Guard passing can be very hard to learn, but it’s very important to become good at BJJ. One thing that helps a lot is to be aware of which guard passes there are. Once you open your eyes to all the possibilities, you’ll glide through guards by taking what your opponent gives you (instead of getting tunnel vision). So let’s take a look at all the BJJ guard passes you can use.
Table of Contents
What is a guard pass?
A guard pass is a technique that gets you past your opponent’s guard. You complete a guard pass when you get past your opponent’s legs and establish a controlling pin (side control, mount, or north-south) for at least 3 seconds. In most IBJJF tournaments you score 3 points for a completed guard pass, making it one of the highest-scoring actions in competition.
How to pass guard in 2 Simple steps
There’s two steps to guard passing in BJJ:
- Escape the guard you’re in (break grips, strip hooks, and disentangle your legs from guards like closed guard, worm guard, single leg x guard, etc.)
- Do a guard pass (such as a knee slice, leg drag, etc.)
These two aspects sometimes happen at the same time, and sometimes you don’t need both. It’s actually ideal if you can skip the first step. But very often you first need to escape from your opponent’s guard, and then you can go for a pass.
How to master guard passing in BJJ
To become truly good at guard passing, you need to develop 3 separate skills:
- Escaping guards by breaking grips and disentangling hooks
- Avoiding sweeps and submissions by having great balance and solid position at all times
- Attacking and combining guard passes
And you should begin with attacking and combining guard passes so you can put pressure on your opponents. And you don’t need to learn all guard passes right away. Our guide to guard passing instructionals breaks down which passes work best at each belt level and why.
Which guard pass works against which guard?
You can pass almost any guard with any guard pass. The combinations are endless, especially if you go through intermediate positions (like the headquarters position) or if you disentangle all the grips first.
Nevertheless, some guard passes work naturally against some guard positions. Here’s an overview of such combinations:
| Guard | Guard Pass |
| Closed guard | Knee slide, near side knee through, double under pass |
| Half guard | Knee slide, leg weave, over/under pass |
| De la riva guard | Knee slide, smash pass, leg drag |
| Reverse de la riva guard | Knee slide, X pass, leg drag |
| Butterfly guard | Smash pass |
| Single x guard | Back step pass, knee slide |
| X guard | Back step pass, long step |
| Spider guard | Throw by pass |
| Lasso guard | Toreando, knee slide |
Also read: All Guards in BJJ: an exhaustive list
1. Toreando / Toreada / Bull fighter pass
Works against: open guard
One of the most versatile and widely used guard passes is the Toreando or bull fighter pass. It’s called the bull fighter pass because a common variation is that you push your opponent’s legs towards him, and when he pushes back, you step to the side with perfect timing like a bull fighter against a bull.
There are many variations of the Toreando, each suited to different grips and postures. The most common grips are pants at the knee or ankle, and some no-gi players use shin-on-shin control instead. What all Toreandos share is that you control your opponent’s legs and pass around them. A common mistake is bending at the waist instead of driving with your legs, which kills your speed and lets your opponent recover guard.
2. Knee slide / Knee Slice / Knee cut / Knee through pass
Works against: half guard, reverse de la riva, de la riva
The knee slide (also called the knee cut or knee through pass) is a guard pass that is often used at the highest levels of BJJ competition. It’s usually initiated from a position in which one of the opponent’s legs is trapped in between the passer’s legs, such as reverse de la riva or half guard.
Knee slides are very versatile: you can run them fast with a collar grip to blow through the guard, or slow and heavy with an underhook and crossface to grind past half guard. The key detail most beginners miss is the angle of the sliding knee – it should slice diagonally across your opponent’s thigh, not push straight down. Gordon Ryan and the Danaher squad treat the knee slide as the centerpiece of their passing system, and it shows up in almost every high-level match.
3. Near side knee through
Works against: de la riva, headquarters position, closed guard
The near side knee through pass is similar to the knee slide, but the difference is that in the knee slide you pass to the opposite side of the leg you’re using, and in the near side knee through you pass to the side of the leg you’re pushing through the guard. An advantage of the near side knee through compared to the knee slide is that you don’t necessarily need to step over one of your opponent’s legs first.
4. leg drag
Works against: open guard, de la riva guard
In the leg drag you grab your opponent’s ankle or pants and pull that leg across your body, pinning it to your hip. Your inside knee drops to the mat next to their hip to block guard recovery. The leg drag is a staple of modern open guard passing because it chains naturally with the Toreando and X pass. Competitors like the Mendes brothers and the Miyao brothers built entire passing games around the leg drag. A common mistake is not controlling the far-side collar or underhook after the drag, which lets your opponent turn into you and reguard.
