YR Sports Lab
The body lock pass has become the dominant guard-passing method in modern no-gi competition. By clasping both hands behind the opponent's lower back and holding relentless chest-to-chest pressure, it turns guard passing into a close-quarters grind in which the opponent can barely extend a limb. This guide starts with how John Danaher and his students, Gordon Ryan and Nick Rodriguez among them, systematized the technique, then breaks down its five movement stages, three entry variations, strengths and limits, common escapes, and its concrete record at the 2022 and 2024 ADCC World Championships.
1. Origins: From Old-School Grappling Control to a Modern Passing System
The body lock itself is an old wrestling technique. Every wrestling style, along with judo ne-waza, has long used some version of this close-range body control. What is widely credited to New Zealand coach John Danaher is systematically applying it to guard passing in modern no-gi jiu-jitsu.
Danaher was born on 2 April 1967 in Washington, D.C., and grew up in the northern suburbs of Auckland, New Zealand, where his father served as a Royal New Zealand Air Force pilot. He earned a bachelor's and a master's degree in philosophy at the University of Auckland, then entered Columbia University in 1991 to pursue a doctorate in epistemology, which he never completed. His black-belt lineage traces back to Jigoro Kano through Tsunejiro Tomita, Mitsuyo Maeda, Carlos Gracie Sr., Helio Gracie, Rolls Gracie and Carlos Gracie Jr. to Renzo Gracie, who promoted Danaher to black belt in April 2002. After nearly two decades of continued grading he is currently a sixth-degree black belt. He has taught for years at the Renzo Gracie Academy in New York and later founded the "Danaher Death Squad." Before the team disbanded in July 2021, its core jiu-jitsu competitors included Gordon Ryan, Garry Tonon, Craig Jones, Nick Rodriguez and Nicky Ryan. He has also coached mixed martial artists such as Georges St-Pierre and Chris Weidman.
The athlete who pushed the body lock pass to the most visible stage in competition is Danaher's flagship student, Gordon Ryan. Born on 8 July 1995 in Monroe Township, New Jersey, Ryan began training jiu-jitsu at 15 under coach Miguel Benitez, later moved on to Tom DeBlass and Garry Tonon, and joined Danaher's training system. Garry Tonon awarded him his black belt in February 2016. His ADCC record includes gold at 88 kg and silver in the absolute division in 2017; gold at 99 kg and gold in the absolute division in 2019; and gold in the +99 kg division in 2022, along with a superfight win over André Galvão, making him the first competitor in history to win ADCC gold in three different weight divisions.
A philosophy PhD candidate built the passing system that crushes space best
The epistemology doctorate Danaher never finished became the methodology he later used to dissect jiu-jitsu: he reduced the problem of passing guard to a handful of repeatable, verifiable mechanical steps. The body lock pass is the most representative product of that mindset, emphasising not speed but using a chest-to-chest connection to progressively crush every bit of space the opponent can work in. Gordon Ryan standing on the ADCC podium in three different weight divisions is a direct reflection of how well this system performs at the elite level.
2. Movement Breakdown: Building Control in Five Stages
The body lock pass usually begins once the guard has already been opened, or after top position has been established from a standing or knee-line scramble. The hands can thread under the opponent's thigh with an over-under or double-unders configuration first, then tighten into an S-grip clasped behind the lower back. Coach Lachlan Giles breaks the full sequence into five stages:
| Stage | Key points |
|---|---|
| ① Get the opponent's back off the mat | The opponent cannot stay flat and glued to the mat; their back has to be lifted clear so your arms have room to thread underneath the body |
| ② Clasp both hands behind the lower back | Lock an S-grip behind the opponent's back, adjusting the grip to their build and your own arm length, since this step determines whether the lock is truly tight |
| ③ Clear the knee line | Press down while stepping your passing-side leg over the opponent's legs, breaking through the first barrier they build with the knee |
| ④ Extract the trailing leg | Pin the opponent's leg and pull your other leg free, usually landing momentarily in a half-guard shape and using foot leverage to finish the extraction |
| ⑤ Complete the side control | Windshield-wiper both legs toward the passing side to square the body fully and establish stable side control |
The core principle is to drive the shoulder into the opponent's chin or upper chest and turn the head toward the passing side. Once their hips are flattened against the mat, instructional sources generally agree it becomes mechanically very difficult to recover guard, which is why the body lock pass is classed as a "pressure" pass rather than a "speed" pass.
3. Entry Timing and Setups
There are three common windows to launch the body lock pass:
First, the instant the opponent tries to sit up from their back or posts a hand on the mat. During that transitional moment their weight and both hands are typically too committed to defend the waist, making it the easiest opening to lock the connection in one motion. Nick Rodriguez, discussed in the next section, treats exactly this transition as his primary cue for entering.
