The Leg Drag pass is a staple of BJJ passing and is an effective tool at getting through the open guard. Typically attacked from the top De La Riva position, the leg drag is used in Gi and Nogi. It is a fundamentally solid move that has been used at the highest level by the likes of Keenan Cornelius and Lucas Lepri. As we shall see below, it can also be used alongside other passes to enhance your passing game.
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Setting up the Leg Drag
The leg drag pass is done from a standing position. The idea is to step into your opponent’s legs whilst holding a foot and the knee of the other leg. In the Gi this can be done with pant grips, but in Nogi you can just grip the ankle and palm the knee. From this point you should pin the ankle down as much as possible whilst in a squat position. The closer the ankle to the floor the better, as it immobilizes the opponent’s leg as a result. Remember it’s important to control the ankle and knee as otherwise, they may get a closed guard.
After this, your knee should help pin the opponent’s leg to the floor. Next, you should grab the opponent’s other ankle or bottom of the pants. You should then pull this leg up in a squatting motion which uses your entire body to drag the leg. Then you should pin this leg across your own leg. The key here is to tightly pin their leg and quickly sit which traps their top leg in between your torso and knee. From here it’s important to block the knee so they can’t recover. Also, the quicker you trap the leg the better, as they can’t re-pummel their legs to regain guard.
To finish the pass you should then grip their shoulder and bring your other knee against the opponent’s hip. The opponent is now trapped with both their upper and lower body. From here you can move to side control and establish the pass. Like most passes, it’s important to constantly apply pressure. With this in mind, you want to minimize space at all times.
For example, if the knee isn’t controlled after the drag then they may recover. If their hip isn’t covered afterward then they may be able to snake and get free. Overall this concept of constant pressure can be applied to all pressure passing principles, whether passing to side control or mount.
Leg Drag Pass Drill
Drilling the leg drag pass is a very good and quick way to improving your speed and precision of the pass. Because of this, the leg drag pass drill is often used as a warm up in many BJJ gyms. With a partner you can drill each side 10 times consecutively. This will not only improve your muscle memory of the move, but it also helps improve your cardio and leg strength as it has the same movement as squatting.
In short, this is a good way to improve your success of the move and can even be done as a solo drill. One example of this is using a stool or a small box. Although not as effective as using a human, you can still practice the knee step which is used to trap the opponent’s knee.
Chaining the Leg Drag with other passes
Like most forms of BJJ passing, you can chain moves together. For instance, the leg drag can be used in unison with other passes. In particular, it works well with the toreando pass and stack passes. For instance, if the opponent brings their other leg over the defend, then you can switch your hands to toreando grips. With these grips established, you can quickly push the knee aside and move beyond the hips. At this point you have passed the guard.
The second option is to combine the leg drag with stack passing. For instance, if they bring both legs up as a common defense, you can crouch down into the double unders position. If they bring one leg back, you may be able to catch it and start using the under over pass. In short, this is situational and depends on how they react.
With this in mind, the leg drag shouldn’t be seen as an isolated move. Instead, it should be seen as a system to work from. If it gets defended correctly, don’t just give up and reset passing. If stopped, you should focus on countering the defense by looking at a stack or toreando pass
Summary
Overall the leg drag pass is a key part of BJJ. Combined with the toreando pass it’s a staple move to pass the open guard. Typically used against the De La Riva position it can be used in both Gi and Nogi with great success. Because of this, it’s often one of the first passes taught to newcomers. Whilst it can be defended like all passes, it’s low risk and a high percentage move. When chained together with other passes, you should see your top game significantly improve.
