Knees hurting from guard position

[HomeTrainer]

I'm holding persons of various sizes in my guard, and I have to squeeze to maintain a good grip. I always feel tension on my knees, and they are sore and hurting later. Usually the next day they ache a little.

I'm concerned less about some soreness and more about long-term damage to my knees.

Do your knees tend to hurt when you try to keep your guard tight?

[Sean Dempsey]

you shouldn't be trying to keep your guard tight. If someone is really pushing hard, you should be snapping to open guard to set up for various sweeps and such.

BJJ isn't about holding tight or pushing hard or using strength and force, it's about technique, leverage, and balance.

That which you work against works against you. Ask your instructor to show you some open guard stuff.

[jules]

try the half guard. That's how it was invented. A guy named "pig" hurt his knee but wanted to train so he came up with the half guard . IIRC.

[mpg9999]

Originally posted by jules
try the half guard. That's how it was invented. A guy named "pig" hurt his knee but wanted to train so he came up with the half guard . IIRC.

It is my understanding that a half guard is when the other guy has one of your legs traped still so you dont really have them in a guard yet. Do you mean an open guard?

-Mike

[SweepEm]

Gordo is the king of half guard-

he's got a 3 tape set:

http://www.gersonsanginittobjj.com/

If you're squeezing your knees with it hurting, you are either doing something wrong or your knees some condtioning.

Strange......