Cross-Sides Bottom Defense: Identifying Top-Side Advantages

Used to think of Cross-Sides bottom as a one dimensional either/or position, but am playing with a more dynamic approach to posture. Still, the first step in any defensive position is starting with the specific mechanical advantage the top player has:

The truth is, in most cases, we can bridge and shrimp with the legs, and use hand-fighting, pummeling, and framing to act as a sort of Guard. What the top player does have, that they did not while in actual Guard is the ability to transition through walking, rotating, or changing elevation to a Knee-Ride.

Xande Ribeiro demonstrating rotation as well as ‘walking’ @ 7:49-8:00 and ‘elevation change’ to knee-ride @ 5:42:

Rickson Gracie teaching rotating transitions to nullify frames, control, mount, and submit starting @ 0:53:

Will dive more into what we have on Cross-Sides Bottom to counter and re-counter the aformentioned mobilities, but again the first step is analyzing what advantages the top player has gained by passing Guard, where we had legs and feet more actively in play to hinder mobility through connection to create drag.