Martin Aedma's Estonian Guardpasses From Hell

As mentioned in an earlier post, one guy from Estonia had a very cool way to pass the guard, which completely shut down my own game. Normally I think I can defend my guard pretty well, but against this pressure I was totally lost.

Thanks to Martin for letting me shoot this video, which is exposing all his secrets!! :D

Passing butterfly- and scissorguard with "double-jump"

Here is one of my A-game guardpassing moves, that I use whenever I end up in butterfly- og scissorguard. The idea is to clear the opponents hooks by kicking out while jumping over the guard.


Another way I get into the scissorguard position, which I forgot to tell on the video, is if I try to kneeslide pass and my opponent blocks my hip with his top shin. From there, I adjust my weight a bit go straight into the scissor pass. Hope it makes sense so you can try that out too.

This video was shot in Tiger Muay Thai and MMA gym in Phuket, Thailand. Thanks to Carlos and Andreas for the help :)

Kneeslide pass to RNC

This is a pass I use a lot in my game. I was observing a very skilled danish grappler from another gym here in Copenhagen use the standing kneeslide pass in competition with a lot of success, so I decided to look into it and see what I could get out of it for my own game. With a few adjustments to make it fit me, I came up with this really simple and - for me at least - very high percentage passing series, which I ofcourse will share with all of you right away :D

The should work fine both with and without the gi, but I have had most success with it in no-gi. This is because I need to slide my arms in position pretty fast and thight, which can be difficult when wearing a gi.

This has been a perfect example of learning by imitating for me. Hope you can use it too! :)


Credit for inspiration goes to Frede, Brasa ;)

Double under pass counter

Just a small detail on how I counter the double under pass using the stiffarm escape. Nothing special, just using it a lot so thought I would put it out here :)


More videos coming up soon!

The flipover guardpass/mount move

I have made a tutorial on the front flip guardpass by request from Halph in my little commentbox here on the blog (hope you find it usefull :)). It is a pretty simple (yet flashy!) move, that I use very often when I roll. You can see me pull it off several times in the 969 flighthours sparring clip (1:42, 3:13, 5:14, 7:50, 17:00 and 24:36) I posted a few months ago. Even though it doesn't look very basic, it is a very solid move for me and I consider it - and variations of it - a part of my a-game.

I do it most of the times directly from a takedown. The example I show in the video with the takedown sucks a bit, as I really need the opponent to sprawl on me to gain the momentum for the move, but you get the idea.

The most important detail needed to be successful with this move is understanding the correct weight placement. I need to keep my weight on my opponent at all times, both to keep him from moving me but also to make my leg-movement lighter and faster. Check out the small video on weight placement first, if you have not seen it yet.


Next tutorial coming up: Baseball Choke a la Graugardo.

One step guardpass

This is a guardpass I kind of came up with after the SBG Florida camp, where Matt talked about the definition of a guardpass (rear hip passing the line of opponents hip). Also, I know Kavanagh did something similar to me when he was here, but he never told me the secret, so I had to figure it out myself

Me and my partner Kári have been working on this a lot lately and when you get the timing and setups down, it is - for us - one of the most high percentage guardpasses we have at the moment. It is REALLY simple, actually so simple that people get frustrated every time we execute it, because they think that was too simple to get caught in

It is not a solid fundamental five pass for sure, but we catch it again and again in sparring. Especially in MMA where you can distract with strikes before you pass it works really, really well.


I am starting out standing up in Káris guard, getting ready to pass by controlling his legs. There are several setups from here, try to experiment with the leg- or armdrag :)


While keeping his legs in place I step in between them with my right foot...


...which lands right next to his left hip.


Now I need to drop to kneeride ASAP before he hooks one of his legs over my right leg. Step over with my left leg and that finishes the pass.

Here are a few things that can happen:


Block with knee

Kári blocks my pass by putting his top knee in front of my passing leg.


I step up with my left leg...


...all the way over...


...land it by his top hip...


...and drops my knee.


Top leg hook

Here, Kári blocks my pass by hooking his top leg in front of my passing leg.


With two hands, I push his knee to the mat.


Underhooks his arm.


Slides my knee past and passes.


