Great question...

At white/blue I was obsessed with Ryan Hall so his triangle work was great, especially the focus on the angle https://youtu.be/rsNtpxKVn5M

Since then I was in a draculinho seminar who had a completely different approach for a straight on triangle but Ryan’s approach has always stuck with me.

Out of everything for me if I can get the knees the opposite way of where their head is facing I am pretty happy and is the general position I will work towards from top

What about when you want to D'Arce them :) ?

Jorgen, your renegade guard passing game is growing on me. Appreciating it more and more.

I must give credit where credit is due. It finally clicked back then when I watched and rewatched BJJ Scout Terere study (Terere was someone I already looked up to in early 2000's). The video in itself was brilliant in regards of direction changes, HOWEVER in addition to everything that was in the BJJ Scout video I saw a concept behind the directions Terere was directing opponents' legs and that's what my video was about.

This video still inspires me to do BJJ! Also the first song the instrumental hip hop track (I think it's some German DJ?) is one of my very favourite "start my workout/sparring" songs.

https://www.youtube.com/w[...]7WdGfQXpiI

Do never let them control your head (directly or indirectly) when they try to pass your guard and aim for head control when passing yourself, my professor told me long time ago...
Though, there might be many steps before where you might have messed up, so that they advanced so far, but still, no head control, no total control, no pass.
Check out John Danaher´s video on direct and indirect head control while passing and in guard retention:
https://youtu.be/NbpjYdcIkBk

and maybe to clarify: with possibly messing up before I meant: to let them pass your feet, your knees, control your hips, letting them enter in the space between knees and chest (what Christian is telling in his fundamental video, already cited by Benny)... And head control obviously starts earlier, not just by grabbing the head itself, but by controlling the lapel for example...

This thread is GOLD!

Good point. I guess that's the difference between inadvertently letting your opponent get underhooks where they can impose their game, versus baiting them and actually allow them to get an underhook (say, from half guard top) so you could build a trap and darce them. :)

I should have clarified that I meant "Don't give your opponent underhooks under any circumstance in an inferior position".

Some nice heuristics:

"Give them nothing. Take from them everything." (especially regarding grip fighting)
"Attacker kills space. Defender creates space."


And my own creation:
"He who dominates the angle, dominates the fight."

Luta Livre's Roberto Leitao's 10 Rules of Grappling

1. If I don’t know, I will not allow.
2. A systematic repetition is always dangerous.
3. Every part of our body must work.
4. We must keep our forces at the same level of our opponent’s.
5. An intelligent movement is a continuous movement.
6. If you control the space you control your opponent’s actions.
7. If you support properly, you support strongly.
8. If you did not conquer the position, be suspicious of it.
9. Don’t show what you are feeling, only what is convenient for you.
10. You must always do something.

In terms of teaching, I've found Priit's concept of teaching in reverse very interesting to consider.

For example I've found that spending time making sure that students understand what a decent side control feels like as the end point, makes teaching guard passing make more sense, as students can understand where they're trying to get to.