pass

I still feel uncomfortable standing up in closed guard. The bottom guy has too much potential to mess with my limbs and base. The Sao Paulo pass is attractive to me who doesn’t feel great about my balance with the standing openings.

A few risks should be immediately apparent: triangles, omoplatas, sweeps. Beyond the submissions, it’s worth considering the details of leverage that the bottom guy would use to resist the pass.

Moves always seem great during demos. Everything is so much more complicated during an actual roll. Does this even work!?

Here are some matches with Leonardo Noguiera using this pass:

He tries it repeatedly in this match with Xande Ribeiro. Nogueira repeatedly opens Xande’s guard, but Xande recovers.

He used the pass on Buchecha:

Getting out of closed guard is tough.

Yeah, but won’t you get swept doing that!? Not necessarily:

For funsies, here’s Keenan dismissing the utility of a commonly taught guard opening approach. He concludes that Kesting’s move is the way to go. I think Kesting’s details are more helpful, but if you need a reason to give up the traditional knee in the butt approach, Keenan’s here for you: