John Danaher and Bernardo Faria show us in this video which 5 key elements are necessary for the passing of any guard in BJJ. This is mainly a concept-based approach, with principles that can be applied to multiple types of individual techniques.
Some of the concepts presented in the video:
Table of Contents
Posture and base
The bottom player is always looking, as much as possible, to break our posture and balance (for more info on base, posture and structure take a look at this phenomenal article/video). He is looking to manipulate the position of our head, relative to our hips. His goal is always to bring our head lower than our hips, and to force our hands to the mat against our will. His best way of doing this is to engage in a pulling force with the upper body, and a pushing force with the lower body.
We, as a passer, want the opposite: to raise our heads above the line of our hips. The first thing to get rid of is the hand that is threatening to bend our head down. That way, our passing of the guard becomes second nature in our BJJ arsenal.
Break their points of connection
The bottom player always wants to maintain the four points of connection in order to be maximally efficient (2 legs and 2 hands), while the passer wants to remove those points of connection, in hierarchical order. The most important point of connection is the one that threatens to bend down our head, and thus throws us out of the base.
The four points of connection guarantee that the passer will never make an angle on the bottom player, and thus pass the guard. Danaher advises that we always try, as a passer, to first reduce the points of connections to TWO, and preferably even less.
Distance management
Then, he shows us how important distance management is. If we “divide” the opponent’s body with imaginary demarcation lines, we can always have an orientation at which stage of distance management we are. We never go behind the toe-line, to give our opponent a “free” connection.
“An extended leg is a vulnerable leg”: if the bottom player tries to hook us with his leg(s) while we are outside of his range and are safe within our demarcation lines, he will immediately become very vulnerable on that leg, i.e. we can easily hyperextend it and pass on that side. Knees that go beyond the line of the hips are overextended and easily thrown by. A good man in the bottom position will always keep his knee-line behind his hip-line, and elbows connected to the knees.
Gain advantage in a neutral position
When the knees and frames of the bottom player face the same direction, the frames are incredibly strong. But if we make his knees and his frames facing opposing directions, those frames become very weak, very quickly.
Furthermore, where is the mistake when some talented passer successfully passes the guard, but very quickly all the hard work goes down the drain because he couldn’t maintain the position?
The mistake occurs when people make a premature shift from control of the hips, to control of the head. Danaher explains that every guard pass finishes with the control of the head.
Shut down the hips when consolidating
On the way from transitioning from hips to the head, the opponent’s frames are waiting for us. So, what Danaher emphasizes as the most important principle of this video, the rule is:
Don’t go chasing the head, until you’ve completely shut down your opponent’s hips. Hips first, head second.
Chase his hips with our own knees off the floor, following his movements and shrimping attempts, and thus successfully “killing” his hips again and again. We can’t stop him from moving, but we can follow him in these movements. Whereas, if your knees are firmly seated on the ground, and you impatiently and triumphantly go immediately for the head, a good guard player will successfully re-guard almost every single time.
The key to hip control is not HOLDING – the key to hip control is MOVING.
The 2 key points for our mobility while chasing his hips are:
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- knees off the floor
- short choppy steps
After we have finally nullified our opponent’s hips (when the hips stop moving), then we proceed to the final goal of guard passing in BJJ: chest-to-chest contact, with control of the head and shoulders.
1) 1:00 Posture and base.
2) 7:10 Break their points of connection.
3) 12:10 Distance management.
4) 19:56 Gain advantage in a neutral position.
5) 25:06 Shut down the hips when consolidating.
