Closed Guard Pass

Continuing on with the guard passing that I’ve been working on…

Closed Guard Pass

1. Maintain my posture by keeping head up, flexing my butt and hips to resist him breaking me down with his hips and legs.
2. Right hand rolls up partner’s lapels and grabs it (makes it harder for him to open up his gi to break my grip).   Maintain tension on the lapels so that he feels me pulling him down, controlling his body with my grip (kill all slack).
3. Left hand grab his gi pants along the outside of his right hip, with my elbow outside of this right knee, this will help protect from triangles.
4. Open my left knee out, then slide my right knee into his left butt cheek, straightening my right hip (so there is no ramp or ledge for him to climb his hips on).
5. Windshield wipe my right shin out as I turn my trunk to my left and my let knee is up and bent (more than 90 degrees), so that I’m now in a side lunge facing his left.  My right knee, hip, and shoulder are in a straight vertical line.  My right shin is acting as a kickstand.
6. At same time my left hand lets go of his hip pants and moves, palm down to his left knee to maintain tension on his legs.
7. If his guard is still closed, I can sit back on my butt to create more space and force his legs open.
8. Once his legs are open, my right hand grabs his left lapel and pulls him down, causing him to have a left lateral side bend, pulling his head towards his left ankle
9. At same time, my left hand becomes a hook, with my forearm against his knee and hand hooked around his thigh, while my left knee, sweeps underneath his right leg and is planted inside his right thigh, with the knee up.  Now my trunk is facing him head on.
10. I lean forward and staple his right thigh down with my left shin, and as my left knee touches the ground, my right foot is planted on the ground and scoots my knee up so that it is now controlling his left leg.  My left arm is also reaching around behind his head, so the antecubital fossa is directly against his right ear, with my shoulder pressing into his face.
11. My right knee is up controlling his left leg, my left knee is down next to his right hip stapling his right thigh, now I try to squeeze my knees together to increase the pressure on his hips.
12. If his left arm has under-hooked my right armpit, I use my right hand to reach behind his left ankle, controlling his left knee, and I open my hips and take a step back with my right foot, and replacing my left knee with my right knee, up against his right hip.
13. If my right arm has managed to under-hook his left armpit, then I open my left knee out, maintaining the staple over his distal right thigh or knee, and bring my right knee to staple over his proximal right thigh.
14. Once my right knee has completed the staple over his proximal right thigh, I free my left leg out and sweep his right knee with my right knee down towards his feet, ending up in a cross-face side control.

After step 9, if I am too late in leaning forward and he is able to insert his left knee onto my chest, I can still continue on as long has his knee hasn’t passed the line of my sternum.

As long as it hasn’t passed my sternum I can continue to lean forward and neutralize his left knee by simply opening my right shoulder out.

If his knee has passed my sternum, then it’s strong enough to prevent me from leaning forward, and I have to change to another pass… threading the needle with my right hand, which I haven’t gone over yet.