Body Lock Pass from Guard Retention

Body Lock Pass from Guard Retention is an escape back to a safer position built around a handful of repeatable controls. The bottom player is in half butterfly with the opponent positioned to gain a waist grip or body lock, possibly with the knee line beaten. Another common starting shape: the opponent has secured a body lock around the seated player's hips with linked or clamped hands, sucking the hips in and arching the back. The ideas that hold it together are once the body lock is on, the position is in serious danger, arm control is the precondition for sitting up, and posture restoration.

The body lock pass chain is a sequence of small controls, not one athletic burst. Stay flat rather than sitting up when the body lock is a threat. Control the opponent's arm before any sit-up. Keep the space closed so the waist grip cannot consolidate. Bury the heels into the mat and shoot the legs forward to scoot the hips back. Bring the shoulders ahead of the hips for structural integrity. Hike the opponent up by either pulling double overhooks tight to the chest or by elevating with an underhook from the hip. Maintain the knee shield or foot on hip — the body lock is hardest to secure when the top leg is denied. Keep the framing arm on the inside so the elbow blocks the reaching hand. The bottom player has stayed flat, controlled the opponent's arm, and avoided opening space that would allow the body lock to be secured.

Later in the body lock pass, hip behind underhook, lift-and-frame, and body lock prevention is upstream of body lock escape tend to decide whether the position stays on track. Watch for these mistakes: Sitting up to attack while the opponent is in position to body lock. Letting shoulders drop behind the hips so the body lock can fold you forward. Posting a hand on the ground when no frame is available, allowing the opponent to roll for kimura. Sitting up from a low knee shield when the body lock is available. The high-percentage version of body lock pass from guard retention is the one you can still chain when the person on top resets the pin.