Second, as a pre-emptive measure against leg-lock specialists. Because it traps both legs before the pass even begins, the opponent never gets the time to open up K-guard, reverse de la Riva or any other leg-entanglement system that requires space, which is why it is now considered one of the most efficient answers to leg-lock-oriented players.
Third, as a replacement for traditional post-takedown control. Connecting straight into a body lock after a takedown denies the opponent the chance to explode free, stand back up or hit a dramatic escape roll. That is why modern competitors prefer the body lock as the direct extension of a takedown rather than transitioning into conventional side control or mount.
Ryan has also publicly described three variations of his own body lock passing: stuffing (jamming the opponent's legs down), shelving (lifting their legs onto your hip) and splitting (separating the legs). Which one he uses depends on the opponent's reaction at that moment. He describes the core of the system as a dilemma: face me and you get crushed, turn away and I take the back, leaving the defender with no good option.
4. Strengths and Limitations
| Strengths | Limitations |
|---|---|
| The chest-to-chest connection shuts down both legs before the pass starts, making it highly efficient against leg locks and modern open guards | You must win the grip fight at the waist first; if the opponent secures an underhook before you, the lock is very hard to complete |
| Linking a takedown straight into the body lock drastically reduces the opponent's room to scramble free, cutting down chaotic restarts on the feet | It is a pressure-based style, harder to execute for someone at a size or strength disadvantage, and it does not reward reaction speed the way speed passes do |
| If the opponent turns away to escape, you can flow straight into a back take, putting the defender in a lose-lose bind | In gi rulesets with extensive gripping, the opponent can use collar and sleeve grips to create extra friction and slow the pace of the pass |
| Legal in gi and no-gi at every belt level, with no IBJJF restriction, so it can be used freely in training and competition | An opponent who understands framing and shrimping timing still has a clear escape window before the lock is fully sealed |
5. Common Counters and Escapes
The escape window for the body lock pass sits almost entirely in the phase before the opponent's hands are fully clasped behind your back, and the guiding principle is to win arm space before the connection is completed:
First, get the underhook before they do. Threading your arm into the opponent's armpit for an underhook before their hands lock is the single most effective way to prevent the body lock from forming, and instructional sources generally treat it as the primary antidote.
Second, turn the shoulder to build a wedge and shrimp out. If the lock is already tight, rotating your upper body and shoulder to one side to form a wedge buys the hip space you need, and it is the essential setup for starting a shrimp escape.
Third, switch escape routes once your frames get crushed. If the opponent keeps driving forward and your original frames collapse, rather than forcing the shrimp it is better to switch to a deep half entry, a ghost escape or a granby roll, choosing whichever fits the available space and the amount of pressure coming at you.
What the defender should do after escaping
Once you have secured the underhook or completed the shrimp, prioritise rebuilding a guard structure or at least locking in a solid half-guard position rather than immediately attacking, because the instant the opponent's hands come apart is usually a chaotic moment where neither athlete has regained balance.
If your opponent is a known leg-lock specialist, you can consider counterattacking with a leg entanglement if the escape naturally recreates that space, but only after making sure your upper-body structure is stable. Do not rush into an attack before the body lock pressure has actually been relieved.
6. Frequency in Competition and Legality
The body lock pass was already highly visible at the 2022 ADCC World Championships. In that year's +99 kg semi-final, Nick Rodriguez used a body lock pass to move Felipe Pena into side control and advance to the final. Speaking afterwards, Rodriguez described how he reads the entry: the most important thing about the body lock pass is knowing how to set it up correctly, but knowing when to go is just as important, and the transitional moment when an opponent moves from lying on their back to sitting up, or pushes back with a hand posted on the mat, is a good time to fire it off. Rodriguez lost that year's final to Gordon Ryan, who finished the match with a heel hook at 2:15 to take gold in the division and complete the three-division record noted above.
By the 2024 ADCC, the visibility of body lock passing and body lock takedowns had risen further. FloGrappling's post-event technical trends coverage named multiple athletes making heavy use of body lock systems, including Elijah Dorsey landing a body lock takedown against JT Torres, PJ Barch using a body lock takedown to transition straight into half-guard pressure on Mica, and Luke Griffith excelling at converting the body lock directly into a back take, while Jay Rodriguez combined lateral loose passing with a high body lock to flow into mount. The report specifically noted that the advantage of body lock systems is that "you land chest-to-chest," which sharply reduces the opponent's chance of scrambling back to their feet. Compared with the messy restarts that often follow single- or double-leg takedowns, body lock control chains far more reliably.
