Today I am here with Gabriel Procopio Fonseca.  I have known him for a long time, we started training together in my hometown.  He started training bjj about 6 months after me and when I was blue he was white, when I was purple he was blue and we trained together for years.  Since I developed a good half guard game Gabriel would learn to pass the half guard crazy good.  We always used to roll, and I would play the half and he would pass.  Today I asked Gabriel to show us how he likes to pass the half guard and I can promise that it works.  Gabriel is one of the best half guard passers that I know.  Let’s check out the video below and then I will do a breakdown.

Breakdown of the Effective Half Guard Pass by Gabriel Fonseca “Timbo”:

So guys I can tell you that I have felt Gabriel do this pass before and he is very good at it.  Basically, what he is going to do it force the quarter guard or ¾ mount.  When this happens, he will get an under hook on the side of his free leg and this is horrible for me.  When someone gets to the ¾ mount on me, normally I might try to control the pants or go to the deep half but when he gets this under hook I’m stuck.
Gabriel takes it a step further and he controls my arm and puts his head on the ground.  Putting his forehead on the ground is very important.  This is what made me feel all the pressure.  This is something that is hard to see in the video, but I can tell you I felt it.  One all of his controls are established, he will slide his knee across my belly and start to pass.
Another thing that you can see but not feel is how hard he is kicking my leg to free the other one.  HE is putting a lot of pressure with his free leg to get ride of my guard.  This is very important.  This combined with the under hook, controlling my arm and having his head on the mat makes it horrible for me. Anyways guys, I hope you like this pass, oss!