Eli Knight is an American jiu-jitsu black belt under Royce Gracie and a long-time instructor whose social media and instructionals cover self-defence, escapes and compression locks. Three Rivers Academy notes his large social media presence.
Background and teaching
Three Rivers Academy in Paducah, Kentucky, describes him as having more than 30 years in martial arts and 27 years of teaching. He was the academy's senior supervising instructor. He has since moved to North Carolina but still returns each year to teach seminars there. BJJEE describes him as a black belt under Royce Gracie, which places him in Hélio Gracie's family line.
What he teaches
Knight's content leans towards the self-defence side of jiu-jitsu. In a 2019 BJJEE feature he showed four ways to counter a wall pin and covered defences against one-hand and two-hand chokes, shirt or jacket grabs and headlocks. His self-defence instructional is sold through BJJ Fanatics.
He has also published instructionals on more sport-oriented topics:
- Compression Locks, Slices and Sandwiches: compression submissions. Related pages: bicep slicer and calf slicer.
- Escapes and Attacks from Bottom Side Control: related pages: side control and side control escape.
Podcasts
Knight has been a guest on jiu-jitsu podcasts including episode 104 of That Jiu Jitsu Podcast and The Jiu Jitsu Mindset. The latter episode is titled "Jiu Jitsu for Life: Eli Knight on Self-Defense, Competition, and Teaching".
Related pages
For his self-defence material, see our framing, posture and hip escape pages. Follower counts are curated snapshots, not live data.