If you’ve ever been caught in the leg lasso position by someone with a good spider guard then you’ll know exactly how a fly feels when it gets caught in the web of a big, old, nasty spider…
Basically, in a correctly executed leg lasso spider guard you’re in deep trouble!
Your arms are both trapped so you won’t be able to make effective grips. Because of the tremendous leverage of the position you’ll feel off balance all the time and it will be very difficult to maintain your posture. Not to mention the continuous threat of sweeps, triangle chokes and omoplata armlock attacks.
To pass the leg lasso you’ve first got to use technique and positioning to unravel (or at least neutralise) the position. Once his control over you is diminished then you can start using a wide variety of guard passes to actually get past his legs and pin him.
Rob Biernacki calls jiu-jitsu ‘a game of frames and levers.’
So what you’ve got to do in leg lasso control is turn one of his frames (his wrapped leg) into a lever and use that against him.
In fact, Rob showed me two simple ways to apply the frames-into-levers concept…
The first method involves timing your move just as your opponent is swinging his leg into position. As he brings the leg outside, up and over you repummel your hand, bringing it to the outside where you can get a dominant hand position and nullify much of the power of the lasso.
The second method is used if you’re already caught in the full-on leg lasso. In this case you maintain your base, your posture and your structure as best as you can (click here for an explanation of those 3 concepts). Then you access a lever (his lower leg) by using your knee right at the tip of his foot.
Check out those two step by step solutions in the video below:
P.S. Interestingly I once asked another friend, Brandon ‘Wolverine’ Mullins, the same question and he also had some good insights into passing the leg lasso position.
If you’re dealing with this position on a regular basis and need some solutions then click here to check out Brandon’s leg lasso suggestions.
This just goes to show you how for every problem in jiu-jitsu there are multiple technical answers!
P.P.S. The How to Pass Leg Lasso Spider Guard with Leverage Youtube video that Rob Biernacki and I shot was our response to a question about the Guard Passing and Top Game Formula app.
This particular question I received from one of my Snapchat followers where I actually post a fair amount of BJJ related content on a near daily basis.
Finally, click here to check out the Guard Passing and Top Game Formula app – it’s very, very good!