The Body Lock Pass

Week 1: Introduction into Body Lock Passing

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High-Level Overview

The damage squad will be diving deep into the Lachlan Giles Approach to body lock passing in the next few weeks. The video above is a quick overview of the passing system with a lot of depth.

The passing style requires much attention and time, but the benefits gained are invaluable to your top game.

Once we have a strong understanding of the body lock passing system, we will spend another two weeks exploring my coach’s methods and an overview of other top high-level competitors.

Both Giles and my coach Jake Shields have instructional DVDs on this passing style and are highly recommended. They will be referenced quite a bit over the next few weeks, along with my hands-on experience with the damage squad of what has become my favorite style of passing.

What is the body lock pass?

Body lock passing is a form of low passing where the hands are locked around the waist until the guard is passed.

Pros

• Control of Opponents Hip

• Heavy Passing Pressure

• Lower risk of leg lock entries

Cons

• Because the hands are locked, they can not be used as base points, requiring more head and lower body use to maintain control.

Risks

• Hook Sweeps

• Triangles

• Omoplatas

• Guillotines

Rewards

• Energy-intensive for the opponent to defend.

• We are passing into dominant positions to finish.

• Hands are connected, forcing to improve base sensitivity of the lower body.

• Improves hook surfing, floating, making it very difficult for the opponent to sweep.

• Manageable risk. Fewer risk variables to deal with from the opponent.

Why is the body lock pass used?

We are fighting the trend. Everyone is leg-locking. Leg locking has proven to be a quick, effective, and devastating way to finish jiu-jitsu. Many popular entries to leglocks come from attacking standing to mid-range passing positions. Low passing systems like the body lock minimize leglock entries.

Domination. Keep tight and attached to your opponent to help control and avoid scrambles. The body lock, pressure passing style, is currently prevalent in MMA and is used heavily by Khabib’s camp. Beniel Dariush used a lot of low passing and body lock principles to shut down a dangerous Tony Ferguson, and can also be seen by the terrifying Khamzat Chimaez.

When to use the body lock pass?

• To avoid leglock entries.

• Control and limit hip movement

• Overwhelm and force mistakes by tiring out an opponent with pressure and body weight

• Slow down the game by limiting explosive movement and scrambles

Examples of the body lock passing live

Video Technique Practice for the week

Focus

• Trapping legs into butterfly guard (the box)

• Locking they grip around the hip

• Head Position

• Skydiver's hips

• Sprawling off butterfly hook and trapping on leg

The body lock pass focus of the week?

We will be focusing on Stage 1 of the body lock pass. Again, the goal will be to keep control of the feet until they are guided into the box once the feet connect the hands.

Once the grip is established, the focus will be maintaining head position to avoid guillotines and Omo Plata, keeping sky-diving hips to avoid the hook sweeps, then removing a hook to start moving into the following stages of clearing the knee line.

WARNING: You will get swept, triangle’d, kimura’d, and guillotined. That is part of the learning process. When these happen, try and pinpoint where the mistakes were made. I ask myself these questions after failed attempts.

• TRIANGLE: Did you lose control of your opponent’s feet? (A foot escaped the box)

• KIMURA: Were your elbows flared out, or did you let go of the grip to push on a leg?

• GUILLOTINE / OMO PLATA: Was your head positioned out of alignment and traveled towards the opponent’s pocket?

• HOOK SWEEP: Did you keep your hips back and low to the ground? Did you use your legs to post and base when lifted?

If you can complete phase 1, mentally count that as a win. Remember, the goal is not to tap the opponent, and it isn’t even to pass yet. The focus for the week is entering into Phase 1, understanding the problems we will encounter and how to deal with those problems.

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Strength and Conditioning for the Body Lock Pass

Areas of focus to improve body lock passing

• Grip Strength

• Lat Strength

• Neck Strength

The 10,000 swing Kettle Bell routine laid out in week 1 is a great overall workout to improve grip and lat strength. In addition, any pulling exercises and neck exercises will help strengthen your pass.

Here are examples of body-lock-focused accessory movements to add to your strength routines.

Neck

Beginner to intermediate

Advanced Neck Exercises

Lats

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Now that we understand some basic concepts about the body lock, it is time to put them to the test. Come back next week for further study. Good luck in your pursuit to smash, and have a productive week of training. Feel free to send me a message if you have any questions about the content.