It’s been a while since my professor has showed me a pressure pass so I wanted to develop this aspect of the game myself. Not that I hate the guys at my gym, I just don’t want them falling asleep while I pass their guard.

A good guard pass is, I think, attributed to either timing or pressure. With timing, one would try to misdirect the guard player and capitalize on the energy to pass the guard. Pressure passes uses the weight of the passer to pass the guard.

First things first. We are in front of a computer and want some information on pressure passing. While discovering new moves, I like to take a page out of the playbook of champions. See what they are doing in competition, as that will probably be the highest percentage pass.

I will try to dissect the passing game of four of the most famous guard passers as of recently/now. Rodolfo Vieira (Pesado), Bernardo Faria (Pesado) and Murilo Santana (Médio) and Fredson Paixao (Peso Pena).

In part one, we will be discussing Rodolfo.

Rodolfo Vieira

Vieira is a crowd pleasing player, with a strong takedown game and lots of pressure passing. Although, while watching his matches I also noticed he uses some timing passes. He uses an excellent combination of both timing/pressure.

A big part off his game is using the crossface while sitting high in the half guard. Using the crossface, he will flatten out the half guard player, as he is on his weakest while on his back. Using the pressure generated by this, he tries a variation of a lot of guard passes until he succeeds.

At Accademia Kama Seregno he showed this kind of passing while using the knee slide.

Look at the bottom guy his hand. That’s the kind of pressure we want.

Besides the crossface, Rodolfo will also use a cross collar choke, face crank, underhook, … to put him into position for a knee slide which is one of his favorite passes. But the beauty lies in the fact that he can chain them together with over/unders with the flair of a gazelle.

What is more interesting than theory is of course the practical application. Let’s watch some competition Rodolfo.

A match versus Galvao should be very interesting to watch as both of these competitors favor the top position. This translates in the first part of the match (after a beautiful takedown by Vieira at 02:09) when both guys fight for top position. Galvao manages to sweep at the four minute mark and starts working double unders at 04:27 but is not able to complete the pass. At 04:40 Vieira comes up for the single leg and now it is his time to start passing. Twice.

Watch the Vieira x Faria 2014 IBJJF Worlds Black Belt Open Weight match for some more beautiful guard passing.