Sneaky Pressure Pass Leg Lock

By Fanatics Authors, March 17, 2018

Being decent at jiu jitsu is as close to being a magician as many of us will get. The almost effortless application of leverage and angles to get a much larger, unwilling training partner or opponent to completely change their bodily course is a power that everyone should feel at least one time in their lives. Watching someone who was only moments ago smashing you down with immense pressure go flying with the simple scissoring of your legs into a sweep from closed guard is a beautiful thing. Catching them in a submission when they expected something entire different is one of the best feelings in the world.

The art of getting a good pressure pass or landing a submission involves a kind of sleight of hand that distracts the opponent just enough to get them to buy into what we're doing so that we can switch to our true goal. Pressure passing is an effective way to smash through most every type of guard and get you to dominant positions safely and relatively easily. What if you were able to work a sneaky leg lock into your game disguised by an Over Under Pass. Whether you got the submission or not, wouldn't really matter, because you would still ultimately have the pass.

Along the way to the guard pass, using his favorite guard pass the Over Under Pass, Bernardo Faria realized that he would be able to work a sneaky knee bar into the move. Bernardo spent his earliest days on the mats perfecting his use of the Over Under Pass and in so doing, he developed additional techniques that utilize the Over Under Pass and in this case, we have the Over Under Pass Knee Bar.

Once you've worked Bernardo's version, check out other variations of this technique which is sometimes referred to as a "Dog Bar" and can be secured from a variety of positions like bottom half guard for instance. An opponent who thinks they are in a good position on top and getting ready to establish a pass or mount take finds themselves with their leg extended and their knee popping.

Check out Bernardo's breakdown of his variation of the knee bar from Over Under Pass here.

In the standard Over Under Pass, Bernardo is looking to control the opponent's legs to prevent them from regaining guard and to put them in a position where he can easily jump over them to establish side mount and pass the legs.

In this knee bar, Bernardo begins the technique just as if he were going for the pass, but instead of extending the leg by maintaining a grip on the gi pants, he hugs the controlled leg, giving him a much better control when it comes time to drive his hips into the thigh above the knee.

By triangling his own legs under this extended leg he creates a lever that when extended raises the opponents foot in the area. Simultaneously, he is driving his hips into the thigh above their knee forcing pressure down in an attempt to hyperextend the knee and inflict pain and ultimately secure the submission.

In training, Bernardo is slow and methodical in the application of the technique giving his training partners plenty of opportunity to tap to prevent injury. He makes a point to share his own competitive mindset when it comes to this technique, which he mentions having secured in a number of his competitive matches.

For Bernardo, there is no time to be slow and methodically and if the hips is properly placed above the knee, the submission must be locked on swiftly and decisively. This is not with the intention of harming the opponent, but it is to secure the submission no matter what and leave no opportunity for adjustment or escape.

For more leg attacks and knee bar variations check out Gabriel Arges newest BJJ Fanatics instructional "KNEE-BARGES LEG ATTACK SYSTEM" available here in DVD or On Demand format.