Body Lock Pass With The King

One of the very first positions we learn when we start training is the closed guard.  How to lock out feet, how to use it to control the opponent if they are trying to throw strikes and how to execute sweeps and submissions from closed guard to advance the match, and or your position.  Of course, we aren’t just learning one side of Jiu Jitsu, so we also began learning how to pass the closed guard, likely in two variations, over the legs in a knee slice or knee over style pass and stack pass, going under the legs.

Ultimately, when it comes to guard passing there’s two ways to approach it, with a plan, a real systematic plan of attacking the guard, or without one.  Gordon Ryan’s new video instructional titled “Systematically Attacking the Guard” just sounds more aggressive than passing the guard does.  I love the choice of title and how it changes guard passing from to an offensive aggressive action like attacking.  There is likely no argument that Gordon Ryan is one of the best grapplers on the planet studying under Professor John Danaher and adopting some of the same mindsets and teaching styles when it comes to having a “system”.  

Think about that for a second.  What would it be like to slap hands, bump fists, immediately be pulled into your opponents guard, but know exactly what to do because you have a system.  Do this, and if they do this then you do that and so on. Having a systematic approach is proving to be extremely productive amongst the Danaher Death Squad athletes.  That being said, it may make sense for the rest of us to adopt a similar style.

Gordon Ryan gives us a sneak peak at his latest video instructional “Systematically Attacking the Guard” in showing us how he uses the Body Lock as a start to his guard pass as shown in the clip “Body Lock Guard Pass Off Their Underhook”.

 

Starting in top half guard as our training partner comes up to get their under hook, we also work to get the under hook on the near side.  We then use this under hook to pull our training partner towards us in order to get a deeper reach so that we can grip on the other side of our opponent.

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The three types of grips that can be used here are S grip, Wrist to wrist, or gable grip, largely dependent on the size of your arms and the opponent’s chest size.  Gordon notes that a palm up (with your under hook hand) will create more pressure on your opponent, but also more pressure on your wrist, while a palm down grip will be less pressure for both you and your training partner.

We then work to drive them to the mat with our head across the body ear to ear.  It’s noted that you always want to pass to the opposite side of your under hook.

From here we want to work our knee out and replace it with two butterfly hooks.  Then we can swing our legs off to the side we are passing to landing with our knee next to our training partner and our other knee and shin across their waist.  Your training partner will likely bump here trying to get to their side to replace guard, or possibly due to the pressure created by your knee across their waist.  When they bump is the ideal time to use the top of your foot to keep them from being able to insert a leg between yours and replace their half guard. Once you have ensured they are not able to replace guard or half guard, you can slide your knee across and down to the mat next to their hip.

We can now drive back into our training partner to get our head over to their opposite side shoulder.  Because of the position of the body lock there is no way for your training partner to move their hips enough to create a problem.  That being said, you can stay here and wear them down as long as necessary if the opponent is panicking or being overly aggressive.  When you are ready you can now unlock your hands, and swim your closest arm under the head to meet your opposite hand again in the form of head and arm control.  

In just a few short minutes Gordon Ryan shows us his approach, mindset, tips and tricks previously reserved for only the elite athletes lucky enough to train with him.  You can rest assured that the video instructional is completely packed with detail after detail guaranteed to improve not only your guard passing, or should I say attacking, but also your approach to Jiu Jitsu in general, making a shift to a more systematic approach.  

 

Check out Gordon’s “Systematically Attacking the Guard”, and while you are at it, you should probably pick up “Getting Swole As A Grappler” his complete meal plan and workout strategy that allowed him to pack on insane amounts of muscle and functional strength.  Besides, does anyone not want to be shredded? Yeah…. Didn’t think so.

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