How To Defend The Torreando Pass With Mikey Musumeci

By Fanatics Authors, December 20, 2018

Inside Grip Torreando Defense by Mikey Musumeci

If you have been around the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu scene for a while you will probably be familiar with Mikey Musumeci. Mikey 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 young age of 18 from Gilbert Burns. Musumeci has since achieved world titles at every belt level on his way to become the 4th American to win the black belt world title his first year as a black belt. Musumeci’s style is a great example of modern jiu jitsu. He is notable for a variety of techniques including highly effective guard retention and precision submission attacks. Mikey is an exciting young grappler with a high level teaching ability. Today we are going to take a look at Inside Grip Torreando Defense by Mikey Musumeci. This defense is simple enough that when broken down into its fundamental concepts even a white belt can understand it. Watch the video below and then we will break down Musumeci’s inside grip torreando defense technique. Check it out now!

Mikey Musumeci starts this defense technique on his back. His opponent has both inside grips on his knees, throwing Mikey’s legs to the side and stepping around to pass. This is the basic torreando pass that most BJJ players like to do. To defend against this, Mikey first adjusts his legs so that they go over his training partner’s arms and grips. He places his feet on the outside of his opponent’s shoulders. Notice that if you hook under the arm pits you set yourself up for an easy stack pass. By keeping your feet in your opponent’s shoulders you can control your training partner’s upper body. From here Mikey likes to grab the cross collar and then same side sleeve. He scoots backwards to cause his opponent to lean in even more, effectively breaking down his posture. 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 the Torreando defense.

So there you have it, a highly dynamic defense from a very common position. I am sure you have been caught here before and your opponent has had a relatively easy time controlling your legs and passing. But with these fundamental principles you can make your guard much more dynamic and even set up some great opportunities to attack your opponent’s arms and neck. All it takes is good leg and feet positioning and good grips to break down your opponent’s posture and use his upper body to destabilize his base. This is a really cool technique from Mikey Musumeci! Be sure to try this one the next time you are on the mats.