How To Defend The Toreando Pass In BJJ With Mikey Musumeci

Mikey Musumeci's "Small Guy" Techniques Have Been Battle Tested And Proven To Work Against Even The Biggest Guys In The Gym!

The Toreando pass has been around for a long time. Its first recorded use was in the early 20th century in old footage of Tsunetane Oda, the developer of ground techniques for Judo. It was easily adopted in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu as a great pass to counter those effective open guard players. So what is the Toreando pass?  “Toreando” when translated to English means the act of bull fighting, or more precisely the “jink” motion a bull fighter uses to avoid the rushing bull. In BJJ, the Toreando pass mimics the jink by griping the pants of the opponent with both hands (usually on the inside of the knee), and tossing the legs to the side in order to step in and start passing the legs.

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The Toreando pass can be a very tricky pass to deal with. You might thing you are screwed when your training partner has both your legs. But there are actually some very simple and intuitive ways to counter the Toreando pass. So how exactly do you defend against such a tricky pass? We will ask that question to Mikey Musumeci. Musumeci is the first American to win two IBJJF World titles at black belt – a very prestigious honor in the grappling world. Mikey received his black belt in 2015 at the age of 18 from Gilbert Burns. Musumeci’s style is a great example of modern jiu jitsu. Today we are going to take a look at Inside Grip Toreando Defense by Mikey Musumeci. You can find this video and a whole lot more as part of Mikey’s instructional series “Power Switch Guard Retention And  Genius Back Takes,” available exclusively on BJJFanaitcs.com! Watch the video below and then we will break down Musumeci’s technique.

One of the most common grips for the Toreando pass is inside of the knees, grabbing the gi pants. The basic Toreando pass that most BJJ guys do is throw the legs and step to the side. To defend against this, Mikey first adjusts his legs so that they go over his training partner’s arms. He places his feet on the outside of his opponent’s shoulders. By keeping your feet in your opponent’s shoulders you can control your training partner’s upper body, and avoid getting stack passed. From here Mikey likes to grab the cross collar grip with same side sleeve. He scoots backwards causing his opponent to lean in. The more he leans in the more you can attack your training partner’s upper body – going for triangles and arm locks and neck chokes. All of your attacks happen when your opponent leans in. This is a key detail to preventing the Toreando pass.

Mikey is known for his dynamic guard and amazing retention. This video beautifully demonstrations Mikey’s simplistic approach to retaining an open guard, and stopping a difficult pass in its tracks with very fundamental, easy to learn techniques. If you liked what we saw here today then be sure to check out Mikey’s instructional series “Power Switch Guard Retention And  Genius Back Takes,” available exclusively on BJJFanaitcs.com and remember to give this defense a try the next time you are dealing with a tough opponent!

Formiga has one of the coolest Torreando counters we'eve ever seen in his butterfly guard, 50/50 guard and x guard series.

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