When it comes to learning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, one of the first things you should be taught from top positions is the cross face. Simply put, the cross face is when you use your arm or shoulder to manipulate the position of the opponent’s face.
In other words, you’ll literally want to cross their face which often means their entire body follows suit. With this done, you can then control the opponent with greater ease. Read on to learn more about the cross face and how to use it in BJJ.
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How to use the cross face from the guard
The cross face is often used to help pass the guard and is useful against stubborn opponents. Imagine you’ve flattened your opponent out in their half guard and they’re trapping your foot with their legs. This would mean you’re in quarter guard and almost passed, but not quite.
If you stayed there without applying pressure, the opponent could theoretically rebuild their guard and recover. However, if you did a solid cross face then this could lead to a much easier pass.
Firstly, you would need to destroy their frames. By frames, we typically mean blockades in the form of arms, such as their arm covering their face which takes your weight off them. Here, you could grip fight to defeat the frame, then replace it with a cross face.
The main point of the cross face is to get the opponent’s face looking away from their original position. For instance, if they’re looking at you in bottom half guard, you’ll want to turn their head away from you. This will effectively immobilize their body and allow passing to become much easier.
Arguably, the cross face is an essential part of pressure passing and is often done in the final stages of passing. As said, without this the bottom player has a greater chance of recovery.
How to use the cross face from top pins
Aside from passing, the cross face is also used to solidify and maintain a top position when pinning the opponent. An example of this could be whilst in the top mount position. Imagine your opponent starts framing on your hips and moving their legs to escape. If you do nothing, they will escape. Like using the cross face in the guard, the same principle applies here.
To stop their escape, you can cross face their head to make them turn in another direction. This will quickly twist their spine and render most escapes useless. Remember, sometimes you’ll need to strip their frames before applying the cross face.
Another example could be when passing the guard and trying to establish side control. Usually, during the first 3 seconds or so of this phase, the bottom player will frantically try to frame and escape to stop their guard from getting passed.
To counter this, you may need to finish with a cross face, even if you’re passed their legs. This could be done from a torreando pass as you come down to close the distance. Here, you’d want to place your forearm or shoulder into their face and force them to look away from you.
Once again, failure to do this could result in a guard recovery which could have bad consequences. In short, you can’t be nice when doing a cross face and although you don’t want to hurt the opponent, you don’t want to be too soft and let them get away with bad guard retention either.
Can you use the cross face from the bottom?
Typically, the cross face can only be applied from top positions. This usually happens from close-contact guards and pins. Put another way, the cross face just isn’t really done from the bottom and has little effect. The reason for this is due to the friction of the floor and gravity. For instance, if you’re passing or in mount, it’s physically almost impossible for someone to force your head in the opposing direction for more than a second or so.
The reason is that your head isn’t touching the floor. Because of this, if you’re on top then you can simply move your head backward into the air. Obviously, this isn’t possible if the back of your head is touching the floor.
This isn’t to be confused with collar ties from the bottom or certain sweeps that touch the head for a few seconds. In some cases, there are certain half guard sweeps where you bridge and direct the head with your arm, but this is based on momentum rather than forcing someone’s head in a certain direction.
Arguably, the equivalent of a cross face from the bottom is a stiff arm defense. Here, someone could theoretically put their arm in your collar and almost punch your face away using a stiff arm. Although not the same, it works in getting a defensive outcome for the bottom player, which is basically the opposite of the cross face when on top.
What’s the difference between the cross face in gi vs no gi?
Arguably, it’s easier to cross face in the gi due to the collar grip that is available. For instance, in no gi, you’ll often have to almost punch your forearm in the face of the opponent’s head to subdue them. This is certainly doable, but in the gi you can put your hand in the collar and twist.
This is easier to do as grabbing the collar adds more friction and gives the opponent less chance of slipping way or escaping. You can also angle your fingers easier to hit the top of the scalp which will manipulate the head with ease.
Fundamentally though, as long as you can connect your arm with the opponent’s head, you can cross face someone and there’s not too much difference compared to the gi and no gi.
How to defend the cross face
As you may have figured by now, the main defense is done by using frames and stiff arms when applicable. For instance, imagine you’re shooting into deep half guard from the bottom but you leave your head open. The opponent could cross face you hard which would spell disaster for your guard.
However, if you did this whilst shielding your head with your hand and arm, it would stop the cross face. This would allow you to enter the guard safely and stop your head being manipulated. This is why learning frames is so important and can be the difference between getting passed or not. Imagine you’re also getting crushed in a bottom guard.
If you can manage to get your head safe and then stiff arm their face or collar, you can create distance. Where there’s distance, there’s no cross face as it requires close control to pull off. In short, these are the two main defenses. Nonetheless, if you’re put in a bad position, a good opponent will cross face you at some point.
Alternatives to the cross face
The cross face certainly has its uses and is important for everyone to learn. However, as with all things in BJJ, there are alternatives. For instance, imagine your opponent has you in a guillotine but you put them into side control. If they insist on their headlock, you can cross face them to break their grip.
Alternatively, you could choose to put your arm under their neck and place your shoulder in their near artery. This would trap their headlock grip in place so they couldn’t escape whilst simultaneously choke them.
The name for this is the Von Flue choke and it’s quite common from this position. Similarly, if your opponent tried to headlock you from bottom mount, you could use your shoulder in their neck to choke them yet again. Normally though, most people will opt for a cross face which is considered an easier option.
