This is my tally of guard passes from the highlight reel on the 2004 Mundials DVD. It’s rapid fire, switching from fight to fight quickly, so I didn’t write down who did what.

  • 7-9 cross knee passes (depending on how you want to define it)
  • 7 over-under passes
  • 2 Sao Paulo passes to half guard performed by Roberto Godoi himself, ending in cross knee pass
  • 2 leg facing half guard passes (like Marcelo does)
  • 2 half guard passes with the underhook that ended in the cross knee
  • 1 knee-pin/knee-through pass
  • 1 stacking pass
  • 1 smash pass
  • 1 “step over and sit on it” pass to an x-guard position
  • 1 bull fighter by dropping the shoulder into hips

There were a few misc. passes that didn’t fall into any specific classification, but they were usually something involving grabbing the knees and circling around the legs.

Not all cross knee passes or over-under passes were the same. They happen many different ways, and often in combination with each other, as well as other passes. Some started from standing, some from kneeling, some in open guard, some in half guard (and in Godoi’s case, even closed guard.)

Cross knee passes from standing often started with knee grips followed by a collar grip or underhook. If they started in half guard, they had the underhook and worked their trapped knee out until they could cross knee pass.

For the over-under, they grips were usually on the knees or sometimes the end of the pants, and/or an underhook to grab the belt/hips. This grip sometimes goes to the end of the pants.

Notice that very few passes go under the legs, like a stacking pass. Almost all go over or around, even if they use a grip that goes under the legs.