Please take a look at my post ‘Open guard retention principles‘ for more on open guard retention.
Defending and countering the over/under guard pass
Here are my thoughts on defending this pass, which is one of my favorite pressure/smash passes.
The key principles are:
Control his hands
Your opponent needs to put one arm under your leg on one side, and the other arm grabbing your other leg and holding it down on the other side. If you can control at least one of his hands, it will prevent the pass from ever starting.
Push the opponent’s head to the same side his legs are going
As we discuss in almost every guard retention post, the opponent wants to end up on side control, with his head on one side of your body and his legs on the other. If you can push or pull his head to the same side of your body as his legs, he can’t pin you. With the over/under pass, the opponent will put his shoulder in your stomach and his head across your body from where his legs are. You can block his head from coming across your body to the left side of your body by using your left bicep to push his face to your right.
Be ready to defend the leg on shoulder smash pass
The over/under pass is so-called because the opponent can pass over your leg, which is the most common, and if that meets resistance, he can pass under the leg that’s on top of his arm. The Josh Vogel video that I link below addresses this issue. Aside from the move he shows to prevent the issue, if you do start getting stacked, I’d focus on keeping the arm that’s under your leg, away from your neck, and looking for an elbow push escape. You can see an example of this in this video by Jeff Rockwell, ‘MG Sit Up Escapes 2’ starting at about 1:00:
This video by Babs Olusanmokun ‘Rolled Up Episode 34 Bonus technique with Babs’ demonstrates defending the over under pass by pushing the head and using an armpit grip like a whizzer.
This video by Josh Vogel, ‘Quick over/under guard pass counter :)’ focuses on pushing the head and also addresses the threat of the leg on shoulder smash pass:
This video by Revolution BJJ ‘Over/under pass defense to crucifix’ shows pushing the head and getting up to a crucifix:
This video by Jeff Joslin, ‘Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) Technique – 2 Over/Under Guard Pass Counters’, shows head pushing and getting up similar to the one by Babs, and then a loop choke alternative:
Here’s Cobrinha ‘Miragaia Counter Sweep ~ Cobrinha BJJ & Fitness Alliance Los Angeles’:
Sometimes people teach the ‘harpoon sweep’ as a counter to the over under, as shown here:
‘Over Under Pass Counter by Diego Gamonal’:
I’m not that big a fan of this one because I think once you set the grips for it, it’s very predictable and also hard to switch to something else. But it is certainly a legitimate move taught by a lot of good people.
Related:
http://bjjpressure.com/defending-against-the-leg-on-shoulder-stacking-smash-pass