OVER-UNDER PASS

The over-under pass is the foundational pressure-passing technique in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and one of the few passes that scales upward against larger opponents rather than smaller ones. The mechanics involve the passer threading one arm over the opponent's same-side thigh and the other arm under the opponent's opposite thigh, locking the hands together to clamp both legs against the passer's chest, then walking forward and around to one side to arrive in tight side control.

The technique was the signature pass of Bernardo Faria's competitive career, with Faria using it to win five IBJJF World Championships and an ADCC silver medal between 2010 and 2015. Faria's pressure-passing style demonstrated definitively that the over-under works at the highest level of competition, not just against beginners, and his series of instructional videos on the technique became the most-watched passing series of the 2010s.

The over-under's structural advantage is that it clamps both of the opponent's legs against the passer's chest before any passing motion begins, removing both legs as defensive tools simultaneously. This is different from the knee cut and the torreando, which deal with one leg at a time and rely on the passer's speed or pressure to compensate. The cost is mobility: the over-under is slow, requires the passer to commit significant body weight forward, and is countered by any opponent who can recover frame and underhook before the pass arrives in side. For this reason it is particularly effective against larger opponents (who have less guard mobility to begin with) and against fatigued opponents (whose framing degrades over the course of a match).

Defensively the over-under is escaped by establishing a strong underhook on the side the passer is walking toward, by hip-escaping out to disrupt the lock on the legs, and by snaking an arm between the passer's legs to attack a leg lock in no-gi contexts. Marcelo Garcia famously demonstrated the no-gi counter by setting up x-guard from a defended over-under attempt.