The great advantage of half guard passing: There are many excellent ways to pass a tough opponents guard and get into your upper body pins; but the one I always favor above all others is half guard passing – why? The vast majority of guard passes always finish with control of an opponents head as the final step. You generally begin at the feet, progress to the knees and then beat the all important hips before settling into the penultimate step of pinning the head and shoulders. It's almost always LEGS AND HIPS first and HEAD last. Half guard switches that all around. Most half guard passes begin with control of the head and shoulders first and then passing the hips second. This fundamental change of order creates a very impressive degree of control in half guard passing. Of all the methods of control, HEAD CONTROL is the most powerful, and the fact that you get it EARLIER in the case of half guard passing makes for an impressive improvement in control over most other passing methods. This allows it to be used by every body type, age category and people who would be considered un-athletic. You can truly use it to render a very athletically talented opponent ineffective.
