Leg Weave Pass

Pass

The Leg Weave Pass involves threading your arm between your opponent's legs and pinning one leg to the mat while driving laterally to pass the guard. It is effective from multiple open and half guard situations where you can control and collapse the opponent's knee line to flatten their hip.

Quick Reference

Key principles

  • · Weave your arm deep between the legs and grip the far hip or belt to lock the bottom leg to the mat.
  • · Drive your shoulder into the pinned knee to flatten the opponent's hips and kill their ability to re-guard.
  • · Advance laterally toward the weave side, not straight forward, to clear the legs efficiently.
  • · Anticipate the opponent framing on your head or hip-escaping away by maintaining heavy chest pressure and controlling the far hip.
  • · Keep your hips low and sprawled to prevent them from recovering butterfly hooks or re-establishing knee shield.

Execution

  1. 1 From your starting position, thread your near-side arm between the opponent's legs, reaching deep to grip their far hip, belt, or pants at the waist.
  2. 2 Use your shoulder and chest to drive their near-side knee to the mat, collapsing their leg structure and flattening their hips.
  3. 3 Sprawl your hips back and low while walking laterally toward the weave side, keeping constant downward pressure on the trapped leg.
  4. 4 As you clear the legs, use your free hand to control their upper body (cross-face, underhook, or lapel grip) to prevent them from turning into you.
  5. 5 Consolidate into Headquarters Position by establishing knee-on-thigh or settling your hips with dominant upper body control.

Common mistakes

  • × Weaving the arm too shallow so the opponent easily pummel their knee back inside and re-establishes guard frames.
  • × Staying too upright instead of sprawling hips low, allowing the opponent to insert butterfly hooks or create scramble opportunities.
  • × Neglecting upper body control during the pass, letting the opponent frame on your head and hip-escape to re-guard or take the back.

Do it from

Positions and situations where the Leg Weave Pass shows up.

Leg Weave
6 less common
Butterfly Guard Top Inverted Guard Knee Shield Half Guard Top Leg Drag Position Leg Hook Underhook Control

Where it lands

The position you end up in.

Headquarters Position

Use it against

The Leg Weave Pass is an answer to these.

Knee Shield Half Guard Bottom