Video: Nicky Ryan Teaches the Secrets of the Body Lock Guard Pass

Although he’s just 20-years old, Nicky Ryan has already earned the reputation as one of the sport’s best minds and one of its best budding coaches. Recently, following the dissolution of the Danaher Death Squad, Ryan relocated from Puerto Rico to Austin, TX, where he has joined Craig Jones‘ B-Team Jiu-Jitsu.

In a recent video, we see Ryan teaching a body lock guard pass at B-Team Jiu-Jitsu. Watch and learn from Ryan below.

To the untrained eye, the body lock pass can seem like a simple strength move. But as Ryan explains in the video above, there are a number of important details. The guard passer must be cognizant of keeping the bottom player’s hips trapped in order to prevent the guard player from using a butterfly hook.

The video also shows some live positional sparring at the B-Team, with Craig Jones rolling live from the body lock passing position.

A black belt under John Danaher, Nicky Ryan is the youngest-ever ADCC competitor (16). He has competed three times so far in 2021, looking better each time. First, he earned a close decision win over PJ Barch at Who’s Number One, then followed that up with another decision win over Gabriel Almeida at another Who’s Number One event. His best performance of the year came at The Road to ADCC against Dante Leon, when Ryan showed off much-improved and effective wrestling. Ryan suffered a knee injury in that match, and is currently sidelined. He is the younger brother to top no-gi competitor Gordon Ryan.

Ben Coate

Ben has been involved with grappling, whether through wrestling or Brazilian jiu-jitsu, essentially his entire life. After wrestling throughout his childhood, Ben found Brazilian jiu-jitsu as a young adult and quickly fell in love. He has been training for over ten years and holds the rank of black belt, and remains involved in both the MMA and BJJ scene. Ben has been writing about combat sports since 2017. He has interviewed and profiled some of MMA's biggest stars, including multiple UFC champions.

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