3 Techniques From 7 Time Brazilian National BJJ Champ Fernando Reis

These Three Techniques Will Leave Your Opponent Demoralized! Fernando Reis Has An Amazing Guard Passing System That Just Works

Fernando Reis is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt under Fabio Gurgel. Fernando Reis is also a former student of Tiago Rocha and one of Alliance Academy’s top representatives in the heavy weight division of the international Brazilian Jiu Jitsu circuit. Fernando first made a name for himself in lower belt divisions, medaling in all of IBJJF’s top tournaments which include the Brazilian Nationals, Pan American Championship and the World Championship. The list of Fernando’s accomplishments is long. Some of his notable achievements are CBJJ Brazilian National No Gi Champion (2017), IBJJF Charlotte International Open Champion (2016), IBJJF Rio Winter International Open Champion (2017/2016), UAEJJF Gramado Pro Champion (2016) and CBJJ Brazilian National 3rd Place (2017).

If you watch what he's doing, and drill these techniques, your game and results could change in a couple of weeks.

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So what is it that makes Fernando Reis so successful? A lot of his championship wins are in part due to his folding system, a system that Fernando uses to fold his opponent in half, sweep, and pass their guards. If you watch what he's doing, and drill these techniques, your game and results could change in a couple of weeks. So let’s take a look at some of the moves that make Fernando so great!

Fernando Reis Shows High Folding Guard Pass

With the folding guard pass, it is very important to first control your opponent’s hips and then establish your shoulder pressure. If you forget to control the hips your training partner can easily escape his hips and re-establish guard as you lose all your positioning. While this may not technically be considered a pressure pass, it certainly relies on pressure and maintaining tight contact with your training partner the entire time you are in motion. Fernando starts this technique from bottom half guard, having switched from knee shield to securing his under hook. He bumps his opponent over to secure a top control position. The folding pass is when you control your training partner’s knees and legs in this position. The first thing you want to do is control your opponent’s hips with your left hand. From here you want to put your shoulder on your opponent’s belly to flatten him on the mat. As Fernando points out, this is a very important detail. It is also very important to get up on your toes as opposed to staying on your knees. This allows you to put maximal amount of pressure on your training partner’s stomach. Now you want to work to control your training partner’s lapel. While you are pressuring down you want to bring your knee in between your opponent’s legs. It is very important to keep your leg close to the outside leg. If you sit up it sets up an easy sweep for your opponent. Keep using your grips and your knee to push his leg.

Fernando Reis Shows His Kettle Bell Sweep

Fernando starts this technique from half guard bottom with his under hook secured. To prevent his opponent from passing, Fernando switches into deep half guard, making sure his back is flat on the mat. Once here, he locks his opponent’s foot at the bottom of his leg. Now he will work to open his opponent’s lapel and feed it through to his other hand, keeping it as high as he can to break the posture. From here Reis opens his elbow and then uses a pendulum motion to swing his body over while maintaining his grips. He posts on his elbow and lifts his opponent with his head. Now he just needs to get both knees to his mat to finish the sweep ending in an over under pass position.

Fernando Reis Shows His Reverse Half Guard Sweep To Leg Drag

This is a great sweep from reverse half guard when your opponent tries to shrimp. When your training partner shrimps it takes away your power which makes this sweep very useful. The first thing Fernando does is open the lapel and feed it to his other hand. Once here, Reis breaks his opponent’s grip and puts his leg below his training partner’s foot to control the leg. It is very important to control your opponent’s pants. From here Reis posts on the mat and his opponent shrimps away. Fernando keeps his opponent’s leg elevated using his leg to avoid getting swept. Now he can follow his training partner as he tries to shrimp away. He uses his foot as a hook behind his training partner’s other leg. Now he switches his grip and controls the lapel, making sure to stay tight to his opponent. From here he places his elbow on the mat and continues to roll through ending on top of his opponent in the perfect position to go for a leg drag.

As you can probably tell, Fernando Reis is a wizard when it comes to playing half guard. He always has a plan and likes to pull his opponent into his half guard, get underneath him and start using his lapel to set up simple sweeps. If you love to play half guard, especially deep half, then Fernando has just the system for you. So be sure to give these techniques a try the next time you are on the mats and if you are looking for more amazing instruction from Fernando then check out his amazing instructional series called The Folding System, available exclusively on BJJFanatics.com. It is packed with tons of high level knowledge from Fernando that will help you sweep and submit an opponent no matter what their size is or level of experience. These techniques have been battled tested against some of the greatest BJJ competitors out there, so you know they will work for you. The best part about Fernando's sweeps and his passing is that they are not shown in the US very often, which means your opponent will have no idea how to counter these techniques. It is a very unique way of approaching BJJ that come from one of the greatest grapplers of his generation.

Fernando Reis Always Has a Plan... He pulls into half guard, gets deep under his opponent (folding him in half) and then sweeps.  Then he does something very important: his passing flows right from his sweep - that is the plan!  His Folding Pass is almost unstoppable.

This simple folding system will give everyone in your academy and the competition probelms Fernando has won championships at every belt level using this exact Folding System If you watch what he's doing, and drill these techniques, your game and results could change in a couple of weeks

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