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How To Pass Guard With Hand Control By Josh Barnett & Kurt Osiander
Josh Barnett Hand Control Passing
Way before the public knew of him, Josh Barnett usually found himself in a fight. Finding wrestling in high school, he fell in love with the sport in all of its many facets and is a true ambassador of the catch as can style. Most people assume that his background stops there, but nothing could be further from the truth. A true student of martial arts, Josh is more than well versed in the understanding and techniques of Greco-roman, freestyle, laamb, professional, and any other style of wrestling that you can think of; not to mention he has a plethora of knowledge in sambo, judo, jiu jitsu (black belt), and a slew of other martial arts. Josh has taken all the knowledge he has gathered over the years, molded all of it together and began his MMA career nicknamed as “The Baby Face Assassin”, but after all his victories (including a stint as the UFC Heavyweight Champion) through the top organizations has graduated to “The War Master”.
In this video Josh demonstrates not only how to pass the guard, but not allow his opponent to set up any type of offense. Check it out below!
To be skilled guard passers, grapplers need to look for hand control before any type of movement is made. It will be possible to pass if the guard player has dominant control over the hands of his opponent. Without that hand control is it difficult if not impossible to apply the necessary pressure to execute a guard pass. Good hand control with lead to better guard passing as well as a natural defense against guard submissions.
In the video Josh explains that he prefers not to use double hand control as it limits his ability to pass the guard. Instead he prefers to control one hand of his opponent and secure it enough to work at breaking down his guard while avoiding submission attempts. Without both hands it is near impossible for the guard player to secure a triangle or attack the arm bar.
For another look at guard passing check out Kurt Osiander’s closed guard pass. Do you see the similarities to Josh Barnett’s method? Osiander also dominates on arm across his opponent’s body before making any movements. If your opponent is breaking down your posture with a collar grip you need to take care of that first, which sets you up an opportunity to control his arm and hand.
Check it out in the video below!
Closed guard is the first guard many of us learn to pass when starting out in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It is a fundamental guard that you will spend many hours learning how to pass. But its principles teach us so much about jiu jitsu and self defense, starting with isolating limbs, controlling hands, establishing good posture and more.
Josh Barnett has proven himself time and time again against the world's toughest competition. A former UFC Heavyweight Champion and the current King of Pancrase, Josh stands at the top of the MMA food chain.
In this stellar nearly ninety minute long seminar, Josh shares never before seen methods to counter one of the most popular strategies in modern grappling and Mixed Martial Arts - the "Guard", including instruction on how to posture and break strong guards like rubber guard. How to create pressure when passing by the tripoding pressure pass system. To top it off learn the strategies of attacking the legs with one of the best catch wrestlers and MMA fighters in the world.
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