Battle Standing Passers With This Arm Drag

By Fanatics Authors, February 13, 2019

Recently we talked about guard strategies for people who pass off of their knees. More often than not we see people choose to pass from their feet. This could be due to multiple factors. Passing from the feet offers ample amounts of mobility to be able to out maneuver your opponent. Being able to control or counter this movement is crucial to not having your guard passed.

When there is separation between the passer and the guard player a common tactic is to sit up to defend the pass. It is very difficult to just stop a passer with just your feet. So if separation occurs and the passer starts to create space between themselves and your guard you might want to sit up. Here we see Bernardo utilize this sit-up/butterfly position.

One way to control the tempo from this position is to create a reaction. Bernardo begins by presenting his arm to his opponent, this creates the response needed to set up the arm drag. By allowing his opponent to achieve a non-dominant grip on his arm Bernardo is able to reverse the grip and enter into a nice arm drag technique.

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While his other arm reaches across his body to achieve a grip onto his partner’s triceps muscle, his legs are doing something very important. The legs will start to reach diagonally away from his opponent’s base. By gripping the mat with his feet Faria is able to switch his hips. This hip switch is what creates the dragging force we need to send the opponent towards the mat.

From here head placement is crucial. If you notice after Bernardo achieves the angle on his partner he immediately places the top of his head into the side of the ribs/armpit region as he circles for the finish.

Depending on how well everything is executed this technique might open some other options. Let’s say the opponent is able to react after they initially hit the floor shortly after the arm drag. This would allow a great opportunity to enter into butterfly guard wit the arm already crossed in front of their body. It would look something like this, from our local butterfly guard wizard Adam Wardzinski.

There might never be a better time to sharpen your guard game with all of these pesky Guard Passing instructionals wrecking guards globally. Butterfly guard might just be that new wrinkle in your game to keep them in YOUR guard!

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