Being on the receiving end of the knee cut pass is a very painful experience that, once you experience it, you’ll most likely wish to never have to go through again. Unfortunately, it is one of the most utilized positions in BJJ, so there is no way to avoid it. What you can do is pick it up and add it to your game so that you can be the one everyone is afraid to give to position to.
There are plenty of resources out there on how to knee cut through people’s guards. the only problem with most of them is that they focus on getting to the knee cut and how to slide by once you’re there. There is a Santeri Lilius DVD now, dubbed “Smash Or Pass: Knee Cut The World” that attempts to tackle the subject of how to retain the position, and start setting up your next steps while keeping your opponent in agony. Let’s see if it can.
Key Takeaways
- No-Gi BJJ DVD spread over two volumes, each lasting around 45 minutes.
- How to be heavy and annoying without passing from the knee cut.
- A modern take on using the headquarters passing position for pressure.
- BJJ World Expert Rating: 7 out of 10.
SMASH OR PASS: KNEE CUT THE WORLD DVD AVAILABLE HERE!
Smash Or Pass – An Important BJJ Dilemma
The coveted top position in Jiu-Jitsu brings about plenty of opportunities to place the bottom person under a lot of pressure, eventually forcing them into giving up exactly what they want. it is why people chase every top position past the guard constantly, and why these positions earn you the most points in a BJJ match.
But why not use the principles that make top positions so powerful in grappling and apply them to a bottom opponent playing guard as well? Instead of only approaching guards one-dimensionally, thinking about blowing past them (which rarely works, by the way), why not use them to place pressure on the bottom person?
The best way to achieve this pressure is by making them carry your weight. Yes, chest-to-chest contact or knee on the belly are perfect ways to achieve this, but so is the Headquarters position which is on the other side of an opponent’s guard.
Essentially what you want is to smash and tier out the bottom person’s legs, either by carrying your weight or by focusing it on the thigh or shin of an opponent’s leg. The knee cut pass is the perfect example of this, which also happens to be the main subject in the Santeri Lilius DVD we have up for review today.
Finnish BJJ Talent Santeri Lilius
So, Santeri Lilius has an interesting story He is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under London-based Roger Gracie, originally from Finland, now heading his own gym Llilius Barnatt Martial Arts Academy in Costa De Sol, Spain. Quite the international character, which fits perfectly with his around-the-globe competitive performances.
Santeri earned his black belt from Roger Gracie back in 2015 and has remained active on the competition scene to date. He won the No-Gi Europeans in 2022, as well as the ADCC European trials in 2022 and 2023. On top of that, he has won just about every major tournament hosted in Europe and won bronze in the 2022 No-Gi IBJJF Worlds.
Style-wise, Lilius is an aggressive grappler who likes to attack surprise submissions, with the Estima lock being his bread-and-butter technique. He prefers to surf the top rather than grapple off his back, which only gives more credibility to this Santeri Lilius DVD which revolves around the knee cut pass.
Smash Or Pass Knee Cut Santeri Lilius DVD Review
The “Smash Or Pass: Knee Cut The World” Santeri Lilius DVD is a somewhat short, two-part BJJ instructional containing about an hour and a half of material. It is a No-Gi instructional, organized well and taught by a very experienced grappler who presents an original way to approach your positioning from the top in relation to the opponent’s guard:
Part 1 – The Headquarters Position
In the opening sections of the Santeri Lilius DVD, the headquarters position, popularized by Rafel Lovato Jr. takes center stage. After a short overview of what you can expect to see in the DVD, which I always appreciate as a chapter, Santeri shares his take on the popular passing checkpoint.
Unlike Lovato’s early efforts with it, Santeri prefers not just to control the leg of his opponent, but also to make them carry enormous weight, smashing them constantly without forcing a pass. A typical heavyweight strategy.
He calls the position the “slow and steady” headquarters, literally sitting in it until he can comfortably make the most out of the cracks in the guard that appear under the pressure and establish a knee-cut position. To that extent, he divides the headquarters position into active and passive, only moving to the knee cut when he has the active version.
Part 2 – Attacking Off the Knee Cut Pass
In the second part of the Smash Or Pass: Knee Cut The World instructional, Santeri Lilius goes over what you can do from the knee cut position before you pass. He really adheres to the subject matter of smashing as much as possible before passing.
Lilius very intelligently uses the knee cut position to open up the inside space of an opponent’s arm, aiming to sneak in an underhook. That gives him a launching pad for armbars, but also a very solid connection to prevent guard recovery.
Once again, slow and steady wins the game, with Santeri offering versions of the otherwise explosive knee cut pass that slow-cook the opponent. He keeps his hips pretty light in the position, mostly causing pressure and pain with his shin. this opens up elg pummeling that Santori uses to get to mount or even switch the knee cut side.
The instructional wraps up with a set of knee cut drills that, unfortunately, do not differ from the ones you probably know or do. In that sense, I find these to be utterly ineffective, although the rest of the content in the DVD is solid.
The Versatile Knee Cut Position
The knee cut position is much more than just a way to pass someone’s legs. In fact, I see very often how people rush through it, taking it for granted and actually messing up their pass. Do it too early and you’ll get your back taken, move too late and you risk guard recovery.
So what is so good about this position? It offers an aspect of grappling that not many positions can offer – the option to stay perfectly still and not do anything. Choosing to do this results in immense pain experienced by the bottom person on account of the leg you have trapped with your shin.
If you are evil enough, you may even utilize knee-on-belly concepts to make sure the bottom person’s leg is getting extreme punishment. Both the thing and the shin are great places to place this smashing pressure, as you ride it out and wait for your opponent to literally pull you into a pass
So, next time you’re knee cutting, stop the rush. Hang out for a while in the position, and see what happens. You’ll be surprised at how many options arise apart from sliding your knee for a pass. The Smash Or Pass: Knee Cut The World DVD contains around an hour and a half of different ideas on how to be a real nuisance from this position.
DOWNLOAD DVD SANTERI LILIUS KNEE CUT THE WORLD
Knee Cut The World!
The knee cut might not be your favorite pass. It absolutely is not mine, but I still like to utilize it. It is very useful even if you don’t want to pass, and just want to expose the opponent’s legs for Ashi Garami entires. Or for hanging out and making them feel miserable and leaving them nursing huge bruises on their thighs.
This Santeri Lilius DVD effectively merges a powerful passing movement with a very reliable pre-pass position to provide a great way to retain the top position while keeping all your options open. Getting those pressure taps is a guilty pleasure you get for free, so if you like to be sadistic with your passing or pinning, I suggest you check it out.
All BJJ Guard Passing DVD and Digital Instructionals GI & No-Gi
