A few things keep coming up again and again as I watch the black belt finals of the 2009 Mundials.
When it comes to passing the guard, you have to get rid of any compromising grips your opponent has. Other than having otherworldly flexibility like Samuel Braga, the guys who didn't get the guard's passed for the most part had great grips on the sleeves. And, maybe more importantly, very few of the guys working the pass prioritized defeating the grips FIRST and then moving on to the next stage of the pass.
On the other hand, the most successful guard passing - at least in terms of the kind of thing you can put in your own game - tended to be a matter of attrition. Watching Roger pass Romulo's guard in the absolute final was simply a case of an irresistible force meeting a just slightly less than immovable object. Roger was patient enough to allow that very modest edge to become an overwhelming one. And the guard pass presented itself.
It reminds me again of what "The General" Fabio Gurgel said about Rickson Gracie's guard passing in a recent issue of GracieMag, the idea that Rickson looked to put his opponent in the most uncomfortable postion and keep him there until your opponent "gave up" the pass rather than suffer the discomfort any longer.
Thinking about it that way makes passing the guard sound like an interrogation, not so much the automatic picking of a lock or defusing a bomb (two of my favorite guard passing metaphors). In the end, the opponent "gives you" the guard pass because it is easier for him to do that than it is to continue to resist you.
It's more powerful than picking a lock or defusing a bomb because neither the lock nor the bomb ever "changes sides" to help you the way a person does when he gives up.
The lock never wants to be picked. The bomb doesn't want to be defused. But at the critical moment when passing the guard most effectively, your opponent wants you to pass his guard. Crazy as it sounds, when it counts, your opponent is on your side.
