The Big Secret To Becoming A Great Guard Passer.

The Big Secret To Becoming A Great Guard Passer.

So this is a question that people ask all the time “How do I become a great guard passer?”  “What is the one thing I have to do?”  Well… here it is.  The secret to becoming a great guard passer is “Getting good at passing every guard!”

That might seem like disappointing news, but let’s think about it for a second.  Most guys out there are only drilling a few passes on a few guards.  When someone hits them with a complex guard like Spider Lasso or De La Riva, they are lost.  What these frustrated souls have to learn is how to pass virtually every guard.  So how do you learn how to pass every guard?  You watch videos on every guard and then you drill every guard with your practice partner – it could take a long time: maybe even years.  But it is worth it.  If you consistently work on this skill from virtually every position, you will get very good at passing.

Lets talk about some  guard variations:

Closed Guard:  The best guys avoid closed guard like the plague.  It is one of the only positions in BJJ where if you are in someone’s closed guard – you basically can’t attack and escaping is a pain in the a**.  Most would say that escaping closed guard is tougher than escaping mount.  Let’s defer to one of the greatest passers in the world: JT Torres on how to pass it:

Spider Guard: This is a terrible guard to pass: you opponent is very strong in this guard and you can’t apply pressure until you break the grips: which can be easier said than done.  Here Rafael Mendes shows a pass that takes away the opponent’s leverage before passing:

Lasso Guard is mostly a defensive guard but there are some wizards who can build offense from it.  But this is a tough guard to pass.  Here the great Roger Gracie shows a slick Lasso Pass:

Butterfly Guard can be a very offensive guard and enough people play it that you will have to have a series in place to pass it…  Here the colorful Kurt Osiander shows a cool pass that works well:

De La Riva Guard involves interlacing a standing opponent’s legs with your own:  This is a great guard for sweeping or even trowing  up triangles.  Here Saulo Riberio shows a cool De La Riva Pass from the “Head Quarters” position:

It should be noted that the De La Riva Guard is the launching point for the Berimbolo and the Worm Guards.

So you see that there are many guards including many more than the ones we outlined above.  If you want to get good at passing the guard, you have to be able to pass all of these different guards.  Each one offers different challenges, but that is why we love Jiu-Jitsu so much.  It offers problems we need to solve with our minds exercised by our bodies.

If you want to learn from one of the Best Guard Passers in the Jiu-Jitsu history – Rodolfo Vieira, just click here, his Instructional 3 DVD Set is 10% OFF – Only Today (24 hours deal). 

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