Inside vs Outside Guard Passing

Inside vs. Outside Guard Passing: What’s the Difference, and Why Does It Matter?

In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, “the guard” refers to any position where one person is on their back or seated and using their legs to control, distance, or attack their opponent. It’s one of the most important concepts in the art because it allows someone in a seemingly inferior position to defend themselves, sweep, or submit their opponent.

Passing the guard means safely maneuvering around or through your opponent’s legs to establish a dominant position—like side control, mount, or the back. It’s a key milestone in a grappling exchange and often one of the hardest things to do against a skilled guard player.

There are many ways to pass a guard, but most strategies can be categorized into two broad channels: inside passing and outside passing. Let’s take a look at what those mean and how they shape your approach on the mats.

What Are Inside and Outside Passes?

The "inside" and "outside" distinction refers to the path you take around your opponent’s legs.

• Inside passing involves working between your opponent’s legs, often controlling their hips, knees, and torso from close range. Think of threading your body through a narrow hallway—they can grab you, frame against you, and off-balance you at any moment. It requires tight control and excellent posture. Examples of inside guards you may be trying to pass:
  • Butterfly guard
  • Closed guard
  • X-guard
  • Reverse De La Riva
• Outside passing involves staying outside of the legs, circling around them to get to the torso. This path keeps you away from many of the grips and hooks that make guards dangerous, but requires great speed, distance control, and timing.Examples of outside guards you may be trying to pass:
  • Spider guard
  • Lasso guard
  • Collar sleeve
  • De La Riva

Both approaches have their place, and many passes combine elements of both. Let’s look at how each path influences your strategy—and how your opponent might respond.

Concepts Behind Inside and Outside Guard Passing

Inside Passing: Tight Pressure, Limited Space

Inside passing puts you in tight contact with your opponent. You’re trying to nullify their legs, compress their space, and work your way through with heavy hips and strong posture. Think of passes like:

• Over-under pass
• Stack pass (I personally use this a lot to get to a throw-by leg drag position)
• Body lock pass

Advantages:

• Limits your opponent’s mobility
• You can apply direct pressure
• Easier to transition into pins and submissions

Challenges:

• You're in the danger zone—submissions and sweeps come fast
• Requires excellent posture and base
• Opponent will use frames and grips to create space

Common reactions from the guard player:

• Framing and pushing your head or shoulders to make space
• Trying to elevate you with hooks (butterfly, X-guard)
• Attacking with submissions like triangles or guillotines

Outside Passing: Distance, Angle, and Speed

Outside passing focuses on staying mobile and elusive. You circle around your opponent’s defenses, preventing them from tying you up or locking in grips. Common passes include:

• Torreando (bullfighter) pass (torreando and leg drag are my most commonly used and highest percentage passes in the gi)
• Leg drag
• X-pass
• Long-step pass

Advantages:

• You avoid entanglements with dangerous guards
• Requires less grip fighting
• You can reset and disengage if needed (super underrated advantage, we should talk about this more)

Challenges:

• Requires speed and timing
• Harder to apply pressure if your pass fails
• Opponent can track your movement and invert or re-guard

Common reactions from the guard player:

• Following you with leg pummeling or inversions (really annoying, especially if they're flexible)
• Framing to keep you at a distance
• Using collar and sleeve grips to slow you down (also super annoying)

Combining Both Approaches

Most experienced guard passers blend inside and outside techniques. You might start circling on the outside, force your opponent to overcommit with frames, and then shoot into a body lock pass. Or you might fake an inside approach to get them to react and then burst around the legs. Great passing is often about changing rhythm and direction to break through defensive patterns.

Three Constraint-Led Games to Practice Inside and Outside Passing

The Constraint-Led Approach is a training method that modifies the environment, rules, or available actions to help students discover solutions naturally. These games allow students to focus on specific passing strategies without rigid instruction. I personally try to ensure all my classes have these games built in because I think they're invaluable for skill development.

1. Outside Passing Only

Rules:

• Top player must stay standing and only use passes that go around the legs.
• Bottom player must use guards like spider, lasso, or collar sleeve.
  Goal: Develop footwork, timing, and angles for outside passing.
  Constraint: No inside leg control allowed; top player must disengage if they get entangled.

2. Inside Passing With Frame Emphasis

Rules:

• Top player must pass between the legs using body lock, over-under, or stack passes.
• Bottom player must use frames (arms and knees) to create space.
  Goal: Teach posture, pressure, and reactions to common framing defenses.
  Constraint: No standing or outside passes allowed.

3. Switch Game: Inside to Outside

Rules:

• Start with the top player in a tight inside pass attempt.
• Bottom player defends with strong frames.
• At any point, the top player can switch to an outside pass—but only once.
  Goal: Train the skill of changing directions and chaining passing styles.
  Constraint: One transition per round—forces commitment and timing.

These are just some basic games to try but you can always add more rules/variables (allow sweeps, standing up, submissions, change the time allowed to score, create a point deficit, etc) if you're more experienced or want more of a challenge. I typically play these games for 2 minutes and then switch top and bottom. If a submission, sweep, or pass occurs, or if a new position is established, reset to the starting position and go again.

Final Thoughts

Understanding the difference between inside and outside passing isn’t just for advanced students—it’s fundamental to building a complete guard passing game. By training both strategies and learning how your opponent might react, you’ll start to see patterns and feel more confident in your ability to dismantle even the trickiest guards. If you get really good at understanding the concepts that underly guard passing, you'll even be able to pass guards you've never seen before!

The next time you’re sparring, ask yourself: am I trying to go through the legs, or around them? That simple question might open up a whole new path to progress. (Spoiler, these aren't the only two ways to pass a guard, but more on that later.)