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Techniques, Tutorials and Gear for BJJ, MMA and Submission Grappling

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Home » Guard Passes

Guard Passes

Passing and Smashing Inverted Guard, by Fabio Gurgel

February 26, 2019 by Stephan Kesting

Inverted guard pass

Passing the guard of an extremely flexible player can be really annoying. You get close to passing and they simply flip upside down, put their feet on the floor, and taunt you from their strange inverted guard position. Some gumby players go even further and develop an entire attacking game from this inverted guard, sometimes also known as the tornado guard. It may look strange but it … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques, Training Tagged With: Fabio Gurgel, Guard Passes, Inverted Guard, Physical Attributes, Pressure Passing, Video

Does Pressure Passing Work for Small Guys?

February 22, 2019 by Stephan Kesting

stack pressure pass

"Does pressure passing work for small guys, or is it just for the big, heavy guys at they gym?" I'm getting this question a lot now that I've released The Pressure Passing System instructional with 4 x world champion Fabio Gurgel. And it's a good question! First things first, let's define what we're talking about... The Styles of Guard Passing Fundamentally there are two styles of guard … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques, Training Tagged With: Bruno Malfacine, Cobrinha, Fabio Gurgel, Guard Passes, Over-Under Pass, Physical Attributes, Pressure Passing

No Gi Butterfly Guard Pass

February 18, 2019 by Stephan Kesting

no gi butterfly guard pass

The butterfly guard is a very popular guard position in no gi grappling because it doesn't rely on fancy sleeve and lapel grips. So if you're going to be competitive in no gi you definitely need to know how to deal with the butterfly guard, how to shut it down, and how to pass it. There are some very athletic speed-based passes for butterfly that involve jumping, spinning, floating, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques, Mixed Martial Arts Tagged With: Butterfly Guard, Fabio Gurgel, Folding Pass, Guard Passes, No Gi, Pressure Passing, Techniques, Video

How to Crush the Younger Grappler

February 16, 2019 by Stephan Kesting

dealing with younger grapplers

One problem with fighting younger guys is that they're like the Energizer bunny - they keep going and going and going... How can you beat them? To beat them you first need to wear them down and then break their will to fight. This is all well and good in theory, but how exactly do you do this in reality? Think of the young punk's gas tank as completely full. However unless you're in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: For Beginners, Grappling Techniques Tagged With: Conditioning, Fabio Gurgel, Guard Passes, Older Grapplers, Pressure Passing, The Mental Aspect, Video

Podcast Episode 195 -Guard Passing Strategies and Tactics with Fabio Gurgel

February 13, 2019 by Stephan Kesting

Fabio Gurgel Pressure Guard Passing Podcast Episode

Today's episode is PURE GOLD for BJJ practitioners and No Gi grapplers. Fabio Gurgel - 4 time BJJ Black Belt World Champion (and trainer of more than 50 other world champions) - talks about his approach to passing the guard, including How to connect your moves, The evolution of guard passing, Advice for older grapplers, When you should stop halfway through a guard pass to tire the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques, Podcasts Tagged With: BJJ, Fabio Gurgel, Guard Passes, Older Grapplers, Pressure Passing, The Strenuous Life BJJ Podcast with Stephan Kesting

5 Techniques for Knee Cut Guard Pass Defense and Prevention

December 29, 2018 by Stephan Kesting

5 defenses to the knee cut guard pass

It doesn't matter if you use closed guard, spider guard, butterfly guard, half guard or any other type of guard... At some point someone WILL try to knife through your legs using the Knee Cut Guard Pass! The Knee Cut is one of the most popular, most powerful guard passes out there. Every serious competitor uses some version of it, so you'll absolutely run into it!This is a promise, not a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques, Instructional Videos Tagged With: de la Riva Guard, Guard Passes, Guard Retention, Knee Cut, Rob Biernacki, Techniques, Video