5. Smash pass
Works against: half guard, headquarters, butterfly guard
The smash pass is a pressure pass in which you flatten your opponent’s legs together using your body weight. You typically drop your hip or chest onto both of their thighs, pinching their knees together so they can’t create any frames or hooks. The key is keeping your hips low and heavy while walking your feet around to complete the pass. If you do it right, your opponent literally cannot move their legs, giving you a free path to side control or mount. Bernardo Faria and Lucas Lepri are two of the best examples of high-level smash passers.
6. Leg weave pass
Works against: open guard, half guard
The leg weave pass is similar to the smash pass, but instead using your hips or belly to smash your opponent’s legs to the floor, you use your shoulder. The advantage of this is that your legs are free to move around your opponent, and the drawback is that you naturally have less pressure.
7. Throw by
Works against: spider guard, spider lasso guard, open guard
For the throw by grab one of your opponent’s gi pants and throw that leg explosively past your body. The difference with the leg drag is that for the throw by you stand up straight and thus use all your dead lift muscles to get the leg passed you explosively. But, you can also use the throw by and then drop down again to stabilize in a leg drag position.
8. Over under pass
Works against: half guard
The over/under guard pass gets its name from the grip configuration: one arm threads under your opponent’s leg, the other controls over the top leg. This gives you a powerful clamp that pins both legs in place.
The over/under is a classic pressure pass and is usually initiated from half guard. Bernardo Faria built his entire competition career around this pass, winning multiple world championships with it. The trick is driving your shoulder forward into your opponent’s hip while walking your legs around. A common mistake is lifting your head, which relieves the pressure and lets your opponent create space to reguard.
9. Double under pass
Works against: open guard, half guard, closed guard (after you break it open)
For the double under pass you pass both your arms under your opponent’s legs, and then you usually try to stack him. From the stacked position, you get a thumb-in cross collar grip and use that to push your opponent’s legs out of the way.
Alternatively, you can use the double under to set up the stack position and then pass in some other way, such as with a leg drag.
10. Long step
Works against: single x guard, headquarters, reverse de la riva
The long step is an explosive guard pass that requires good hip mobility and timing. To execute it, you switch your hips 180 degrees to launch your trapped leg far behind you, clearing your opponent’s guard entirely. You need to land immediately with strong upper body pressure – a tight crossface and your shoulder driving into their jaw. The timing is everything: if you’re too slow, your opponent will follow your hips and reguard. Although the long step takes time to learn, it’s one of the most common passes at the black belt level, especially in no-gi where leg entanglements make standing passes riskier.
11. Cross grip / Crazy dog pass
Works against: open guard
The cross grip pass is one of the strongest passes in Brazilian jiu jitsu according to Keenan Cornelius. What’s great about it is that as soon as you get a cross grip on your opponent’s gi pants, it becomes hard for your opponent to set up a good guard.
The cross grip pass is also sometimes called the mad dog pass, because once you have the cross pants grip, you really also want the collar on the same side with your other hand, and if your opponents is denying this it can lead you to kind of keep running in circles trying to get that grip.
12. X pass / High step pass
Works against: headquarters position
The X pass is one of the best passes to learn early on. You start from the headquarters position (standing with one leg between your opponent’s legs). To execute it, you mule kick your lead leg backward to free it, then immediately use your hands to push your opponent’s legs to the mat while stepping around. The name comes from the X-shaped path your leg travels. I had a lot of success with this pass as a blue belt, and it remains effective at every level because it’s fast and hard to predict. The key mistake beginners make is not pushing the legs down firmly enough before stepping around, which lets the opponent re-hook.
13. Cartwheel pass
Works against: butterfly guard, open guard
The cartwheel pass works best against butterfly guard, where your opponent is sitting up with hooks in. As they go for a butterfly sweep, you cartwheel over their legs in the direction of the sweep, using their momentum against them. You can also use it against open guard to create movement and scrambles, but it’s harder to finish the pass cleanly from open guard because you leave a lot of space for your opponent to recover.
Best Guard Passing Instructionals
If you want to take your guard passing to the next level, check out these guides where we review the top instructionals in detail:
- Best Guard Passing Instructionals – Our #1 ranked guide covering 15+ DVDs and courses
- Best Pressure Passing Instructionals – For smash pass and over/under specialists
- Best BJJ Instructionals Overall – Top picks across all positions
- Best Instructionals for Beginners – If you are just starting out
