Open Guard – ALL BJJ

Passing the guard can be frustrating for white belts in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Most rolls start on the knees and most experienced BJJ fighters will sit back and play an open guard, leaving the white belt stuck trying to get past their legs. Charging into an opponent’s open guard without a plan usually leads to sweeps that put you on the bottom in a bad situation.

The double under guard pass in BJJ is a simple pass that drives your opponent back onto their shoulders and off their hips, taking away their power and giving you a path around their legs and into side control.

The great Keenan Cornelius shows this double under guard pass that is simple enough for a white belt to learn but powerful enough to still be a part of his game at the highest level of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Start: Opponent’s open guard

Step 1: Push one of opponent’s knees to the ground

Step 2: Underhook opponent’s free leg and get their knee over your shoulder

Step 3: Give up pin and underhook that leg

Step 4: Reach your top side arm (with the knee on your shoulder) across opponent’s body to secure control of that leg

Step 5: Get cross-collar grip with top side hand

Step 6: Drive into opponent, forcing them off their hips and onto their shoulder (keep your head down to prevent opponent from untying the pass)

Step 7: Switch hips into opponent and shrug past their top side leg, letting it fall

Finish: Side Control

Passing someone’s open guard is one of the essential parts of your Brazilian Jiu Jitsu game. If you can’t pass someone’s open guard, your best case scenario is to land in their closed guard, at which point you’d better have a good arm bar and triangle defense or a foolproof closed guard pass or you’ll be in big trouble.

The baseball slide guard pass, sometimes called the knee slice guard pass or knee slide guard pass, is a tricky pass because if you make a mistake you run the risk of giving your back to your opponent. But if executed well, this pass can have a very high success rate. This is why it’s a part of the Gracie Jiu Jitsu Blue Belt test curriculum.

This video breakdown of the baseball bat slide includes the legendary Xande Ribiero, who is featured heavily in his brother Saulo Ribiero’s famous Jiu Jitsu University book (which should be in every BJJ practitioner’s library). Xande’s video includes two different grip variations and a bunch of little details that will help you execute this guard pass perfectly

Start: Standing, opponent on back playing open guard

Step 1: Step one leg in between opponent’s a deep as possible

Step 2: Get cross-collar grip as deep as possible

Step 3: Post free hand as high and far from opponent’s head as possible

Step 4: Slice knee over opponent’s hip between their elbow and knee while stepping free leg outside

Step 5: Move outside posting hand to opponent’s sleeve and use both hands to push-oull opponent’s arm, straightening it and preventing him from using it to slow your pass

Step 6: Slide knee through until foot is past opponent’s hip and proceed to side control

Tag: Open Guard

How To Do A Double Under Pass in BJJ

How to Do a Baseball Slide Pass in BJJ