In an already difficult sport, guard passing is probably one of the more difficult skills to excel at and with the amount of instructionals or accounts out there, it can be hard to know which ones to spend your time on. Thankfully, a number of BJJ practitioners have put out channels that are not only extremely informative and active, but most importantly are competition-tested. The accounts listed below were all created by BJJ practitioners who have either competed, or continue to compete, at the highest levels of competition.
Jon Thomas
Jon Thomas, also known by his nickname “Macarrão”, is a black belt under Romero “Jacaré” Cavalcanti and Lucas Lepri. Now a coach at the Swedish BJJ academy, Valhalla Jiu-Jitsu, Jon Thomas runs very active Youtube and Instagram accounts that is updated several times a week. His guard passing instructionals offer an incredible amount of depth with techniques that are high-percentage against high-level opponents. His accounts also include instructionals on guard play and training methods, offering a complete system that any BJJ practitioner could base their entire game around.
Ariel Tabak
Ariel Tabak is an Australian black belt under Cicero Costha who is well known for his guard retention instructional alongside Lachlan Giles. Inspired by the Miyao brothers as well as Levi Jones-Leary, his game consists largely of the berimbolo and bullfighter (toreando) pass. In keeping with this theme, he currently operates the Instagram channel @bolosnbullfighters and has recently been creating videos on his Youtube channel as well. He is currently creating a deep dive series on guard passing, and has a great introduction to the bullfighter pass.
Tarik Hopstock
The only non-black belt on this list, his inclusion should indicate the level of technical expertise he possesses. Tarik Hopstock is a brown belt from Norway under Eduardo “Teta” Rios. He is perhaps most well known for the invention of the shoulder-lock variation called the Tarikoplata. He is currently running an instructional series on Youtube teaching a complete overview of BJJ. His videos are full of technical detail and are also labelled as beginner or intermediate depending on your skill level. Of his guard passing videos, he has so far covered standing passes and is currently going through the stack pass.
Miyao Brothers
The Miyao brothers need no introduction. They have been a mainstay at the highest levels of competition for years, and have seemingly managed to reinvent their game with every development of the sport. At first known for their guard game and berimbolo, they have since developed an incredible pressure-based passing style under the tutelage of Murilo Santana (the no-gi bodylock pass they use is a thing of beauty). Coinciding with their break from Unity, they have started a Youtube channel as well as a Twitch channel (a popular streaming platform), where they’ve demonstrated both their guard and passing games. Pro-tip: if you have Amazon Prime, you can subscribe to their Twitch channel, where they do regular Q and A’s with their subscribers.
Alec Baulding
Finally, we have Alec Baulding, a black belt also under Romero “Jacare” Cavalcanti. He is a ADCC qualifier and trials champion, and was a purple belt IBJJF Worlds champion. Alec has also collaborated several times with Jon Thomas in their instructionals. As one might guess, he has a mix of both gi and no-gi passing videos on this Youtube channel as well as some Instagram exclusives. Like the other practitioners on this list, Baulding has also used his techniques in competitions at the highest levels.
Honorable Mentions
DPS Breakdowns and BJJ Scout
DPS Breakdowns and BJJ Scout are both top quality accounts that each have a great series on guard passing. However, neither of them have been actively creating BJJ guard passing videos as of late, with DPS Breakdowns focusing on wrestling and BJJ Scout with their digest videos. Nevertheless, DPS Breakdowns has a great series on passing called “Headhunters” and BJJ Scout pre-digest has several great studies in guard passing (for example, the series on Murilo Santana’s pressure passing.
