The Passing Matrix

First I want to make the point that this is definitely something we can improve on through solo shadow training, technical study, and visualization. Specific athletic adaptations to quadrupedal movement structures (on all fours,) are necessary to be competent at JiuJitsu, and critically necessary to be competitive and compete successfully. Having this basic passing ability is a huge competitive advantage.

Why? Passing in a QM structure largely prevents the opponent from re-capturing their closed guard on you, (& thereby forcing you to spend energy and time to re-open their guard and exposing you to more possible submission threats). As long as we prevent them from closing the guard on us, we can just keep passing.

That’s why in our movement practice, we should be practicing dropping from a quadrupedal structure to combat base and back again, putting our weight on our hands and off our feet and vice versa, without being in a position where they can close the guard. (See level 2 movement curriculum) The reason why this is so advantageous is because when you’re able to get to side control and the opponent is shrimping to escape, you can simply get up to a quadrupedal passing structure out of range of their closed guard, and just re-pass. Thereby, your passing game acts as an extension of your top control game. This is the basic idea of escape-countering as a way of retaining your hard-earned positions. Guard passing as escape-countering is an incredible positional retention tool.

Another important consideration for self defense and the fight game is that it takes work and energy (and round-time!) to get the fight to the ground by securing a takedown. If the opponent can get you to back away by threatening a submission, for example, and re-stands back to their feet, then you have to spend the energy to take them down again if you want the fight on the ground. If you can just pass the guard, you kill the submission threat and the risk of the re-stand all at once! Two birds with one stone. Good guard passing makes for an all-around more energy efficient game.

The basic idea, here, is chain passing, meaning that you keep passing until you finish the pass and secure a pinning position (side control or mount,) or take the back if they try to run to their knees to escape the pass (which is a common response to effective guard passing, since being pinned on bottom is such an unpleasant experience.) Having great guard passing is also a great way to open up opportunities to score the back control. In BJJ, a guard pass is a 3-point scoring move, which opens up the possibility of the 4 point scoring positions of full-mount and back control. So whether we’re talking about BJJ points competition, submission grappling, or the MMA fight-game, guard passing is at the heart of combat sports grappling.

What is a “Matrix”?

The term “Matrix” in IPFS is short for the term “Reaction-Matrix”, a term I use regularly that you should familiarize yourself with. This refers to the idea of having a grid of options to respond to your opponent’s actions, that we can transition between to keep our pass going.

Mindset: It’s important that you get in the mindset of keeping the pass going, even if our opponent is blocking us & defending, don’t get discouraged. Instead just get into a mentality of chaining these motions together until the job is done. Backing away from the opponent and taking the pressure off of them is a mistake, in my mind, even though this is a common thing to see at a BJJ tournament. In a real MMA fight, the opponent would go for upkicks or spring back to their feet instantly as soon as you backed away. If you want to create more of an in-and-out rhythm, you can find their ankles and back away slightly to hit a basic shuck pass before coming back in with hand pressure, but if you stand up and away it will only mean trouble (even if you think you’re giving yourself a nice rest…)

Solo Training: Note that the level changing & low stance mechanics are incredibly similar between takedown wrestling and guard passing on a body-structure level. If you’re not used to it, you’ll get a burn in your legs and back very quickly, & the only way to get adapted to it is to keep spending time in the position. So shadow/solo training rounds are incredibly helpful and go a long way towards the skill performance learning curve.

Chain passing is at the heart of our fight system! It keeps you on top, looking for positions and submissions, & most importantly, wears them down by making them spend their cardio carrying your weight! By putting chain passing shadow-movements into our cardio routines, and applying visualization with focused intent to build the right mentality around passing, we can make sure to win the cardio battle in competition.