The one thing I admire most about a good BJJ fighter, is the ability to let their opponent know what submission they’re going for, and despite the best efforts of the opponent to defend, they get it anyways. There are certain go to submissions in everyone’s tool kit. For example, when I roll with Sean, I know for a fact that he is going to try to triangle choke me. I see it coming and I can’t do a gosh dang thing! While I admire the skill it takes for someone to finish a submission even when it is known ahead of time, it gets to me a little when I fall victim. Even when I watch someone fight whom I’ve never faced before, I can tell how they will submit me. lol. Not the best way to think when you are preparing for a possible match up. Oh well. It’s best that I look at it with admiration rather than disdain for my lack of skill.
This week I was working on opening and passing guard by standing. I had few successes and several defeats. I think that being stuck in someone’s guard is the spot where I feel the most helpless. No matter what I try, I can’t seem to break through. I watch videos on different hand positions for control, and different postures to break open the guard. I study theory from the top BJJ players in the world. Nothing seems to work for me. In a perfect world, I wouldn’t have to worry about the guard because I wouldn’t end up in it in the first place. This isn’t a perfect world. More often than not, that’s where I am while on top. Well, I’ll keep at it. That’s the best I can do, right?
Mountains to Mats 
Rodolfo Veira changed my approach to passing the guard. His level changing approach works wonders.
You switch repeatedly between a standing, and sat down guard. Only takes thirty seconds to really confuse your opponent; and neither attempt to stop your pass will have the same effort as if you were just focusing on one position, if that makes sense.
Basically they give up the pass before you’ve even started it.
Thanks for the info! 🙂
I SO relate to this post! 🙂
Watch that, and what follows. It opened my eyes massively. BJJScout is great for that.
I hate to be one of these guys, but don’t worry, things will click eventually. It just sort of happens that way. We try to wrap our minds around a problem and it seems to do no good. Then one day its as if everything falls into place, the light bulb flips on, and the problem isn’t much of a problem anymore. In my experience, our bodies will figure things out faster than we can actually understand the finer details of whats going on. So don’t beat yourself up about it too much.
Question. Are you having trouble getting the guard opened or are you having trouble actually passing?
Mainly opened but also passing
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