I was working with Alex during Live Training session. Afterwards, he was asking about a BJ Penn half guard pass. I asked Rodrigo to help us out, and he showed us three variations of attacking a sort of open half guard pass involving just the inside hook: the knee cross, the Mendes inside shoulder roll to the back (one of Rodrigo's specialties) and this new one, that had you turn your "trapped knee" back and away (from 12 or 1 o'clock to 4 or 5 o'clock). This allows you to collapse your weight and pancake the legs as the guy on the bottom's knee follows your turning knee.
From here, it is easier to go to the back than to take mount. But you can do both.
The actual pass I think Alex was looking for is this one, though. It is more of a butterfly guard pass than a real half guard pass. And the way to attack it has the sort of hip-switch that can really disable the butterfly guard.
There is also a step-by-step version of this pass in Saulo's Jiu Jitsu University on pages 257-258: 27-12 Transition to Mount Off Pass.
Good training today. I worked with JM mostly as we drilled mount escapes and strategies for taking the mount from regular crossbody (to the knee) and from watchdog (both with step over the legs and step through). 159.6 on the scale post-train. I was extremely gratified to see my counter to the step-over (leap-over) half guard pass, which is based on scooping the guy's near/inside leg and going belly down as if you were turning in for a side control escape.
I had the opportunity to do this counter the other day, but was too risk-averse to do it. Today, I had the Rodeo set-up before the leap-over and was determined not to give Rodeo its first fail in many moons. That scoop counter saved the day.
