How To Be a Better Guard Passer

Passing the guard in Jiu Jitsu is a constant challenge. Your opponent actively resists your every move. Sometimes it's not about knowing every pass in the book, but knowing the concepts around passing. These BJJ guard passing tips can unlock a more dominant game and more submission victories.

We've all been there - frustrated and stuck in your opponents closed guard. Their grips tighten, their legs trap, and escaping becomes paramount. These BJJ guard passing tips will accelerate your progress.

Essential BJJ Guard Passing Tips for All Levels

A well-rounded passing game is more than just techniques. It involves understanding concepts, strategy, mindset, and these BJJ guard passing tips are designed for going beyond the basics.

Control: The Foundation of Every Successful Pass

Establish control before initiating any pass. A flailing opponent can easily create space and escape, even reversing the position - and worst case catch a fast submission.

One of the biggest mistakes is initiating a pass without securing a grip or pinning the opponent. Force them to carry your weight, limiting their mobility and creating opportunities.

This wears them down, disrupts their balance, and controls the tempo. Learning to pin and control helps limit an opponent’s explosive movements.

Neutralizing Grips and Frames: Disarming Your Opponent

Skilled guard players use grips and frames to keep you at bay. Neutralizing these should be your first step to passing, no matter the position.

Be proactive in breaking grips and dismantling frames before they solidify. If not, they become offensive weapons. This is even more critical when training with your jiu jitsu gi vs training nogi.

The quicker you break these defensive barriers, the less time they have to plan a reversal.

Leveraging Weight: Pressure, Not Strength, Is Key

Passing isn't about brute force; it’s about weight distribution. Leverage your weight to break their posture and conserve your energy.

Many BJJ players misunderstand this principle. Proper weight placement can neutralize their offense and force errors, even causing pain. If you ever have the chance to roll with a high level 150lb black belt, they will feel like a ton of bricks on you. This is because they know how and where to properly apply pressure, not because they have super human strength.

This creates openings for a clean, smooth, and efficient pass.

Blending Inside and Outside Passes: Unpredictability is Your Weapon

Vary your passes, forcing your opponent to react to changing attacks. Blend inside and outside passes.

Transition fluidly between toreando and leg drags and follow up with knee cuts inside. Starting outside can set up inside passes - and vise-versa.

Unpredictability keeps them guessing and out of position. As their defense crumbles from the varied attacks, chain your passes intelligently for faster progress.

This is easier said than done - but more of a reason to take your drilling time serious!

Modern Guard Passing: Leg Lock Defense is Essential

With the rise of leg attacks, defense is crucial. A simple slip-up can land you in a dangerous leg entanglement.

Focus on defending against leg locks, a prevalent threat in modern BJJ. Pay attention to both offensive and defensive moves.

Leg lock entries are increasingly common, even among newer players. Inside passing approaches can make someone susceptible to leg submissions, especially when dealing with De La Riva or deep half guard. A properly positioned player, even while sitting, may simply wait for the opening to counter, exploiting weaknesses in common styles like Spider Guard. Even experienced black belts find it valuable to continually learn and refine their BJJ guard passing tips for better success.

Consistent Training + Constant Drilling

Consistent training and constant drilling refines your skills. It helps with proper form and hip placement to avoid giving your opponent a leg advantage. This also complements all the other BJJ guard passing tips.

You adapt and make techniques your own. On-the-mat experience is irreplaceable, whether in a traditional academy or open mat setting.

While online resources, like our BJJ Instructional Library can help a lot, consistent practice is key. This is because hands-on training bridges the gap between theory and application, regardless of the learning method. This is especially true at less popular gyms that may overlook some guard passing tips or don't train specific scenarios. Whether using common or more rare jiu jitsu positions, adopting various approaches improves a student's ability to pass guard. Recognizing these subtleties requires learning a range of maneuvers, adapting to varying weight distribution and grip techniques in both the open guard and the closed guard.

Conclusion

As your jiu jitsu evolves, so should your BJJ guard passing tips and knowledge. With practice, all the elements come together seamlessly. Everything we talked about here in this post revolves around the basics and fundamentals - keep those in mind and the rest will follow.

BJJ is about constant improvement, these techniques should enhance your approach with more consistency than less optimal methods. Consistent training, whether at established academies or open mats, will positively impact your guard passing. As you gain more repetitions, you improve your ability to pass, adapt to various BJJ formats, and even learn the opponent’s tactics along the way, gaining better ability to pass the guard than the opponent.

Guard passing isn’t about brute force; it’s about control, pressure, and timing. Capitalize on weakness and maximize impact without excessive effort.