The ‘Soft One, Hard Two’ BJJ Gripfighting Strategy

November 28, 2018 by Stephan Kesting

side control arm trap gripfighting 2

Have you ever heard the story about the old bull and the young bull, standing at the top of a hill, watching some cows? The young bull turns to the older bull and says, "Hey, let's run down there and each make sweet, sweet love to one of those cows!" The older bull retorts, "Why don't we just walk down there, nice and slow, and make sweet, sweet love to ALL the cows?" The original … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques Tagged With: Baseball Choke, BJJ, Chokes, Gi, Gripfighting, Guard Passes, Guard Sweeps, Strategy, Techniques, Video

Standing vs Kneeling Guard Passes

November 12, 2018 by Stephan Kesting

standing vs guard passing in bjj

When you're trying to pass your opponent's guard you can use either standing or kneeling guard passes. (Of course if you're dealing with the closed guard you have an additional decision to make, namely whether you first stand or kneel to break the closed guard open in the first place.) Anyhow, there's a tendency for modern BJJ players to use more standing, mobility based passes, especially … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques, Podcasts Tagged With: Gi vs No Gi, Guard Passes, Rob Biernacki, Techniques, The Strenuous Life BJJ Podcast with Stephan Kesting

Robot Legs Drill (video)

August 19, 2018 by Stephan Kesting

Today I want to show you a fun and effective way to improve your guard passes that I call the 'robot legs' drill. Using this drill you make a super-powerful guard passing movement totally instinctive.  And once you get comfortable with this drill you can also get a good cardio workout by going faster - start with 3 sets of one minute at full speed and tell me how you feel afterwards! But … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques, Instructional Videos, Training Tagged With: Drills, Guard Passes, Guard Retention, Training, Video

Kneel Or Stand to Pass the Guard?

March 24, 2018 by Stephan Kesting

passing closed guard

I once drilled technique with a big, strong rock climber who had a grip from hell and tenacious isometric strength. I noticed how much he liked controlling my gi, breaking my posture and attacking with collar chokes. Since I knew we were going to spar soon I formulated a simple sparring strategy: I told myself that as soon as I ended up in his guard I would stand up and not go back down onto my … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques, Training Tagged With: Cartwheel, Closed Guard, Guard Passes, Leglocks, Ostap Manastyrski, Over-Under Pass, Physical Attributes, Positions, Video

3 Guard Passes vs Flexible Guard Players

March 5, 2018 by Stephan Kesting

learning bjj

Every club has one of those long limbed, super flexible gumby guard players who can put both of his own legs behind his own head without using his hands. Passing the guard of these kind of guys sucks.  You fight, fight, fight to get past the legs and then, just as you're about to solidify your pin, a leg pops out of nowhere and - BAMM -  you're back in the guard where you started. Nothing has … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques Tagged With: Guard Passes, Inverted Guard, Knee Cut, Over-Under Pass, Ritchie Yip, Techniques, Video

Cartwheels in BJJ and Submission Wrestling

January 31, 2018 by Stephan Kesting

Wrestling cartwheel

So I saw something spectacular the other day... It was a clip from a wrestling match in which 125 lb Ronnie Bresser from Oregon State cartwheels himself over his opponent in a move called 'the Flying Squirrel' to get to a 15 point advantage and win the match by technical fall (thanks to "i like to wrassle" on reddit for giving me the proper name for it)! Here's the move: Of course … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques Tagged With: Cartwheel, Chokes, Drills, Guard Passes, Half Guard, Mark Mullen, No Gi, Omoplata, Video, Wrestling, Z Guard

How to Train BJJ with an Injured Neck

January 11, 2018 by Stephan Kesting

How to train BJJ with a sore neck

Necks are delicate things.  Seven small stacked cervical vertebrae protecting all the nerves in your spinal cord and held together with a multitude of flimsy ligaments and muscles. Yet in BJJ we stress the neck continuously. We attack it with chokes, crucifixes, and cranks.  We stack our opponents, turn their heads with crossfaces, and scissor his head with our legs.  We also use our head … [Read more...]

