Passing the Guard with Control Rather Than Speed

Everyone likes to pass the guard on the outside with these flashy big movement passes. But here I am going to be an old man yelling at a cloud; and talk about how controlled and measured guard passing is effective and a good strategy.

First things first, I just want to say, I can pass on the outside if I want to, it just isn’t my preferred method of passing the guard. Despite the fact that I am a pretty big Ultra Heavyweight grappler, I still like to throw out a cartwheel pass now and again. I just prefer a controlled, measured style of passing the guard because I think it is a lot more successful than the outside passing which leaves a lot of space for people to recover their guard. If you look at a lot of the recent “big” competitions you will see a lot of people attempt passing on the outside and either not get past the guard or get stuck in half guard. Since Jiu-jitsu people always want to follow what the “big thing” the top competitors do, we have seen a huge rise in the use of outside passing in regular Jiu-jitsu.

When I approach the guard regardless of how I am passing the guard or what type of guard I am passing I always approach the pass with my Guard Passing Hierarchy. This is something I learned from James “300” Foster, my former coach and multiple time World Champion (He makes me look small). This Hierarchy consists of four steps: Feet, Knees, Hips, Head. But what the hell does that even mean?

The first step is Feet, and not in a Quinten Tarantino type of way. What that means is we need to progress past the feet. When we are in open guard that means establishing control points where we can direct the feet away from our body to create an opening. In closed guard that means opening the guard. This is one of the most dangerous parts of passing the guard because your opponent is still ostensibly on offence at this time. So we need to be judicious with how we establish our control points on our partner. If we place our control points incorrectly it gives our opponent an opportunity to recover their guard or use our control points to gain a grip and advance their position. I tend to like to place my control points on the inside of my partner’s legs so that way I can better control the space between us. I also prefer to use control points that are a little farther down the leg where it is harder for my partner to reach and strip the grip. Once I have the feet redirected, I move on to step two.

Step two Knees hopefully not flying in to hit me in the face. After I have redirected the feet, I move on to passing the knees. People will often utilize their Knees as a way to slow your guardpass or create a frame to create space. So we need a reliable way to pass the knees when we are grappling. When I am passing the guard, I am looking to do one of two things, either bring my opponent’s knees together or the much more scandalous spreading them apart. Either way we are looking to move the knees out of line with our body to ensure we can pass and not get stopped up. When I pass, I tend to utilize the control points I established in step one to bring my partner’s knees together or apart depending on what they are trying to do. From there, I will use those control points to create isolation for the knees and not allow them to move from where I want them to be, or at least restrict it as much as possible. After I get past the knees I move on to step three.

Step three, much like Shakira, the hips don’t lie. This step is about controlling my partner’s hips so they cannot generate force to either move or create space. When I am controlling the hips I try to stay away from grabbing and holding the hips because that takes too much work. What I do is try and put careful measured pressure down through my opponent’s hip bones so they have to carry my weight on the structure of their body. This makes it much harder for them to move or bridge to create space. I will also occasionally use backward pressure down and towards their feet to help really anchor their hips to the mat. And finally it's time for the final step.

Step four, Head. Once you are past the feet, the knees, and you control the hips; its time to move to controlling your partner’s head. There is an old saying that I have heard since I started grappling sports a very long time ago. “Where the head goes the body will follow’ what this means is that if you control where your opponent’s head can go, you can also control where their body can go. When we begin to move off the hips to complete our pass regardless where we are going to end up, we want to control where our opponent can mobilize their head. If we can restrict it from moving in even one direction, we can make their escape attempts significantly more predictable. This increases the likelihood that we will be successful in completing our guard pass.

The pitfalls of this system is that it does require practice to be confident that you are taking the steps correctly with each pass. I often see people, especially less experienced people, go from step one of clearing the feet to jump right to step 4 of controlling the head. If you are going to use this strategy for passing the guard, being sure of every step is essential. Oftentimes with the flashy passing we see in big competition, they are skipping steps in the passing hierarchy and relying on their athleticism and surprise to help them get past the guard. That is great for young strong competitors, but I am neither of those things. So I try to make my passing game as controlled and secure as possible to prevent my opponents from escaping or putting me back in the guard.