How Bernardo Faria’s Simplicity Becomes Effective

Bernardo Faria is a 5x Black Belt World Champion and has won the open weight division.  Bernardo has long been one of the best competitors in the entire world.  Bernardo is infamous for his simple style of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.  Bernardo has a certain set of moves that he has perfected in every manner and finds a way to make his simplistic style extremely effective at the highest levels of competition?

Some may say Bernardo is a one trick pony, but just because his style is simple, does not mean that is all he knows.  Bernardo is incredible at every position in bjj, but his competition game is his A game.  Faria likes to utilize the half guard and the deep half guard, and passes frequently with the over under pass and double unders pass.

Bernardo Faria Guard

Bernardo has long been infamous for his half guard, both the deep half and the trademark single leg half.  The most incredible aspect of his game is the fact that many people know what he is going to do but can never stop it.  This shows that Bernardo has perfected his game. What makes Bernardo’s half guard so effective? 

Bernardo has perfect timing, he has seen every reaction you can give, and has been in the position ten thousand times.  It is much like Bruce Lee’s quote “I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times more than the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once.”  This is the philosophy Bernardo proves to be effective.  He has used his deep half guard and single leg half guard for over ten years on different opponents of all shapes, sizes, skill levels, lineages, and styles. 

Bernardo has seen every reaction you are going to give him and has found a way to counter it, not only has he seen every reaction but he has perfected his timing.  Timing is essential when performing sweeps at the highest level.  Timing is what segregates the elite level grapplers from the rest of us.  We may know the same sweeps that they use in competition but we don’t have the same timing and ability to execute at a fast pace.  Check out this video below where Bernardo breaks down one of his most used positions.

Bernardo Faria Passing

Bernardo has long been infamous for his trademark over under pass.  Bernardo’s passing is even simpler than his guard and all the same factors that make his guard so effective also make his passing effective.  He has been using the same passes for years on people of all levels, shapes, lineages, and sizes.  His timing has been perfected.

One of the major contributing factors is also the fact that his guard and sweeps connect to his passes.  What we mean by this is that when Bernardo goes to sweep you, it puts him in the perfect position to execute his best passes.  For example, if he does his single leg sweep, he will end up right in the over under.  Once he is in that position, he is virtually unstoppable.  Check out this video below where Bernardo gives some details on his best pass.

If you want to learn some of Bernardo’s best secretes check out one of his DVD’s , either “Battle Tested Half Guard” or “Battle Tested Pressure Passing.”  They are both excellent resources to learn the secrets that one of the best ever used to win Worlds Multiple Times.