Sit up

Kári sits up to avoid me flattening him out in the pass. I step in anyways.


Instead of dropping to kneeride, I step around his back.


Lands my foot...


And drops to take the back.



Here is a video from a turnament where one of the guys from my gym (Dracovich) is using the pass a lot. I promised him a beer for every onestep guardpass he did. It was an expensive night for me!! :-D

Combat base DLR sweep series

I learned this De La Riva sweep series from Christian Montes in New York when I visited them in 2004 and have been using it ever since. I almost always go for this when people sit in combat base (=one knee up) in my guard.

This works both with the gi and without. Naturally it is more difficult without the gi as you need to have good control of your opponents arms, but it is possible and I do it all the time.


Ok we start out with my opponent sitting in combat base in my open guard. Notice how I sit. I wanna be a little to his left and using my right arm to block his right shoulder, keeping him from turning and leaning into me.


To set up the sweeps, I first control his arms. I grab both sleeves joystick style (or grab the wrists no-gi) and place my left foot on his right knee. I wanna pull his arms a little towards me, not allowing him to lean back and create space.


Now I kick out my left foot, pushing his knee back to create space between his legs for me to insert my DLR hook. Also I lean a little to the side which makes it easier for me to get my leg in.


I insert my right leg so that my ancle is touching his hip. Wanna be aware a little aware of the heelhook here, so be prepared to pull the foot a little back if he tries. As long as you control the arms it should be no problem though.


Now the first sweep is simple. Keeping my grip, I pull his arms towards me and almost straighten my body out as I fall to my side.


I am not trying to push or pull him to the side - if I keep my grips correct, he will fall really easy (actually sometimes landing pretty bad on his right shoulder). Me falling to my side is all it takes to make this work.


As soon as I have swept him, I slide my knee over his thigh. Don't wanna try and mount here as he will probably catch me in halfguard og guard.


From here I underhook and crossface to flatten him out.


...and hopefully end up in side control position.


Second variation

If my opponent knows I am gonna sweep him to his right, he might switch his weight to his left in order to defend the sweep.


In this case, I place my left shin across his chest for the scissor sweep position.


Now it is a little different from the regular scissor sweep, because here I wanna try to kick my bottom leg as far back as possible, stretching his left leg out and thereby making him fall to his left.


Third variation

Another option he has is to lean backwards.


If he does this, I let go of his arms and put my left hand on his left shoulder and my right hand behind me.


In my very best zhoo zhitzoo style I lift my butt and pull my right leg out under me to strech his left leg out.


From here I drive forward and probably end up in his halfguard.


Forth variation

Sometimes this sweep is possible to do as well, depending on his weight placement and your angle on him. It's really simple, works great.


From the starting position I insert my left foot behind his left ancle.


Now I lean to my side and kick that foot up in the air. This will make him fall backwards.


I sit up and try to slide my knee in right away.

Also here, I always try to look as cool as possible with my new SuperFro gi patch

Scissor pass variation

This is a variation to the scissor pass you can do if your opponent push away your head as you try to pass.


I'm trying to do the basic scissor pass.


My opponent defends by pushing my head away. This makes it impossible for me to walk around towards his head. I don't wanna let go of his hand or leg cause then he can escape too easy.


Instead I drop the top of my head towards the mat.


Then I walk around so my body is turned towards his in a 90 degree angle.


Keeping my grip with my hands I jump straight over.


Landing very elegant :)


Turning my body towards his head and start working to get cross sides, harness, etc.

Guardpass from scissor position

Basic pass as a counter to the scissor sweep.


Starting the the guard where your opponent is trying to sweep you with the scissor sweep.


First, drop your point of gravity as low as possible to make the sweep harder to execute. Now you must do three things. Head is kept thight on opponents hip, right hand grab opponents left wrist and left hand goes under opponents right leg and grabs his left thigh. Look at the picture, it's difficult to describe all the details :)


Now controlling the hip, legs and upperbody, stand up with your butt almost as high as possible.


Walk around the legs.


Insert the left knee to block out your opponents guard.


Let go of the wrist and grab behind the neck to control upperbody.


Secure cross sides position.