Anyone else awful at passing low/pressure passing? How to improve?

Orion

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Early on in my grappling I tried to do a lot of low passing and passes like this but would usually fuck them up and get triangled etc. Typical white belt stuff, but this prompted to me start passing on the feet utilizing knee cutting, x-passes, long stepping, using the Galvao torreando etc from thereon. It solved my immediate problem with the errors I was habitually committing on the knees/low and so I stuck with it.

After a couple years of that and some suggestion by my instructor to try and hone a low pressure game to try and leverage some of my physical strength (powerlifting background), I watched Faria's DVD and have been trying to give the over under/ double under style game another go and it's just a mess. Seems like I always find a way to get knocked off balance while tripoding, allow a guy to create space to utilize butterfly or bicep rides, get caught with bad entries when trying to enter the passes from standing, or eventually end up in the glorious triangle trap.

By default I've just been going back to standing passes when I'm getting stuffed and swept in these rolls and I'm not sure where to go from here. When passing low it always feels like I'm diving into a danger zone and passing on the feet seems to make more sense to my brain. On the other hand, it'd be cool to not have to deal with DLR etc.

Should I keep trying to hone this or just try to improve what typically works for me already on the feet? Any advice for improving the low/pressure game as a standing passer?
 
I would recommend checking out Paul Schreiner's dvd. It has really good stuff on it

https://www.digitsu.com/paul-schreiner-precise-pressure-passing-dvd-p-193.html

The Ryan Hall passing dvd is good as well however it has more types of passing than just pressure passing.

You may want to find any information you can on Murilo Santana.







If you want to continue to try and get better at pressure passing you are going to have to continue to practice it. This means you will need to make a decision to stop passing on your feet/standing when you feel like you are in trouble. Just keep trying it in class while training especially with newer students. Eventually you will find one or two that work for you then try them on upper belts. Then once you feel a little bit more comfortable with it go for it in competition.

If you are competing soon, just stick with what works for you.
 
if i cant pass standing then i like to force half guard and pass from there. I use the basic halfguard pass with a crossface unless they have a kneeshield in which case i try to smash it and knee-slice like rafa mendes in this video:

...if you get good at creating pressure and chaining those passes plus maybe a few more like over-under, then you will be passing most peoples guards like butter in no time
 
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The over under is the only pass I do and it works pretty well for me. I like pressure passing because, as opposed to dynamic passes like the x pass/torreano, there's less space available to move around in, and I can focus on putting myself in a tightly controlled area, and it simplifies the pass for me. Somehow having tons of space to fly around everywhere just makes the movements way too complicated for me.

That being said, what works for me might not work for you and vice versa. If you're gonna practice the over under, I think the most important part is driving your head to your opponents hip. Be really aggressive with it.

Other things: flex your legs and keep them tight. If they're loose your opponent can put you off balance easily. Also, when you're comfortable with the basic position don't be afraid to lunge into it. I find if I'm too cautious/slow in setting up it gets easily countered. Oh, and keep your 'over' arm straight or you'll be kimura'd.
 
The over under is the only pass I do and it works pretty well for me. I like pressure passing because, as opposed to dynamic passes like the x pass/torreano, there's less space available to move around in, and I can focus on putting myself in a tightly controlled area, and it simplifies the pass for me. Somehow having tons of space to fly around everywhere just makes the movements way too complicated for me.

That being said, what works for me might not work for you and vice versa. If you're gonna practice the over under, I think the most important part is driving your head to your opponents hip. Be really aggressive with it.

Other things: flex your legs and keep them tight. If they're loose your opponent can put you off balance easily. Also, when you're comfortable with the basic position don't be afraid to lunge into it. I find if I'm too cautious/slow in setting up it gets easily countered. Oh, and keep your 'over' arm straight or you'll be kimura'd.
Thanks for the details on this. This has turned in to my favorite pass, but sometimes I have trouble when my opponent uses stiff arms to prevent me from finishing.
 
Thanks for the details on this. This has turned in to my favorite pass, but sometimes I have trouble when my opponent uses stiff arms to prevent me from finishing.

If theyre really really good at stiff arming I haven't figured out how to deal with that either. I think having really good shoulder pressure with the 'over arm' to the point where they feel like they're gonna pass out is probably the key, ala faria, but I'm definitely not there yet
 
Early on in my grappling I tried to do a lot of low passing and passes like this but would usually fuck them up and get triangled etc. Typical white belt stuff, but this prompted to me start passing on the feet utilizing knee cutting, x-passes, long stepping, using the Galvao torreando etc from thereon. It solved my immediate problem with the errors I was habitually committing on the knees/low and so I stuck with it.

