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You’ve worked hard to break Guard and pass but now you find yourself stuck in your opponents half guard. It’s so frustrating but actually it’s not a bad position if you’re on top as you have great options for ground and pound but this post is not about that, it’s about passing the Half guard to attain the mount so you can really punish your opponent and finish the fight.  I’ve used this highly effective Half Guard pass with great success for years and thought I would share it by showing you this Jeff Joslin video where Jeff breaks down the way BJ Penn used this pass in one of his fights. What I really like about this pass is that it’s not overly complex. In fact, it’s actually quite simple to learn once you understand the basic principles invoved and it works like a charm in both BJJ and MMA.  More than that, its a great starting point for your Half guard passing skills as there are actually many options and variations that you can add to your game later.

Here are the basic steps:

• Squeeze his leg tightly between your thighs to limit his hip movement.
• Establish the cross face. For this pass, I like to keep my head on the same side as my underhook to put pressure on his neck and face.
• Get the underhook with the far arm.
• Flatten him out, don’t let him get onto his side.
• Crush his neck with your shoulder. (Be careful not to hurt your smaller training partners)
• Step up onto the sole of your foot to bring your inside knee up.
• Use your palm or elbow to push his knee away and quickly underhook his arm again.
• Bring your inside knee over his thigh and escape your foot out. (In a perfect world you’re already out and in the mount but normally the guy will grab your foot with his legs – I’ve heard people call this the quarter guard, not sure if it means anything)
• Bring your outside knee up to create space for you to place the top of your foot onto his thigh.
• Push into his face with your shoulder to put him under pressure and push down with your foot to give you leverage to bring your other foot out.
• As you pull out, be prepared for him to try to bridge and turn into your Guard. Stay calm and adjust your balance to to take the mounted position where you can finish him.

Related posts:

1. Here’s a little Half Guard secret to help you out of trouble.
2. MMA training – How to do a sweep from the deep half guard.