The butterfly guard offers your opponent two different types of control that set up his attacks and make it difficult for you to pass his guard.
Screw up even a little bit and you’ll find yourself hoisted into the air and swept or caught in a devastating leglock.
To shut him down and pass his guard you first need to understand the control points he potentially has in butterfly guard…
The first type of control in butterfly guard are the grips, for example, collar ties on your neck, grips on your wrist, the underhook controlling your shoulder, belt grips, the 2-on-1 grip or the armdrag grip.
To deal with his grips you have to handfight, handfight, handfight! Do not concede superior grips to your opponent because you’ll be giving him a HUGE advantage.
The second type control are his instep hooks between your legs. The insteps are the heavy hitters of the butterfly guard because they lift and off-balance you, as well as making it very hard for you to run around his guard since he can just keep his hooks sticky against the inside of your legs and track you.
The armdrag grip leading to a back take
Neutralising the Butterfly Hooks
To pass butterfly guard without backing away you have two basic options…
First, you can break any grips and back out. Now that his hooks are detached, getting to a dominant position involves guard passes like the toreando, the kick pass, the knee cut, the leg drag, and submission-based passes usually involving the guillotine or Kimura controls.
Typically, this detach-and-pass approach requires faster, more explosive passing movements.
The second approach is to stay close but use leg pummelling and hip shifts to nullify the effectiveness of his guard. Since you often can’t see what’s going on with his feet at this close range this approach often requires more sensitivity but less speed, and often results in pressure-based guard passes to get past his legs.
Breaking a grip in the gi
Neutralising the Butterfly Hooks While Staying Close
Let’s focus on three different ways to shut down the effectiveness of his instep hooks without backing all the way out of butterfly guard.
First, you can use a floating approach…
In the floating approach you’ll force your opponent onto his back (i.e. recumbent butterfly guard) and put your weight on his insteps and shins. Now actively pour arms to keep your balance, then use a combination of hip shifting, hook deflection and leg pummeling to smash his butterfly guard.
This is much easier to understand if you see it demonstrated. Here’s Rob Biernacki teaching the Floating Butterfly Drill from BJJ Games, with Rory Van Vliet demonstrating the live rounds starting at the 3:07 mark…
Second, if he’s on his back then you can use a hip-shifting motion to bring one of his insteps across your hip. I like to think of this as analogous to a two-on-one grip in handfighting, except instead of controlling one of his arms with both of your arms and your chest you control one of his legs with both of your own legs and your belly.
Here’s a short from my YouTube channel breaking down this hip shift. Note that this motion works just as well in no gi as it does in the gi, and is the basis of modern bodylock passing.
Third, you can also use a Superman Pass to clear the hooks and pass the butterfly guard even against an opponent who is sitting up.
Essentially this is the same movement as a standing Kick Pass (aka X Pass) done on the knees instead of on your feet.
Check it out – again, I’ve used this pass quite extensively in both gi and no gi so it works in both arenas.
I hope you now have three new killer tools to refine and train your butterfly guard passing.
Two More Guard Passing Resources
Passing the guard is one of the hardest things to learn in BJJ, but it’s incredibly important.
To help you with that may I suggest two additional resources…
Fabio Gurgel’s Pressure Passing System
Fabio Gurgel has coached more than 50 World Champions and is a 4 time world champion himself. And even though he’s almost 50 years old his intense pressure passing and top game still make him a terror on the mats, hanging with much younger players and tapping them out.
His pressure passing system will shut down your opponents’ guards, wear them down, and have them practically give you the guard pass because they’ll be so tired of fighting you.
The bottom line is that pressure passing is the perfect way to go if you lack the agility, athleticism and endurance required for fancy speed-based passing!
Click here for more information on Fabio Gurgel’s Pressure Passing System.
Guard Passing for Old F***s, with Rob Biernacki
Guard Passing for Old F***s, the instructional
BJJ for Old F***s, the Passing Gameis dedicated to giving older grapplers the techniques, strategies, and training methods they need to pass the guard of any opponent and stay effective on the mats.
You’ll learn the critical concepts, strategies, and exact techniques for passing the guard as an older guy so that you can smash those younger players while staying safe.
BJJ for Old F***s, the Passing Game is available in online streaming, app, and physical DVD formats. Order now and get it before everyone else!
Click here for more information about Guard Passing for Old F***s, the second volume in the BJJ for Old F***s series!