Bullshido Presents: James Clingerman

*Update* Just want to give a shout-out to Matthew Perry, James Clingerman, and the guys at Indiana Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy.


As promised here is some more in-depth info on the Clingerman guard passing videos that are up over at Bullshido.
Video 1

My personal passing style shares a LOT with the style James uses. All the way from the way he maintains combat base through the passes he uses. For that reason I was able to pull some GREAT details out of this first video.
The very first thing I picked up is that his stance is even MORE compact than mine is in combat base. To that end I've started tucking my chin even deeper and burrowing my elbows in even tighter which has already led to a higher guard passing percentage for me.
Second great detail is how he uses the forearm across the throat as well as the stacking pressure to make your opponent WANT you to pass. At the point where you are half-choking them and smashing their own knee into their face they want nothing more than to let you take side control and that detail has also helped me to increase my pass percentage.
Third thing, and one that I've been doing for a while now, but a LOOOOT of people miss comes in at the 4:45 mark. When you are passing over a pinned leg, bring your back foot up and cross it over that leg BEFORE you move your lead leg off of it. Stops you from getting caught in half guard and gives you a lot more control of your pass.

From there the rest of the video is gravy. I recommend watching it three or four times, but just the three points I mentioned will do wonders for your guard passing.

Video 2
This video picks up pretty much where the previous one left off, with some specific guard passes. This time against butterfly guard. Again I share the same methods. the first detail I picked up that I liked was at the four minute mark, up to that point I already was doing everything he mentioned, but the way he scoops the arm across at the end of the pass is a detail I've not previously paid attention to. It really makes your pass more aggressive forcing your opponent to start defending against your submissions immediately instead of trying to regain guard.
The second thing that I really liked was the detail on the pass at about the 6:15 mark. It looks like you're giving your opponent a free triangle choke, but if you pay attention he actually has complete control and as long as you maintain the control he described you aren't in any danger and it really adds a LOT of options to your passing game.
This video just has some great specific pass techniques in the first 10 minutes. Several of them I plan on drilling into my main game over the next few months.
Towards the end he revists some of the details for controlling your opponent while you are passing which are all 100% pure gold.
The detail at 11:40 where he is passing to one side, his opponent blocks his hip and he switches to the other side is a fantastic point to take note of since it's one of the things that people have tons of trouble with. You get committed to passing on one side and get blocked, so you just shut down and your opponent gets to take over the momentum. Switching your pass to the other side lets you maintain the initiative and more likely complete your pass.

I highly recommend that everyone keep an eye on The Fighthub Forum over at Bullshido for more Clingerman videos to come. The guy is awesome and he has an excellent teaching style as well.