Yanni Hronakis shows you one way to pass from half guard to side control effectively.
Now that you have smashed the knee and ended up in half guard what do you do? In the video Yanni Hronakis shows how to isolate your opponent’s arm. Usually, that is the arm with which people like to use to get under the outside leg. Before you pass, your priority should be to isolate that arm. Otherwise, people will use it as a frame for your hips.
In the Gi, you have the option of collecting it and using the Gi material to keep it in place as you slide the inside leg out of the guard. However, in No-Gi you could try pinning that arm down. Get wrist control and pin your partner’s arm to the floor away from his body. Doing so you take away his ability to post on that arm and to attack the outside leg in order to get underneath you for a sweep. Controlling the arm when you are sweaty in a competition will be difficult. That is why pinning it to the floor might work for that particular scenario in No-Gi.
Notice that Torres keeps his head on the passing side. He puts pressure on his partner as he is passing, but his head stays on the mat. It is used as a post. That is because his right arm has an under hook position and his hand is holding the gi material in the back of the shoulder for better control of his opponent.
Another way to make this more effective is to grab the end of the lapel towards the bottom or middle of the Gi. That will give you better leverage and control before attempting to further complete the half guard pass. It also makes it much harder for the person on bottom to re-establish their knee position.
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