One of the half guard passes that we are working on this month at 10th Planet Van Nuys is the Twister Pass. I really like the Twister Pass because I can use it to transition to several different postions. Today I wanted to highlight how the Twister Pass can be used to roll into a Toe Hold.

I first learned this technique from 10th Planet Brown Belt Alex “4saken” Alejandro. Alex would constantly use the Twister Pass to get to Twister Side Control. From Twister Side Control, Alex would look sometimes let you grab his leg with your legs. Once you did this it was over. Alex would quickly jump up and over your legs and Toe Hold you. Alex had repped this transition so many times that he had it down smooth. There was very little margin of error and once he rolled it usually meant you were tapping.

Being obsessed with Leg Locks I of course asked Alex to show me this move. When he was teaching me I had a real “Ahhh” moment when I realized that the roll was not actually a roll. When I first attempted the roll I was trying to go over my shoulder like a front roll. The rolling motion for this move is very similar to the Twister Roll. In the video below pay close attention to how the top guy rolls towards the feet when he does the roll.

Enjoy!