For years, there has been talk of the “Gracie Gift”. It went like this: Rorion Gracie purposely taught the basic closed guard pass incorrectly so that anyone attempting to use the pass would fall victim to a triangle attack. This was his gift to other Gracies. The pass in question can be viewed here at the 1:02 mark:
Recently I came across a Caesar Gracie instructional where he talks about being on the bottom when someone attempts a guard pass. Interestingly, the pass he shows is the same pass Rorion taught in the earlier instructional. The guard passer inserts one arm between the guard defender’s legs just as Rorion did, however, caesar instructs us to NOT attempt a triangle here. He says doing so would cause you to fall into the guard passer’s trap and he would easily pass your guard. Although he is teaching how to defend the pass, rather than how to execute the pass, he is basically saying that that old school Rorion Gracie pass is 100% legit. The relevant instruction from Caesar can be seen in this video at the 5:30 mark:
Often we are so quick to look for the latest and greatest instructional techniques from today’s champions. And that is fine. But maybe there is something we can learn from the old school practitioners as well.
Reno Gracie shows how to execute the ‘Gracie gift’ aka the arm in stack pass without get caught in a triangle:
