Passing the guard for guys that can't

[VJ Bella]

I used to have the worst time getting out of closed guard in no-gi. The big transformation for me came when i realized that one simple trick could negate the majority of my opponents attacks....STAND UP!!! I pass guard 90% of the time this way. Just be aware that there is a technique to standing so that you use minimum energy and negate his chances for leglocks\sweeps etc.

-First thing i look for is bicept control. I place both hands inside his bicepts.

-Next i push most of my weight onto my hands pinning his bicepts with my weight and hopping up to my feet (my feet are pretty close to his hips at this point). I keep one leg forward and one back further as to avoid double ankle sweeps etc.)

-Next I let go of his bicepts and pop my hips forward and posture. Sometimes this will break the guard..sometimes not. Some guys will open the guard and transition to leg locks here. If im not comfortable here i turn my body away from them (heal facing the opponent (we call it track stance) and literally explode out.

-If the guy keeps his guard closed than I will either push on one leg with both hands or just reach back and break. gravity is on your side at this point.

More often than not after i run through this routine I usually start looking for leg locks of my own (toe holds, heal hooks etc.). Whenever you are standing and your opponent is sitting you have the advantage in most cases. My philosophy on this is why would i want to try and pass guard on the ground and also have to worry about triangles, arm bars, omoplatats, kimuras, posture etc. its hard enough to pass in no-gi let alone have to worry about all of that!! By simply standing correctly I now shift gravity to my side and negate most of those attacks and can concentrate on actually passing or setting up subs of my own.

The other pass i use alot is the tozi pass...just be careful using this against 10th planet guys...they love it when you trap an arm for them

Hope this helps..just my two cents...has made a huge difference in my game.

[Tim Bruhn]

george has sick bjj, he trains all over the world learning everything from everyone AND he beat bjj hotshot JOE LAUZON IN a BJJ battle so no, no he is DEF NOT a hack

troll?
you aussies have a weird way of saying thanks!
YOUR WELCOME for the help? maybe?

Maybe we miss understood, what I basically got from 'Yeah Aussieland doesn't have much going for it when it comes to BJJ' was you saying 'There are no decent Aussies in the BJJ world' Anyway, cool, misunderstanding and yes thanks, appreciate all the advice.

I Like the thoughts on standing passing so as not having to worry so much about triangles etc.

And I am 5'11 78kg (165pounds?)

I Look forward to hopefully some more success soon

[Clinton lawrence]

yah man, Aussieland doesnt have much going for them when it comes to BJJ... so learning technique is like ALIEN NEWS to you guys, he keeps breaking your posture because YOUR BACK ISNT STRAIGHT... to break his CLOSED GUARD stand up if you can or at least get ONE knee up, and put your KNEE BETWEEN HIS LEGS then sit back down than you can start to look to pass

cheers matey!

ever heard of george sotiropoulos i hear he is kinda big around these parts and i'm pretty sure frank barca was the first guy out of the usa to gain affiliation with 10th planet hey but i could be wrong about all this i mean i'm sure my old instructor was a world champion back in 07 but shit we dont get much down here in aussie land we just spend most of our time riding kangaroos through the streets and wrestling wombats what do we know about jujitsu

[DarbyBarby]

ever heard of george sotiropoulos i hear he is kinda big around these parts and i'm pretty sure frank barca was the first guy out of the usa to gain affiliation with 10th planet hey but i could be wrong about all this i mean i'm sure my old instructor was a world champion back in 07 but shit we dont get much down here in aussie land we just spend most of our time riding kangaroos through the streets and wrestling wombats what do we know about jujitsu

Cmon man don't talk shit...... Everyone knows there's no streets in Australia lol.

[Muhammad Abdou]

hmm.. you have to be a pretty special person to piss off every australian on this forum, seemingly unintentionally... maybe i should take a leaf out of your book
if any people here hold a grudge against you, its probably because you INSULTED THEIR INTELLIGENCE plus their NATIONAL IDENTITY while you allegedly tried to help them... when in fact you REPEATED WHAT A DOZEN PEOPLE SAID BEFORE YOU except with the addition of CAPITALIZING and EMPHASIZING key words, which had the effect of MAKING YOU LOOK LIKE A DOUCHE

[David Stevens]

Australia is cool. If you don't think so, go fuck your self.

