ceiling when flattened, at which point nothing is between the two sets of hips.
• ×Grabbing at the passer's head or wrists with both hands, which removes the arm frame and leaves the knee to do the whole job alone.

Safety

Training progression

1. 01Static: lie on your back with a partner kneeling at your feet. Move only the knees to keep them pointed at their chest as they walk slowly around you, with no arms and no shrimping.
2. 02Cooperative: partner steps past one knee and stops. Frame at the shoulder, shrimp, and put the knee back in front of them, one side per repetition.
3. 03Cooperative: partner pins one leg to the mat and starts to bring the chest down. Convert to the knee shield before the chest arrives, then reset.
4. 04Constrained: partner passes at half pace with the hands only on your shins, and you may only shrimp, frame and re-insert. Score a point for each ten seconds both knees stay on the line.
5. 05Positional: full-resistance passing from open guard, restarting whenever the passer's chest crosses the knee line.
6. 06Live rounds: after each round, recall where your knees were pointing at the moment you were passed.

Related entries

• Guard retention: the hips back underneath
• The knee shield
• Frames versus blocks
• The retention ladder: frame, angle, invert
• Connection in open guard