Drill 3 of 5 · 12 min
Standing Guard Pass Basics
Pass open guards from your feet so you never kneel into triangles, armbars, or hook sweeps.
How to practice
- Start in headquarters position: standing, one knee inside their open guard, hands controlling their shins.
- Practice the toreando: push both legs to one side and circle your body to side control, 10 reps each side.
- Add the leg drag: pull one leg across your body, settle your shoulder on their hip, and pass.
- Chain both passes: if they recover from the toreando, switch directions into the leg drag.
- Partner gives progressive resistance, from cooperative to actively framing, shrimping, and standing up.
- Finish with positional rounds: you start standing over open guard and score only by consolidating side control for three seconds.
Coaching cues
Stay on your feet with a wide, staggered baseTheir feet never touch your hips for freePin the hip before you settle side controlDisengage to striking range whenever the pass is not there
Common mistakes
- Kneeling into the guard and gifting triangle/armbar entries
- Passing without shoulder or hip pressure, letting them re-guard
- Committing to one pass and stalling when it fails instead of chaining
Video references
External YouTube references — third-party content, not affiliated.