How To Pass The Guard... Like An Olympic Judo Player?

Posted by Fanatics Authors on January 21, 2019

Over Under Pass By Jimmy Pedro

The over under pass is one of the most effective guard passes that should be in your arsenal. By stapling your opponent's body to the mat with shoulder pressure in their diaphragm, while maintaining control of both sides of their hips with an over grip on one side and an under grip around their legs you are able to maintain incredible smashing pressure while giving them no space or ability to shift those hips and create space alleviating the pressure. Once the opponent has been immobilized, you are able to tripod your hips up and move freely to manipulate their hips and legs and move around, passing relatively easily while they are left there to suffer what seems like ton of pressure!

Judo has some of the most powerful and aggressive closed guard passing. Judo Olympian and Renowned Coach Jimmy Pedro thinks there are some simple ways to pass almost any guard, and when he tries them he still smashes them.

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Today, Jimmy Pedro is going to show us his best pass, the over under pass. Jimmy is the best competitor in U.S. history and the best judo coach in U.S. history. He is very famous for his grip fighting and his ground game. Jimmy is world renowned for his judo expertise, coaching ability, and training methods. As a world renowned coach, his success at the 2012 &2016 Olympic Games led to the victories of Kayla Harrison earning back to back gold medals and Travis Stevens earning a silver medal in 2016. Let’s see how Jimmy does the over under pass. Watch the video and then we will break down his technique. Check it out now!

When Jimmy’s opponent is playing open guard on his back, Jimmy always starts outside one leg of his opponent. From here Jimmy will let his opponent think he is going to gain an advantage by getting a butterfly hook on his leg. This is the perfect setup for Jimmy’s primary goal, which is to control his opponent’s opposite leg. He gets control by grabbing his opponent’s gi and he pulls it tight. He wants to get his opponent’s leg down past his shoulder, in order to control his opponent’s hip. Jimmy wants to control his opponent’s hip so it can’t come back up on Jimmy’s shoulder.

Once in this position, Jimmy wraps his far arm low around the bottom of his opponent’s other leg. He starts to come around the leg of his training partner using his knee to drive in. Then he brings his knee above his opponent’s knee. Then Jimmy sits back, keeping his opponent’s legs spread wide, so his opponent can’t figure-four his legs.

As long as Jimmy remains above his training partner’s knee he will be able to move his arm and control the head. To clear the leg out, Jimmy flattens his body and brings his knee over the leg of his training partner. Then Jimmy brings his leg to his opponent’s hip and he establishes side control.

Here are the key points of how Jimmy does his over-under pass:

Start outside one leg of your opponent. Jimmy controls his opponent’s hip by grabbing the skirt of his opponent’s gi.

Next Jimmy makes sure his opponent’s leg is past his shoulder, in order to control his opponent’s hip.
Then Jimmy works around his opponent’s other leg by bringing his knee above his opponent’s knee. He keeps his opponent’s legs spread wide apart.
Jimmy looks for head control and Jimmy flattens out his body to get over his opponent’s leg. He brings his knee over his opponent’s leg and then to his opponent’s hip, establishing side control.
If Jimmy’s opponent controls Jimmy’s arm preventing Jimmy from getting head control, then Jimmy will kick his leg over and establish side control.

As you can tell this is a very powerful pass, that when done correctly can be very efficient. Just remember, the most important thing with this over under pass is that you can’t start inside your opponent’s guard because it will be hard to get out. It is very important to get outside one leg of your training partner. If you love the over under pass then this technique is definitely for you. Jimmy does it a lot different than the way it is usually taught, but it can be just effective if not more. So make sure you give this one a try the next time you are on the mats in a live roll or in competition. Every position in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, such as the arm bar, has different details that are very effective. I hope you enjoyed the video. I want to thank Jimmy for showing us his over under pass today!