Pretty self explanatory.....first time was about 18 mos ago where I got my nose shattered playing bottom half against a beast of a white belt. I was working with him after class on half guard passing. He started going beast mode trying to pass. I was coming in to try to control his leg and he nukes my nose with a knee. I realized from there to protect my face and to not lead with my face when trying to control the free leg.
Today I'm rolling with a purple belt who I've rolled with often. He's about my size and goes pretty hard. Anyhow, similar situation but I'm trying to be conscious of my face as I have been since the broken nose. He starts to come around and bam I get a knee right on the cheek bone. Got a nice black eye and a bit of a headache but amazingly nothing broken this time.
So my question is am I doing something wrong to put myself in this position or is it just a part of playing bottom half guard? I've been a blue belt for a couple years now and my bottom half guard game consists of me using it to control and to try to get back to any other guard than half guard since I suck and have zero sweeps or attacks from there. Attacking and sweeping from bottom half has just never clicked in my head yet.
I know it's probably impossible to diagnose without actually seeing what I'm doing, but has anyone else had this problem?
Brown HG player here. Ive seen the spazing cause a knee here and there but that comes from white belts mostly, but that is just want I have seen.
When you are trying to control the leg are you underhooking it and splitting the legs to try to go to depp half? If HG is not your guard of choice drilling transitions to get to full guard or an open guard is needed. Distance control using framing, bumps and hip movement will help you in these situations. Basics pretty much.
I got kneed in the face by a super aggressive guy 30 seconds into a match at the Nationals a couple of years ago. It was right on the brow and egged up massively straight away, closing my eye.
can happen... also from lasso spider when trying to unloop the leg... or bring the knee up from z-guard.
When you're on bottom 1/2, I like to make sure his knee is always pushed out. I do it for positional reasons. He can't switch base to face your legs and it give's you a chance at full guard, or shaolin sweep setup.. However, it also protects your face from his knee. You should be able to look between his legs. I usually use the elbow of my monkey paw arm.
Which knee is smashing your face OP? I'm assuming it's the leg you are trying to control with your half guard and not the far leg and also it's happening when your opponent is standing ... if that is the case, yeah, you have to be careful coming up for a sit up guard for example. Have you got a grip on anything when you're getting smashed in the face?
If it is the inside leg that is hitting you, you are holding on to HG too long.
If it is the outside leg that is hitting you, then you need to start defending your face. I do this by putting my palm of the bottom arm on my head. This will allow you to defend the crossface and lapel grab. You don't want alot of space between your elbow and ribs or a wide angle in your elbow.
Too many people try to grip fight with the bottom arm and start reaching out and this causes two problems.
1. If someone makes it past your hand they have free reign on your upper body
2. If you push or pull with the bottom arm, it is much easier for the top guy to get you flat
Think about if someone was punching you. You can defend against a punch you can defend against a knee
Which knee is smashing your face OP? I'm assuming it's the leg you are trying to control with your half guard and not the far leg and also it's happening when your opponent is standing ... if that is the case, yeah, you have to be careful coming up for a sit up guard for example. Have you got a grip on anything when you're getting smashed in the face?
It was the far knee each time. So picture me on my right side with my left leg being the top leg in half guard. I was using that left knee against his right (near) hip to help manage distance and pressure. Let me search youtube to see if I can find a decent idea of the set up.
The main times you get kneed in the face is when you try and stay curled up and tight to the far knee, or try and close that distance, often at the same time that they try and take away that same space.
OP, it sounds like you're describing a scissored type HG (left knee against his right hip to help manage distance and pressure). Is that right?
If so, I have no idea how someone is kneeing you in the face with the far knee. Is this after your top knee is removed? Are they doing a front split to knee you? Are you diving under?
I actually have an idea what the problem may be, but I'll let you describe it a little more.
I don't know... If I get a knee too close to me I arc out and re-tuck looking for an undertook I suppose. These guys... I don't understand what they're trying to do, this should not be happening at all. From the top I'm either knee cutting, setting up a hip switch counter (throwing free leg to the out side) or tucking and rolling through on top of their shoulders while my trapped foot remains anchored. This sounds like they are trying to bull their trapped leg out or sonething. The purple belt should definately have a couple of prized, technical passes that doesn't place his free knee at your nose.
Which knee is smashing your face OP? I'm assuming it's the leg you are trying to control with your half guard and not the far leg and also it's happening when your opponent is standing ... if that is the case, yeah, you have to be careful coming up for a sit up guard for example. Have you got a grip on anything when you're getting smashed in the face?
It was the far knee each time. So picture me on my right side with my left leg being the top leg in half guard. I was using that left knee against his right (near) hip to help manage distance and pressure. Let me search youtube to see if I can find a decent idea of the set up.
Far knee from knee shield then. Your knee shield doing it's job? It really shouldn't happen as for him to knee you should make him off balance ... a lot. Make sure your knee shield is not collapsing. Keep more than 90 degrees between your torso and shielding thigh. Your head should be quite far from his free leg. If you're going in, you have to lose the shield and tuck your ear close to his right shoulder ... again too far from the knee. A lot of people wrongly dive in with their sheild still there ... are you doing that?
It's also possible that the bottom leg isn't doing its job.
The knee shield works when they can't turn around your knee shield. The bottom leg should be pulling like hell so that he can't manuever his trapped knee. If the bottom leg gets lazy, he can change the angle and be "facing you from your side" rather than "facing you from your feet".
I wish I had some better input as to exactly what happened, but I'm guessing he obviously had to blow past my knee shield to get free for his far knee to come around and bust my face. It happened extremely fast that's all I remember lol.
I guess my goal now is to really learn half guard and maybe figure out what went wrong without breaking my face again.