Two people are wrestling on a blue mat.

Passing the guard to back attacks in BJJ


Passing the guard to back attacks in BJJ

Passing the guard to back attacks in BJJ has very good percentages as far as eventually getting a submission. Try passing guard as a route to the back. When you first begin the study of Jiu-Jitsu, you learn to pass the guard into top control of upper body, or usually side mount but sometimes directly to mount. As you go against better and better opponents, you will soon find that they employ many methods of guard retention that make passing very difficult. It can be a very frustrating thing to run into the many roadblocks that good opponents can create to your favorite passes. Understand however, that many of these methods of guard retention are intended to stop passes into top control, but many times in doing so they very often create momentary back exposure to take the back and attack. You must have your mind programmed to jump on this new opportunity immediately because it won’t be there for long. Every sequence of guard passing versus guard retention is essentially a prolonged scramble and as such, the back is one of the best targets. Program your mind to hunt for the back in these scrambles just as much as you do for the side mount and you will double your chances of a score against tough guards. Here at Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com), we have an entire system once we get to the back to increase our chances of the submission. Drill these opportunities and watch your game grow.