When I was a white belt I thought the key to having a good guard game was to lock on and hold guard no matter what. Now that I’m a black belt I’ve come to believe that making your guard impassible is less about locking down and more about knowing when and how to bail out when you feel your guard is getting passed. If you can prevent your opponent from securing a scoring position (side control, knee on belly, north/south, mount, back take), then you can make your guard impassible.

This is my go-to mount escape. I feel comfortable enough with this that I tend not to take mount on my opponents because I feel like mount is fairly easy to escape, say, 80% of the time. The basic idea is that you need to turn to your side. I like this version because it doesn’t require strength. A lot of mount escapes are about bumping your opponent or framing your opponent.

This is my current system for passing guard. If I can access their neck then I use that to submit or pass. If I can’t, then I use Bernardo Faria’s over/under pass.