Filed Under: For Beginners, Health & Nutrition Tagged With: BJJ, Butterfly Guard, Chokes, Closed Guard, Deep Half Guard, Guard Passes, Injuries, Neck Cranks, Rubber Guard, Spider Guard

Christmas Office Party Jiu-Jitsu

December 19, 2017 by Stephan Kesting

Office party jiu-jitsu

Tis the season, and there's a very good chance that you'll be going to one or more Christmas parties in the next few weeks. I hope those parties stay friendly, but you can never be too careful.  Let's just say that things can go sideways QUICKLY! A little bit too much rum in the eggnog... The wrong person under the mistletoe... Accidentally giving your girlfriend an oversized piece of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques, Miscellaneous Tagged With: BJJ, Collar Chokes, Gi, Gripfighting, Guard Passes, Judo, Self Defense, Sleeve Choke, Techniques, Throws, Video

How a Judo Olympian Takes the Back

November 1, 2017 by Stephan Kesting

How Travis Stevens Takes the Back

Travis Stevens is a 3 time Judo Olympian, an Olympic silver medalist, and a BJJ black belt. So he's deadly on his feet but is also really slick on the ground. In fact his ground attacks were a huge part of his very successful run at the 2016 Olympics. He shared 3 really cool ways to take the back while passing the guard with me, and I was fortunate enough to get it on video for you. All … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques Tagged With: Competition, Double Under Guard Pass, Double Underhooks, Guard Passes, Judo, Knee Cut, Paulo Miyao, Rear Mount, Techniques, Travis Stevens, Video

A High Percentage Half Guard Pass That Works in Gi and No Gi

October 21, 2017 by Stephan Kesting

In the old days the half guard was a position of last resort.  You used it when your opponent had almost passed your guard and now only one of your legs was between him and the full mount. Man, have times ever changed! In the last 20 years the half guard has been developed as an offensive position, with many sweeping and attacking options available to you from there (for examples of these … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques Tagged With: BJJ, Guard Passes, Half Guard, Knee Cut, No Gi, Techniques, Video

Defense vs the Over-Under Guard Pass

October 16, 2017 by Stephan Kesting

over under guard pass defense by travis stevens

The 'over-under' pass is a pressure-based technique for passing the guard which is used quite successfully in high level competition.  In part it's a great pass because you don't have to be particularly fast or nimble to pull it off. When you're on the bottom and defending this pass, however, life can really suck... Not only is it an effective pass, but it's a tiring one to defend.  You're … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques Tagged With: Guard Passes, Guard Retention, Judo, Over-Under Pass, Submission, Techniques, Travis Stevens, Triangle Choke, Video

The Figure 4 Straight Armlock: An Easy and Surprising Submission from the Top Position

September 30, 2017 by Stephan Kesting

Figure 4 straight armlock

The straight arm figure 4 was one of the very first armlocks I was ever shown on the ground. But it was super unreliable.  In fact, for the next 3 decades, I would only be able to get it to work occasionally and then only against inferior or very tired opponents. Most of the time my sparring partners would simply twist or muscle their way out of it, or - most discouraging of all - just … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques Tagged With: Armlocks, Figure 4 Straight Armlock, Guard Passes, Half Guard, Ritchie Yip, Submission, Techniques, Video

The Most Powerful Way to Break a Stubborn Closed Guard

August 30, 2017 by Stephan Kesting

Today we're talking about passing the closed guard. In particular, we'll dig deep on one part of this process, because succeeding or failing at this task has decided the outcome of many matches at the highest level of competition. In trying to pass the guard of a good player you've got many different tasks that you need to achieve.  These include fighting for grips, establishing posture, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Competition, Grappling Techniques Tagged With: Closed Guard, Guard Passes, Techniques, Video

Old School Closed Guard Pressure Pass

July 6, 2017 by Stephan Kesting

old school closed guard pressure pass

In the era of the inverted inside-out de la worm guard it's sometimes easy to forget how brutally effective the closed guard is. Until someone puts you in it, shuts down your guard passes, chokes you silly and armlocks you until you want to rip your belt off and throw it across the mat. The closed guard is old school but it still works. And for self defense and MMA it's still an incredibly … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques Tagged With: BJJ, Closed Guard, Gi, Guard Passes, Marcus Soares, Open Guard

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