Hi Tim. Yes, passing the guard is hard. Against someone better than you, it can be impossible. No Tim, don't start using more aggression at the expense of technique. In the long run, this will not pay off.

A few random points on passing (many of them mentioned before)

- If you're posture gets broken, fight your hands to the inside of his biceps and push them to the floor, taking away his ability to really control you
- keeping your head buried, start to climb your hands up to the inside of his armpits, then up onto his chest
- once you get your hands on to his chest, start to back away while continuously moving your hands back towards his hips. Use every little bump you can to get friction. Pecs, abs, ribs, fat, anything you can push against to built your posture up
- when you get your hands onto his hips, push them flat to the ground so he can't slide his hips up your thigh, releasing the pressure
- keep your elbows in his thighs, tight to your body so he can't grip them and pull them out
- always keep your weight back, and as much posture as possible (given)

From here, if he breaks you down, repeat. You could get all the way up, hands in the hips and lose it all. Just do it again.

If you can't build posture, I would look to a wrist/arm trap/wrap as mentioned above.

Standing passes are good, but can get you in to trouble if you don't open the legs first. It helps by adding gravity, but also makes you move vulnerable to being swept.


2 simple ways to open the legs

- from the posture built above
- put your knees (which should be caging their hips) into the centre of each butt cheek (not the crack, right behind their sit bones)
- keep pushing down on their hips, while prying with your elbow into their thighs. At the same time, start pushing your lower back into their ankles/heels.
- this should build up enough tension to crack open their guard

if the above doesn't work

- if their legs are too long, and the above method doesn't built up enough pressure
- step one leg up and back foot flat on the mat, so it's out of reach of your opponent
- push down on the knee with your palm, fore arm on the side that you stepped up on
- keep pushing the hips back
- keep the hips pinned with the other hand, and the elbow inside the thigh
- keep stretching out each point until the guard cracks

These are really basic methods, but if you don't have each point squared away, you'll have a lot of problems opening the legs. You need to make the space between their legs bigger than they can maintain. If you can't do this, your still in closed guard.

Once you have the legs open, the sky's the limit. I normally stand and start the MG sequence of passing, but it's also recommended to develop your knee through passes, smash pass (one leg on shoulder) and double under (baby wipe) pass. Passes where you don't have to compromise your base are good.

If you can't keep your opponent flat on his back for the MG series, stuff his feet between your legs (giving him butterfly hooks), move into the butterfly shutdown position (their hooks jammed between your knees and elbows, head burried) and start a jumping pass (karo pass).

If all else fails, get good at scrambling into their half guard and working a pass from there (no hands, twister, capoeira)

[Jonathan Wylie]

See Robert, its not just me everybody wants you to go away and we don't care about your shitty advice that's part of the reason we want you to go away.

[Kevin Green]

Tons of ways to open the guard and pass...you have to drill them and find what works best in your game and against each situation you will face. Dont judge your guard passing as a whole on a few guys...you could be decent or even excellent at guard passing, if you r trying to pass someone with an excellent guard...it may not feel like it on that particular day. Keep at it, explore and experiment and congrats on the tip? I am assuming you are reffering to a stripe?? Either way...good stuff

[Jonathan Wylie]

I Like the thoughts on standing passing so as not having to worry so much about triangles etc.

And I am 5'11 78kg (165pounds?)

I Look forward to hopefully some more success soon

Check this out.

[Robert Sevigny]

Maybe we miss understood, what I basically got from 'Yeah Aussieland doesn't have much going for it when it comes to BJJ' was you saying 'There are no decent Aussies in the BJJ world' Anyway, cool, misunderstanding and yes thanks, appreciate all the advice.

lol yah biggggggggggg misunderstanding, i was tryin to say is, BJJ must be a newly evolving concept in australia, in america we dont hear "oh you gotta go to this world famous bjj school in australia" so assuming this is true, that must mean there must not be alot of schools in your country.

Clinton lawrence - did you read my "george has sick bjj, he trains all over the world learning everything from everyone AND he beat bjj hotshot JOE LAUZON IN a BJJ battle so no, no he is DEF NOT a hack"

Jonathan Wylie - im not leaving any time soon sooooooo YOUR better off leaving not I