Marcelo Garcia: Guard vs Passing, and Recovery

Last updated on 04.05.2020 by

Guard recovery by the great Marcelo Garcia. Garcia is known for his having a simple, but very effective jiu-jitsu. That is one reason for his success. Often when you try to complicate things they fail.

In this video, he shows a great way to defend against an opponent trying to pass your guard. The technique has two parts.

Part 1 explains the mechanics of the technique and how to perform it. In part 2 Garcia shows you the what if scenario and continuation of the technique.  

Aggressive opponents will try anything to pass your guard. To prevent them from passing you have to use all of your weapons. By weapons I mean arms and legs.

Arms and legs will create space and stop an opponent attempting to pass. Hip movement with this technique is also very important.

Someone like MG has short and flexible legs which may allow him to just put the blocking leg across with less effort.

For those with longer less flexible body types, you might have to start getting that leg across as soon as your opponent engages. It would be something you will have to look out for and get the timing down.

Notice how MG ‘’rolls with the punches’’. He is not trying to force a collision and stop his opponent immediately. Rather, he takes advantage of the momentum and rolls on to his back.  

One way to get really get at this is to make it into a drill. Have your partner constantly apply pressure at 50 %. Your job would be to continue recovering as he switches from left to right.

Key points from part 1:

  1. Use momentum and roll on back
  2. Break the grip

Key points from part 2:

  1. Hip movement
  2. Push to get out as soon as your leg goes across