To get top position, are you better at sweeping or passing?

[christian sabwa]

i find my passing increases by 25% when i just keeping moving and push the pace until i pass.

[Tori Applegate]

You should stay out of people's closed guards any way. There's no such thing as a closed guard pass, where you are supposed to start there, in the closed guard. Plus, you never know what's lurking there. We got a guy in our school and his triangles are nasty, you can protect all you want, but once his guard is closed, you're pretty much done. You want to pass the open guard, it's the only way you for sure have a chance.

Will, I'll be honest with you. I don't try to get top position unless it falls in my lap, I take someone down and end up there, or I'm in bottom mount/half guard and I need to move. I play a bottom game. If I get on top, my game is still almost identical to the bottom. I like stuff I can get from everywhere. I'd say I'm decently even with the sweeps and passes. I've learned a lot of passes in the past two months, but I don't use all of them just yet..so it's 50/50 split.

[sean applegate]

You should stay out of people's closed guards any way. There's no such thing as a closed guard pass, where you are supposed to start there, in the closed guard. Plus, you never know what's lurking there. We got a guy in our school and his triangles are nasty, you can protect all you want, but once his guard is closed, you're pretty much done. You want to pass the open guard, it's the only way you for sure have a chance.

Will, I'll be honest with you. I don't try to get top position unless it falls in my lap, I take someone down and end up there, or I'm in bottom mount/half guard and I need to move. I play a bottom game. If I get on top, my game is still almost identical to the bottom. I like stuff I can get from everywhere. I'd say I'm decently even with the sweeps and passes. I've learned a lot of passes in the past two months, but I don't use all of them just yet..so it's 50/50 split.

You will learn the value of the top posish as you develop.

[nathan cybul]

sweeping

[Brandon Mccaghren]

Passing is absolutely my favorite part of grappling, because it is without a doubt the most challenging. It presents a puzzle that can, at times, be very difficult to solve. If I find myself on the mat with someone that has a killer guard, I go back into it over and over, trying to unravel the mystery.

As I've found myself competing against better and better guys, I find that sweeping and passing are the most important parts of what I do and are the things that deserve my attention the most.

[Will Thaxton]

Passing is absolutely my favorite part of grappling, because it is without a doubt the most challenging. It presents a puzzle that can, at times, be very difficult to solve. If I find myself on the mat with someone that has a killer guard, I go back into it over and over, trying to unravel the mystery.

As I've found myself competing against better and better guys, I find that sweeping and passing are the most important parts of what I do and are the things that deserve my attention the most.

For sure. Would takedowns be 3rd? This is another area I need to work on. Always starting from knees is safe but not getting the TD reps.

[Louis Ho]

You ever watch a grappling match where both guys want a takedown and top position, but nobody is willing to pull guard? Unless you have a significant athletic advantage over your opponent, most of the time it's just a wrestling stallfest...ZZZZZZZ. For the most part, I'll always pull guard and get the sweep. I've become quite good at it. The only way you can up your sweeps is to be willing to sit on your ass. In training, I'll get smashed from time to time. You have to put in the work. Come competition time, I attack aggressively from the guard. If you watch vintage JJ Machado from ADCC, that's what he always does.

[BIBIANO]

I suck at both, but that has been really good for my side control escapes...but having good side control escapes has been bad for my mount and back escapes.

[Matt Wallace]

Lots of great advice on here. I'd say you are about to get a turbo boost in help when Eddie releases his Scully-esque Warm Ups series video because those will help immensely. Watching and drilling those has reignited my love of passing that has been gone for a little while as I focused on other things. I historically make my students guard pass as a warm up drill (one person is standing, the other sitting or lying down) for a round, then they switch position for the next round. I've noticed that when I keep that in our warmups, their cohesion is better than strictly drilling a straight pass, like knee slice or stacking. YMMV :-)

[Andrew "Chewie" James]

I don't think the point of being well rounded needs to be reiterated, but pulling guard is popular right now & and I'm all for working your bottom game as well, But you need to learn to pass & put in the reps because your not always going to get the guard pull first & unless you don't mind working from the double guard pull, you'll be in a place where you don't have as many reps as you may need