On the rules side, the body lock pass carries no IBJJF belt-level restriction (the current IBJJF rulebook, checked in August 2026, contains no belt-level or division restriction on the body lock pass). It is fully legal in gi and no-gi, from white belt to black belt, which clearly sets it apart from restricted techniques such as heel hooks and cervical locks. It should be noted that both IBJJF and ADCC currently publish only placements and match results, not technique-level usage statistics, so there is no verifiable official source for a figure such as "what percentage of all guard passes are body lock passes." The material above uses specific athletes named in third-party technical coverage (checked in August 2026) as evidence of frequency, not as a precise statistic.
7. Safety Notes
The body lock pass is a pressure technique. Unlike heel hooks or cervical locks it has no clearly defined joint-injury mechanism, and no dedicated medical research on it could be found, so this article cites no academic literature and offers only practical safety reminders for gym training.
・With training partners who are noticeably smaller or lighter, build pressure gradually and avoid crushing the chest at full force, which can restrict their breathing
・Once the lock is tight, keep monitoring for taps or verbal calls to stop; do not miss them because you are focused on chaining the next movement
・When drilling takedowns into the body lock, match the landing angle and speed to your partner's experience level to avoid unnecessary impact on the neck or back of the head
・If you have a history of rib or ribcage injuries, talk to your coach first about adjusting drilling intensity and partner pairing
FAQ
Can a white belt start drilling the body lock pass right away?
Yes. There is no belt requirement or special prerequisite for this pass. At its core it is just a solid chest-to-chest connection plus hip pressure control, and it is one of the fundamental passing techniques taught at most gyms, so white belts can begin drilling it immediately. The grip details and angle judgement simply take time to accumulate.
How is the body lock pass different from the over-under pass?
The biggest difference is hand placement. The over-under is asymmetric control, with one arm threaded under the opponent's thigh and the other pressing on top of the other thigh. The body lock pass instead clasps both hands behind the opponent's lower back to form a symmetric, tighter chest-to-chest connection that is usually much harder for the opponent to pry apart with the arms.
Why is the body lock pass so effective against leg-lock specialists?
Because it traps both of the opponent's legs before the pass even begins, denying them the time to build K-guard, reverse de la Riva or any other leg-entanglement system that needs space to operate. That is exactly why recent technical analysis of ADCC competition often describes it as the key weapon against leg-lock experts.
What should I do when I am pinned in a body lock and cannot move?
The key is winning arm space before the opponent completes the lock. If they have already clasped behind your back, prioritise securing a unilateral underhook to create distance. If they keep pressuring and your frames get crushed, turn onto your side to build a wedge and shrimp out instead. If you cannot escape, rebuild a defensive guard position first rather than rushing to counterattack.
Can you use the body lock pass in the gi?
Yes. As of the current IBJJF ruleset checked in August 2026, the body lock pass carries no belt-level or division restriction and is fully legal in both gi and no-gi. That said, gi competition adds collar and sleeve grips, giving the defender an extra layer of fabric-based resistance against the body lock connection, so the real rhythm depends far more on gi grip fighting details than it does in no-gi.
References
1. Wikipedia. John Danaher (martial artist). en.wikipedia.org (checked August 2026; supports Danaher's biography, academic background in philosophy, Renzo Gracie black-belt lineage, April 2002 promotion and current sixth degree, and the founding of the Danaher Death Squad along with its roster)
2. Wikipedia. Gordon Ryan. en.wikipedia.org; FloGrappling. Gordon Ryan Makes History, First To Win ADCC In Three Weight Divisions. flograppling.com (both checked August 2026; support Ryan's date and place of birth, first coach Miguel Benitez, subsequent training under Tom DeBlass and Garry Tonon, his 2016 black-belt promotion, his 2017 / 2019 / 2022 ADCC medals by division, and the claim that he is the first athlete to win ADCC gold in three different weight divisions)
3. FloGrappling. Live Updates & Results: 2022 ADCC World Championships. flograppling.com; BJJee. How Did Nicky Rod Pass Felipe Pena's Guard At ADCC? bjjee.com (both checked August 2026; support Nick Rodriguez beating Felipe Pena in the semi-final with a body lock pass, his quote on entry timing, and the record of his final loss to Gordon Ryan by heel hook at 2:15)
4. Grappling Insider. Video: Gordon Ryan Talks The Finer Points Of His Body Lock Guard Pass. grapplinginsider.com (checked August 2026; supports Ryan's description of the stuffing, shelving and splitting variations and the claim that the pass suppresses leg-lock specialists)
5. FloGrappling. Bear Traps, Mir Locks, & More: Technical Trends From 2024 ADCC Worlds. flograppling.com (checked August 2026; supports the specific 2024 ADCC examples of body lock passing and body lock takedowns, including Elijah Dorsey, PJ Barch, Luke Griffith and Jay Rodriguez)
6. BJJ Fanatics (Lachlan Giles). The 5 Stages Of The Body Lock Pass. bjjfanatics.com (checked August 2026; supports the technical detail of the five-stage movement breakdown)