The Step Through Pass

Gerbiljiujitsu

Purple Belt
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Recently one of my intermediate students asked me how people pass my Guard. I explained to him that this pass was done to me frequently while I lived in Brazil and I absolutely hate having it done to me. It's quick, it's effective, it's easy, you look like a fool when it's done to you and, most importantly, it's VERY difficult to recover from once someone has stepped through.

With that being said there are a number of different setups that you can use for this pass. Basically any time you are standing and your opponent does not have direct control of your legs you can do this. After I showed it in class a few months back everyones been hitting it frequently (even on me).

This pass works both gi and no gi. It works when they are seated up and when their back is on the floor. If people are interested in seeing it done in no gi for when someone butt flops guard I can show it as well, just let me know if you're interested.

It is very important that your opponent does not have a grip on your legs. In the event that they do get a grip on your legs you will probably want to do something else.

When stepping through the gap make sure that you step with the top of your foot towards the belt and lead with the toes. This angles your hips and your shin to set up an effective pass on the other side. You dont want to land flat on your foot as it will make it difficult to make other transitions as needed. Make sure you land on the balls of your feet with your knee on the belly. This will be one of the few times that you will be able to maintain KoB after passing as it traps them with both of their feet off the floor.

The trapping of your opponent with both feet off the floor is important for the domination of this move. You achieve this by pulling up with the hand between your legs. As you practice this you will realize that it is odd feeling as there are not many other moves where you are standing pulling straight up into your own crotch but the angle will change greatly if you try to pull across your thigh. I refer to this pulling up and holding KoB as "peacocking". This is your oppertunity to smile and look good for the pictures.

Once you have achieved your points or your opponent is squirming so much that you cant maintain the grips anymore it's time to transition into the next position. You can now let go of the leg between your legs and immediately crossface to flatten your opponent back out.

or

You can do what I did in the competition and spin to the back. Any time that I start to pass the Guard standing I aknwolege that I am doing so without the underhook. You can take the gamble and try to keep them on their side and flatten them out with the shoulder in the face but the truth is as you get better it is VERY difficult to do this in a quick motion from standing to the floor. In this event (any time I dont have the underhook), I prefer to spin to the back.



here it is in the tournament as well



pass starts at 1:57
 
Beautiful pass, love it. Shall be trying this when I'm back to the gym on Thursday.
 
Can't wait to try this. The start reminded me a lot of the slam and go pass. What should you grab in no-gi for these type of passes? Where grabbing the gi at the knees isn't an option?
 
I use this pass, but was missing a couple of details. Thanks for this Gerbil.
 
I'm guessing this isn't going to work if the person on the bottom grabs your sleaves?
 
Can't wait to try this. The start reminded me a lot of the slam and go pass. What should you grab in no-gi for these type of passes? Where grabbing the gi at the knees isn't an option?

You dont take any grips at all. It's actually really slick and quite effective. I'll film it next time I do techniques. It will be my first no gi move on the channel.

I'm guessing this isn't going to work if the person on the bottom grabs your sleaves?

Sleeve grips really arent a problem. You do the same thing. Now if they start getting hooks with their feet that can be a problem (combined with hand grips).
 
loving this pass. i love to pass open guard with the knee slide and it's getting predictable. time to drill.

Thanks a lot!
 
i use step through in combination with other passes and it works beautifully. I do not use it by itself yet.
 
Cool. I use a move similar to this in a judo context. However, I prefer to transfer right knee grip (on uke) from left hand to right hand as I am crossing over. This I feel prevents him from turning over and escaping the pin, much like what happened in the match you posted. From there you can move to yoko shiho gatame.
 
Great pass. I always used it and never knew there was an official name or anything for it. Works well.

I have a good guard and there's a certain purple belt in my gym who is able to get me on my back and then completely kill my hip mobility barely touching me. He then steps through in slow motion which always leaves me shaking my head.
 
How would this work in No Gi with no grips??? Pushing the knees down and then step through? I guess there is no peacocking just straight to cross face? Thanks for the technique!!
 
If you do a no gi vid, I'd love to see how you deal with people trying to put you in 50/50 as you step over.
 
If you do a no gi vid, I'd love to see how you deal with people trying to put you in 50/50 as you step over.

Tried this pass and got 50/50ed. How do you avoid this?

Would love more detail on no-gi version as well.
 
is this preferential to just leapfrogging the legs with that face-hump pass? more control using neon belly as a stopgap?
 
Great pass!!

For no gi check out marcelo garcia,he is a genius at this pass and has an instructional out on it,havent seen it on mginaction as im not a member but im sure it was the marcelo garcia 3 dvd.
 
Tried this pass and got 50/50ed. How do you avoid this?

Would love more detail on no-gi version as well.

I'm no black belt, but maybe keep your grip and keep your hips forward, I tried this and when I had my back rounded I got 50/50d. But maybe if you keep your hips forward and keep that grip on the leg, you should be okay.
 
Cheers to the Gerbil! I love your stuff, simple and effective! I will be bringing this one to the gym this week as people are getting used to the last slam and go pass of yours i brought to the gym. They are actually starting to turn in to defend it a little and will be caught off guard by this new one and then i will peacock!!!!! once i get my points, instead of crossface and position i will simply stand up and do a victory lap.......... that is all.:icon_neut
 
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