This week on Gracie Barra Blog we are looking at some techniques and strategies to pass various open guard styles.

With so many different open guard games, the passer needs a number of different guard pass techniques to address different situations. Remember: the right tool for the right job.

No single guard pass works for all situations, and more advanced passers will combine their favorite few passes and switch between them as the opponent counters. It is important to have an arsenal of the most important passes and learn to combine them to have a potent passing game.

Let’s take a look at some variations of the open guard pass as demonstrated by some of the best Gracie Barra black belt instructors.

Prof. Marcio Feitosa shows one of the most versatile and widely used open guard passes: the Toreando or Bullfighter Guard pass.

This is an example of a classic stacking pressure pass. Prof. Flavio Almeida controls the leg of the opponent on his shoulder and apply heavy pressure to pass the defensive legs.

there are different styles of passing : speed or distance passing and pressure passing. This pressure pass is commonly used to pass the formidable Z-Guard.

This is one of the highest percentage passes against the popular De la Riva Guard as taught by Prof. Philipe Della Monica. If you aren’t proficient at this pass, you may well get swept from DLR guard.

A few weeks ago we featured some variations on the X-Guard (see link below). Do you know how to pass this powerful style of leg entanglement? prof. Kiko shows us how he does it.

Credits: Mark Mullen

Gracie Barra Black belt based in Asia

Instagram: markmullen.bjj