Systematically Attacking The Guard 2.0 by Gordon Ryan: No-Gi Passing Course
Our buying assessment
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Check current price at BJJ FanaticsBased on the seller’s curriculum and cited product sources, checked 2026-11-09. This is a researched guide, not a firsthand review. Study recommendations are our editorial assessment.
In this guide
What it teaches
This course teaches a no-gi loose passing approach centered on toreando passing, high-step passing, flanking, J-point camping, grip clearing, and passing through guards such as Reverse De La Riva, De La Riva, ashi garami, knee shield, butterfly half guard, and supine guard.
Our assessment is that the course is best read as a systems study for staying mobile on top while forcing useful dilemmas, rather than as a single-pass tutorial. The lesson list repeatedly returns to connected problems: footwork, tension in the legs, camping, knee-elbow separation, high-step dilemmas, grip reactions, and reguards.
Curriculum overview
Passing philosophy and movement entries
Introduces the course’s passing framework, supine-guard approach, toreando footwork, leg tension, and feinting as the movement base for later sequences.
Study this if: You reach open guard but lack a repeatable way to start attacks without diving into grips.
Toreando finishes and camping
Covers toreando routes to side control, knee on belly, cross shin pin, side-to-side movement, camping, and reactions to knee orientation.
Study this if: You can move side to side but fail to convert motion into control or a clean pass.
Knee, elbow, and grip battles
Addresses knee-elbow connection, gripping at the knee, grip stripping, shin pin camping, pummeling against an extended leg, and forcing half guard.
Study this if: Opponent frames, grips, or reconnects knee and elbow before your pass settles.
High-step passing setups
Builds high-step entries from Reverse De La Riva, J-point camping, knee shield, butterfly half guard, and irimi ashi garami, with reap prevention and passing branches.
Study this if: Leg entanglements and sticky hooks stop your loose passing before you can flank.
Grip-specific recovery and north-south links
Studies what to do when the partner grabs legs, uses loose, tight, scoop, or sticky grips, inverts, or when the pass should transition toward north-south.
Study this if: Your pass collapses when grips survive the first entry or the bottom player inverts.
Outside De La Riva and reguard responses
Covers immediate flanking after reguards, outside De La Riva high stepping, clearing ankle and scoop grips, baiting Reverse De La Riva, and shuffling to north-south.
Study this if: You pass the first layer, then opponents re-guard or attach from outside De La Riva.
Live rolling and commentary
Includes listed live rolls followed by commentary sections, giving examples of the system in motion and explanations of what was happening during those rounds.
Study this if: You need to connect isolated passing choices to live decision-making against resistance.
Who it is for
The supplied source positions this as a guard-passing course for grapplers who want to combine techniques against stubborn guards, including Reverse De La Riva, De La Riva, ashi garami, and related open-guard structures.
Consider it if your top game already reaches open-guard exchanges but stalls when opponents attach to your legs, invert, recover guard, or force you into leg-entanglement awareness. The chapter topics directly address ankle grips, scoop grips, reaps, full inversion, and reguards.
Prerequisites
The course includes conceptual foundations such as a new passing philosophy, approaching supine guard, toreando footwork, creating leg tension, and feinting, but it also assumes students can engage with named guards and leg positions such as irimi ashi garami, outside De La Riva, Reverse De La Riva, and knee shield half guard.
Our suggested prerequisite is comfort with basic top passing posture, pummeling vocabulary, and common open-guard names. Newer students may still use the early movement sections, but the guard-specific reaction chapters will be easier with some prior positional familiarity.
Format and gi/no-gi status
The supplied brief verifies this product as no-gi. The product source describes it as digital video and lists eight volumes, with additional flow chart and visual notes mentioned in the product copy.
Research limitation: this guide is based on the supplied product page and comparison excerpt, not independent viewing. Start times and volume listings are treated as curriculum evidence only, not as proof of total runtime or production quality.
Strengths
A major strength is the breadth of passing contexts covered inside one no-gi system: toreando entries, cross shin pin, camping, half-guard forcing, high-step passing, north-south movement, De La Riva variations, ashi garami, inversion counters, and rolling commentary all appear in the supplied curriculum.
The course may be especially useful for students who want decision points rather than isolated moves, because several chapters are framed as dilemmas or opponent-reaction branches: high step versus kick out, back step versus front pommel, naive versus talented reactions, and upward versus outward facing knee.
Limitations
This is not presented as a dedicated half-guard-only or pressure-only passing course. Half guard appears as part of the wider system, with topics such as the beauty of half guard, forcing half guard, knee shield and butterfly half guard setups, but the product’s stated emphasis is loose passing, flanking, toreando, and high stepping.
Buy less urgently if you mainly want slow, chest-to-chest half guard top control, quarter-guard clearing, or mount transitions from half guard. Those needs are more directly represented in the Akins alternative excerpt than in this broader loose-passing course.
Suggested study order
Our suggested order is to begin with the philosophy, supine-guard approach, toreando footwork, leg tension, and feinting before moving into toreando finishes and camping. These sections appear before the high-step material and establish the movement layer used later.
After that, consider studying the knee, elbow, and grip battles, then the high-step chapters from Reverse De La Riva, J-point camping, knee shield, butterfly half guard, and irimi ashi garami. Finish by watching the grip-specific reboot, outside De La Riva, live rolling, and commentary sections to see how the branches reconnect.
Alternatives to compare
Dismantling And Passing The Half Guard: Half Guard Top by Professor Henry Akins is the verified related alternative. Its excerpt focuses on half guard top control, base and positioning, high and low knee shield, Z-guard passing, clearing the knee line, quarter guard, lockdown defense, and knee cut passing.
Choose the Ryan course if you want a wider no-gi open-guard passing framework with toreando, high step, flanking, ashi garami, and rolling commentary. Consider the Akins course instead if your immediate training problem is specifically dismantling half guard from top and progressing through knee shield, Z-guard, quarter guard, and mount/back transitions.
Purchase considerations
The product page identifies the format as digital video and also mentions flow charts and visual notes with embedded videos. The supplied brief verifies eight listed volumes and no-gi format.
Consider buying if your passing study goal is a connected no-gi system for mobile open-guard passing, not just a single finish. Check current seller details before purchase, because this guide does not rely on prices, discounts, guarantees, or app features for its recommendation.