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I don't think of it as a guard against striking. I think of it as a set up for grappling. If you stand in guard with your arms crossed like that then you'll get pressed, pinned, punched and trapped. The crossing of the arms is the end of the technique and not the beginning. For it to be used as a guard against striking then the crossing of the arm would need to be at the beginning. In the forms that I know the arms come together with force instead of being held like a sheild.Sup Gi Sau less as a guard against strikes and more like a closed guard in BJJ, b
When I think of crossing my arms, I go through a cost benefit analysis of doing so. The only time I could think of a benefit is when my arms crossed at the end of an application where the dirty work occurs as the arms are trying to cross.