After a couple years of that and some suggestion by my instructor to try and hone a low pressure game to try and leverage some of my physical strength (powerlifting background), I watched Faria's DVD and have been trying to give the over under/ double under style game another go and it's just a mess. Seems like I always find a way to get knocked off balance while tripoding, allow a guy to create space to utilize butterfly or bicep rides, get caught with bad entries when trying to enter the passes from standing, or eventually end up in the glorious triangle trap.

By default I've just been going back to standing passes when I'm getting stuffed and swept in these rolls and I'm not sure where to go from here. When passing low it always feels like I'm diving into a danger zone and passing on the feet seems to make more sense to my brain. On the other hand, it'd be cool to not have to deal with DLR etc.

Should I keep trying to hone this or just try to improve what typically works for me already on the feet? Any advice for improving the low/pressure game as a standing passer?

How much do you weigh? I think bjjscout made a comment about how you see more pressure passing with bigger guys and more timing passes with the lighter guys. I'm 170 but I'm pretty successful with my pressure passes. I stole Ryan hall's over under /double under passing from his deep half DVD. Works great for me
 
How much do you weigh? I think bjjscout made a comment about how you see more pressure passing with bigger guys and more timing passes with the lighter guys. I'm 170 but I'm pretty successful with my pressure passes. I stole Ryan hall's over under /double under passing from his deep half DVD. Works great for me

I'm 190-195lbs at 5'11
 
Honestly, learning to pass with pressure is just going to suck for a little while.

Be preemptive and drill Triangle counters so you feel confident being in the jaws of the lion.

My pressure passing style is a little different than the popular and effective tripping style. My goal is to isolate parts of the body one step at a time and place my core on top of it while I use better arm positioning to move up the body till I have a dominant position.

For example control the foot (while standing. Pin it to the floor. Get their knee parallel to the floor and place my weight on the hamstring move up the body with the under hook and pass.

Foot > hamstring> chest > pass from half guard.

The key is to make sure my opponent can’t post on my body. If they do, I shift my hips and continue. If I lose the underhook I reset.

Works well for me against anyone of any size and I weigh a mediocre 185-190 at 5’10.
 
I found Bernardo Faria's Pressure Passing Encyclopedia DVD quite useful for over under passing. I also saw great use from the Murilo Sanata studies linked above. I'm only a blue belt so take my word for what it is but I find it useful to also look at Khabib's game, the way he latches onto people like an angry koala and relentlessly climbs up. I do this against fellow blue belts and white belts, which doesn't look or feel super technical sometimes but it really helped me get used to applying pressure as a small guy. When I try to implement the same game on higher belts though I get punished badly so results may vary :)
 
I'm only a blue belt so take my word for what it is but I find it useful to also look at Khabib's game, the way he latches onto people like an angry koala and relentlessly climbs up. I do this against fellow blue belts and white belts, which doesn't look or feel super technical sometimes but it really helped me get used to applying pressure as a small guy.


Yuri Simoes passes the same way; i call it 'climbing the ladder' sometimes.

In pretty much any situation, he's always looking for the bodylock, which he'll use to control the other guy and advance position. If they are blocking him with a knee shield, he'll grab around the legs and cinch them together like a double leg, and go around the side, pulling them up into a leg drag like position to stabilize.
 
Should I keep trying to hone this or just try to improve what typically works for me already on the feet? Any advice for improving the low/pressure game as a standing passer?
I think it's worth honing. it takes a lot of time. be patient with yourself. it's tough to get the balance of how to project your weight without running into triangles and stuff.

You could also play a low game with more standing style passing. Leo Vieira is the quintessential guy for this. Ryan Hall's guard passing dvd has an entire section devoted to Leo Vieira style passing. Basically Leo does kneeling passing but he stays on the perimeter and still does leg drags and windshield wiper style passing. So he sort of combines the side to side leg redirection standing passing style with kneeling on the floor.

I'd definitely study some Leo Vieira if you want to work kneeling passing but like the passes that work best on the feet.
 
Just watched the BJJ Scout study on Yuri. This is great stuff, now I have to buy his dvd lol
 
If theyre really really good at stiff arming I haven't figured out how to deal with that either. I think having really good shoulder pressure with the 'over arm' to the point where they feel like they're gonna pass out is probably the key, ala faria, but I'm definitely not there yet
if they wont let you finish the over-under pass then try to catch a dog-bar (knee bar) on their bottom leg.
 
if you can step over the leg and get your knee under their knee to turn their hips away (or at least flat)that straight arm isnt nearly as powerful. its when they are on their side a little and angled when that straight arm becomes a big issue. sometimes you can get to a leg drag type position from there and use outside hand to grip on their pants by the hip and you get good control
 
lots of details to the over under, and lots of feel required, therefore lots of places to screw up. im actually gonna do some vids on this soon as its one of my favourite passes.

as for the stiff arm, if you can clear the legs and theyre stiff arming you so you cant get a good side control you can follow what i go through in this video:

 
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