Open Guard Pass With Rodolfo Vieira

The first time you meet that training partner or opponent who has a really creative open guard game can be extremely eye-opening, humbling and beyond frustrating.  Your sleeves are secured, you feel the hooks wrapping around your thighs and things begin to escalate quickly.  You're not trapped, locked in their legs--how bad can this be?

Turns out that it can be very bad.  Using their hooks, hips and grips, this opponent can entangle our legs and arms, slow down our passing game and ultimately reverse us which could mean gaining crucial points in a tournament or more importantly could mean finding ourselves in a very bad position to be dominated by the opponent who just flipped us over.

One must be able to address their ability to utilize their hooks, manage the distance from and extension of their legs to prevent being able to be loaded up and taken over, deal with the grips they may be using on your legs or sleeves, and finally figure out a way to stop their hip mobility.

Want more secrets to becoming a more effective guard passer?  Check out this article by BJJ Fanatics.  

One of the best competitors in BJJ history, Rodolfo Vieira uses a very methodical guard passing game.  While he is known for explosive power and strength, passing the open guard requires more finesse and intellect than almost any other task in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

In the video below, Rodolfo offers his advice on dealing with open guard generally, but more specifically how to make sure the person on bottom doesn't establish lasso or spider guard upon you.

 Address the far knee without gripping the pants

One of the key points from this video is how Rodolfo addresses the far side knee.  He secures the gi pants on the near side knee, but chooses to simply control the far side knee without a gi pants grip.  This affords him the control he needs but doesn't overly attach himself to his opponent which would allow them to establish a lasso or spider guard style control.

Kill the hips

Once you have established a position beyond their legs, it's important to not go prematurely to the ground, but instead maintain strong hip control and push the opponents hips away from you to further establish a strong control and make the opponent uncomfortable.

 

If you want more insight into the unstoppable pressure game from one of the most deadly Rodolfo Vieira, check out this BJJ Fanatics article here.

 Rodolfo Vieira is one of the most dominating competitors in the history of BJJ.  His epic matches with the likes of Marcus "Buchecha" Almeida have created one of the most famous competitive rivalries and continue to have fans talking about them to this day.

The best place to learn any technique is from the martial artists who are at the top of their competitive game. If you want to gain the skills that will have your partners sitting out rounds rather than roll with you, get your copy of Rodolfo Vieira's  "Jiu Jitsu Domination" 3 DVD set here!