How To Defend Yourself: Cartwheel Pass

CARTWHEEL PASS The last pass that we are going to work on is kind of a acrobatic one, to say the least, its called a Cartwheel Pass, and its really kind of more of a roundoff, if you know anything about gymnastics. We have our opponent, and we are playing his open guard. Playing his open guard, playing his guard means we are standing, and you see a lot of positions in here, and I try to get around, and he turns his guard, I will have a real hard time here. What I can do is take my hand and turn it; all my fingers pointed back towards me, that's very important. I am going to put that right across him and on the ground, and on the same side I am going to bring my arm. I go right on the other side of him, and I am going to do a one headed roundoff over him, landing North/ South position or Side Mount. So I am here. I want to reach over, and literally do a Cartwheel. I am going to go from here, push to open his guard, over, landing in the Side Mount or North/South, that's your choice. The other side. We are here, I open his guard, pull my hand down. I like to maintain control of his leg and use that to finish the Cartwheel over here. This goes down, I go up, over. When you are working this one, it's really easy when your partner, when he sees you coming over and he moves, release the hyper extending elbow. From different angle. We are here. I want to open his leg up and pull my hand flat on the ground, my fingers pointing back towards me. So I am here, open the guard, sit. The higher I get my legs above me, the harder it's going to be for him to catch them with his legs. So I really want to exaggerate the Cartwheel. One last time, last angle. We are here. I open the guard and plant my hand across him. When I plant across him, I am going to go up and over him from here, here. It's a good Side Mount or a North/South. One last time. I am here. I pull his leg to open up the guard and pull my hands flat, facing back. Alright, here, all the way to a Side Mount position. Again, be really careful when you are training that one, but a lot of times you can't get around either side of your opponent's guard, the only other option is to go over. So that's your Cartwheel Pass, when you are playing your opponent's open guard.