Over Under Pass With Jimmy Pedro
It’s always really cool to see two people who are world class at their art communicate with each other and this video definitely fulfills on that front. Bernardo Faria is a four time World Jiu-Jitsu Champion and is known for his mastery of Over Under guard passing. What we’re seeing here is Bernardo keeping that open mind and always being hungry to learn and continue to master his art. That in itself is a huge lesson for everyone and something we should always keep in mind no matter where we are on our journey. Stay interested, keep learning, and have a Mastery mindset to your own journey with your art and the sky really is the limit!
Bernardo is joined by Jimmy Pedro, a four time Olympic Judo competitor and twice Bronze medal Olympic Judoka as well as coach to such greats as Kayla Harrison, Travis Stevens, Rhonda Rousey, Rhadi Ferguson and more besides. What Jimmy shares with Barnardo is a variation of the Over Under guard pass shaped by the different style Judo brings to ne waza (ground techniques), which tends to be more pressure oriented as Judoka have less time on the floor than BJJ players.
Jimmy calls this form of passing Split the Legs pass but it’s the same passing as an Over Under pass. Jimmy starts outside of one leg and allows Bernardo to have a Butterfly guard with that leg as he says in Judo this isn’t a problem. Jimmy’s first goal from here is to control the opposite leg than the leg that has Butterfly guard and so grabs the skirt of the gi, pulling tight around the hip of this leg. At the same time Jimmy wants this leg, the leg that’s opposite the Butterfly hook, under his shoulder so his free hand pushes the inside of the leg away and moves forward to pressure down with his shoulder, which is now past the leg. Now Jimmy is controlling the leg by wrapping the hip with a tight gi grip underneath and pressuring down with his shoulder from above the leg.
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Once this has been achieved Jimmy’s free arm wraps around Bernardo’s leg that started with the Butterfly hook. Jimmy moves his own hips around and towards Bernardo’s head so that Jimmy’s leg that is nearest Bernardo’s head passes Bernardo’s knee and his other leg closes to control Bernardo’s leg, splitting Bernardo’s guard open and taking away mobility in Bernardo’s hips.
Having gained control of Bernardo’s legs and hips and making sure his own leg stays above Bernardo’s knee, Jimmy can now take the arm that was wrapped under Bernardo’s leg and control underneath Bernardo’s head, with his shoulder under the jaw. From here Jimmy flattens himself out and can take his leg furthest away from Bernardo’s hips out and over Bernardo’s leg and drive his knee into Bernardo’s hip to land in side control (yoko shiho gatame in Judo).
If someone is flexible they may try and connect their elbow and knee to prevent Jimmy’s knee gaining that crucial position by their hip. If they do this Jimmy will take the hand that was gripping the skirt of his opponents gi and switch it to the inside pant leg of the leg he’s trying to pass. Taking this grip Jimmy can now pull the opponents’ leg away from connecting with their elbow and retain that important space by their hip to drive his knee into a dominant side control.
Another method people use to defend this pass is that instead of trying to connect their knee and elbow they will use a frame with their hand against Jimmy’s arm to prevent him reaching up and controlling their head. If they do this Jimmy will do a reverse scissor step over his own leg so his bottom leg comes past his top leg and then bring the bottom leg’s knee back into the hip, having now trapped his opponents hand without the need to control the head.
An important detail that Jimmy gives here is that he doesn’t want to start in his opponents guard so instead will give them a Butterfly hook with one leg, which his opponent will feel comfortable taking. This is a nice strategic move that lulls Jimmy’s opponent into a false sense of safety. It’s from here that at each stage of the pass Jimmy is locking down Bernardo’s movement piece-by-piece and Bernardo says that it feels like there’s a huge rock on top of him. It’s hard to move from here!
For more powerful guard passing from Olympian and Olympic coach Jimmy Pedro check out his full course ‘Power Judo Guard Passing’ here!