Jiu-jitsu can be complicated and as an instructor, I’m always thinking of ways I can simplify things so that my students can simply focus on a specific task or objective to make things much easier.
I got the “task” idea from Greg Souders who seems to be the pioneer of the current meta of “task based games” in jiu-jitsu. [You can look him up, if you’d like (he’s got some great ideas though I don’t agree with all of them)]. The idea here is to give students a very specific objective that they have to latch onto in order to get a win for a specific position.
It’s an interesting idea and aligns somewhat with Danaher’s idea that for every single position there is a specific, “central problem”.
With these two ideas in mind, I’ve been adapting my instruction to merge these two concepts. If A) There is a specific, central problem for EVERY position then B) there can be a specific task that a student has to fulfil in order to overcome that problem.
This rationale has been a strong influence in this whole Jiujitsu Made Simple series. My goal for this series has been to give you that/those specific task/s that overcome the central problems of each position so that all of your techniques will work much more effectively.
With this in mind, today’s post is about one of the most dynamic aspects of jiu-jitsu: Open Guard passing. There is so much mobility and power found in the open guard position that, compared to other positions, it’s one of the harder positions to simplify. Add to that the ridiculous amount of guards there are, and you have a whole other world of complexity.
But we will simplify it today and I’ll give you the number one thing you need to do to make your guard passing easier.
First off, let’s break guard passing down into components. There are four tiers and if you haven’t seen this video, take a look before reading below so this makes more sense. [It’s unlisted and was part of some paid content some weeks back]
The four tiers of guard passing and retention is simple: First you must get passed the feet, then the knees, then the hips, and finally you have to beat the arms and get to the chest for your pin.
Too often, and this was the point of the video above, beginners make the HUGE mistake of trying to advance to one part of the body without beating the preceding part of the body. As example, I see beginners always beat the feet and jump right to the chest without first beating the knees and the hips.
In my opinion, getting passed the feet/ankles is the FIRST and foremost thing you need to be practicing when working your guard passing. Getting passed the feet and creating an angle on your opponent is the easiest way to put them on the defensive. Once they’re defensive, they are simply working from behind and it makes the rest of your guard passing much easier.
In today’s article, I’m going to have some video content showing how to pass this first critical layer of the guard. I’ll cover some of the basics of connection/disconnection as well as moving passed the first layer and how to overcome the first central problem of guard retention/passing to make everything much more effective.
By the end of it, I can assure you you’ll be a much better guard passer IF and ONLY IF you stay focused on this first layer.
Later this week I’ll have a sparring narration for you and then we’ll get into the second part of this series after.
Let’s dive in.
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