Obviously Im a white belt so theres that but,
I dont know what anyone else feels but I dont feel stress on my knees.
I think if you pull down on your ankle a lot, then it stresses your knee.
Use your hip to rotate the lower leg towards your chest maybe?
Again I dont know how fucked your knees are.
How are your butterflies? Can you get into lotus position pretty easy?
I think Ive heard someone say that rubber guard is only hard on the knee when you dont have adequate hip flexibility.
Also post 7 on this thread here,
http://www.10thplanetjj.com/threads/...l=1#post211849