The guard is easily the most recognizable position in all of brazilian jiu jitsu. From UFC I with Royce Gracie shocking the world by defeating opponents off his back to modern day aficionados like Ryan Hall and Marcelo Garcia, the guard has always been cool. But what about passing the guard? When it comes to brazilian jiu jitsu guard passing is like Eli Manning, sorry Giants fans it’s just a fact that Peyton is way cooler. However you can not count out the importance of Eli and his contributions to the game! Guard passing will always live in the shadow of its much cooler counterpart but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t devote the time to perfecting it.
The foremost principle of guard passing that you want to recognize is that passing the guard is never a fair fight! It is always two against one. What does that mean? Simply put it means it is me and gravity against you! You as the guard player have your technique and I as the guard passer have my technique PLUS gravity. So the advantage is clearly mine. This is of course the theory. How then do you put this into practice? Well if I told you the answer now you wouldn’t have a reason to come check out the curriculum at Scranton MMA! See you on the mats!