Keenan Cornelius – Lapel Encyclopedia – Squid Guard – Flowchart v1

Last Updated on 2020-02-17 by EtherealWinter

You’re kid now! You’re a squid now! You’re a kid now! You’re squid now!

Introducing Keenis’ squid guard! This guard is typically obtained when the opponent knows that you’re trying to wrap the lapel underneath the far leg for some type of worm guard and steps that leg far away to defend. This means you’ll have to attack the near leg that is remaining with the squid guard. From the squid guard, Keenan demonstrates some interesting sweeps and takedowns including a Double Ankle Pick, Double Leg, Inversion and Lasso Sweeps, and even an Omoplata.

Maybe this is my inner deviant coming out, but this position is very similar to K Guard that Lachlan Giles advocates and maybe this would be a good method of attacking the inside heelhook… Too bad there’s currently little to gain in exploring that possibility, sadly there are no major tournaments that allow heelhooks in the gi. But something to keep in mind if there ever is. Basically I’m saying “I called it” if it ever comes up. 🙂


The worm guard system is truly a system of guard that flows into one another and I’m really enjoying my exploration through it. I’ve been trying to hit the Polish Worm Rider and was having trouble with the lapel cinching my leg in place and giving my opponent the kneebar. I workshopped it with my coach and we realised I need to bend my worm leg and rotate it inwards a little before “kiss of the dragon”ing to prevent both the kneebar and the cinching. I was keeping it straight and that was causing the lapel to wrap it up. This isn’t mentioned in the lapel encyclopedia, so hopefully someone else finds this fact useful.

As a part of my learning process I actually decided to print out and laminate some of my flowcharts to physically bring to the mats. Since I don’t own the gym, rather than posters, I decided I wanted them in A4 so I could just tuck them in my training bag but found that they didn’t resize well to print on a single page. I ended up spending some extra time trying to compress them and make them printable reference sheets.

There are A4 reference sheets for all the Lapel Encyclopedia flowcharts in printable PDFs. Since they have taken me extra time to make, I’ve decided to make them as bonus content that is available if you donate to help with the site hosting costs. I make no money from this site and am doing it out of my love for Jiu-Jitsu. If you have previously donated, don’t be afraid to contact me for a copy. You can donate here if you want a copy.


A physical poster of the flowchart can be purchased from Zazzle through this link: here. All purchases through Zazzle provides the website with a small donation to help with hosting costs. Of course you’re also welcome to download and print the flowcharts through any other means as well.

This flowchart has also been compacted down to a single easily printable A4 page. Perfect for lamination and use at the gym. It has taken extra time to compact them and it would be most appreciated if you donated to help maintain the site to obtain them. Donate for an easily printable A4-sized pdf here: Printable Flowchart.


Lapel Encyclopedia Flowcharts:

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