Leg Lock or Pass The Guard - It's Your Choice

Some say the leg lock game killed the guard pass game... or maybe the leg lock game just made passing the jiu jitsu guard easier.

It seems everyone won't stop talking about the leg lock game.  It's almost like a whole unexplored (yet explored for years in sambo and other arts) are of grappling has been discovered.

Some Brazilian Jiu Jitsu purists who shun touching another man's feet say that the leg lock game is almost too easy, that it takes away from what jiu jitsu is... which confuses us because we thought the whole point was to submit!

But, there are some modern grapplers, Craig Jones being one that comes to mind, are using the leg lock game to also pass the guard quite effectively.

Here are 3 examples of how to use leg locks to pass your opponent's guard.

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How to Smash Pass The Guard With Leg Locks with Craig Jones

Master of Leg Locks, Craig Jones, shows you how to smash through your opponents guard while using leg locks as a threat.

Once you finish watching Craig’s Passing and Leg Lock Combinations, you will know exactly what needs to be done to set up and finish guard passes using leg attacks.

We all think that Craig Jones has the best leg attacks, but he says his passing is far better then his leg lock game.

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BJJ - Leg Lock and Pass Concepts - Roll Narration - Coach Zahabi

“These leg drags are going to lead to leg locks, and these leg locks are going to lead to leg drags”… I’m not even sure I can sum up modern grappling with the leg lock game any better than Firas Zahabi does in the first 50 seconds of this video, but I’m going to try.

Being able to chain together and vary your attacks is an absolute requirement if you want to be a high level grappler, the game has evolved too much in the past several years to just be able to rely on a few bread and butter attacks.

You can’t just attack straight on with a pressure pass anymore, you can’t just sit back for a straight ankle lock any longer, you’re going to need to start combining these skills to be a truly dangerous grappler. Use your leg drag pass attempts to set up leg locks, and use your leg locks to set up your leg drag passes.

BJJ Technique - Leg Lock and Pass Combination - Coach Zahabi

As we discussed in the Craig Jones video, leg locks are an incredibly powerful tool in any form of modern grappling. Having at least a few leg locks is quickly becoming a requirement for grapplers of all levels;we can no longer ignore the lower half of the body. While leg locks are very powerful and the sort of “it” technique, we cannot forget about our basic skills of getting a dominant position and controls. But we sure as heck can use leg locks to aid us in getting to a dominate position, and we can use our pass attempts to set up more leg locks for us as well.

In this short grappling instructional video, Coach Firas Zahabi from Tristar is showing so sick transitions from leg attacks to guard passes and back to leg attacks again. This is key for any high level grappler, and especially no gi players, we need to be able to transition and then transition off of our transitions. If we are unable or unwilling to threaten an attack to every part of the body, we are going to get left behind.

Check out his DVD series on how to combine your leg lock attacks into guard passes and your guard passes into leg locks.

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