How Do You Retain Guard When They Push Down Your Knee Shield?

Retaining guard when your knee shield is pushed down involves several steps:

1. When your knee shield is broken and the opponent brings their top knee in, maintain your frames and keep your arm from being exposed. If the opponent gets an underhook, it becomes easier for them to beat your structure.
2. Use your inside knee to create space and keep your elbow low. From this position, you can make wrist control, preventing the opponent from creating any crawl space.
3. Start thinking about where the space for your side guard hook to come back in will be. You may need to go belly down slightly and turtle, creating enough space off your hip to slide your knee in and reestablish your side guard.
4. Grab a thumb up wrist grip, covering the pulse, and keep your elbows inside so your knees cannot get smashed together. Use the hook on the hip like a turtle hook to get your hips out, bring your head in, and get your side guard hook back in. This puts you in a good position to start recovering your guard.
5. Work to establish a strong butterfly guard where you can start to be offensive again.
6. If your hips get beaten on an angle, build back up to your self-frame. Keep your elbow inside and walk out on your foot to reverse hip escape, bringing your hips in. Once you create a little space for your hips, work to a self-frame and bring your knee in. You can then create space by turning your opponent away and walking on your elbow to hip escape.
7. Reinforce your frames. Any frame that's not reinforced won't be very strong. If you're using a knee shield or any frame where your arm's extended or your foot's extended, make sure you're reinforcing that structure. Use your elbow inside to reinforce the frame so it's harder for your opponent to collapse your structure and pinch your knees together.