How to Stop Your Opponent from Turtling During Your Guard Pass

I was recently asked the following question:

“Hi Stephan, My biggest problem on the mats right now is people turtling and going to their to knees when I’m about to pass their guard. Once they’re in turtle they either roll back to guard or stand up and all the hard work I did to pass their guard is for nothing. What can I do to prevent this from happening?”

This is a really common problem. Certain people may not have the best guard defense, but are very skilled at getting out of pinning positions in the very final moments of your guard pass and weaseling their way to turtle.

And once they’re in turtle they have lots of options. They can stand up or roll back to guard, but they can also stall, sweep, or submit you from the bottom.

So you definitely need some strategies and techniques that deal with this turtling problem!

Here’s a 9 1/2 minute video I made with some of my best tips for stopping your opponent from rolling out to his knees, and what to do if – despite your best intentions – he does end up turtling anyway!

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