[This is the second of a planned four-part series covering each of the ways to score in submission grappling. The first article, covering takedowns, is available here]
Guard passing is one of the most misunderstood scoring methods in competition. The confusion comes from the common misconception that controlling your opponent from side control is worth points. Before I continue with this article allow me to clearly state: There are no points for side control! Side control is just a position. It's the action of passing the guard that scores. Now that I've got that out of the way, we can continue.
As with my previous article in this series, I will be using the commonly adopted IBJJF rule book. Under IBJJF rules, passing the guard is worth three points, which makes it unique among the ways to score. I've heard that in the (very) early days of competition a guard pass and a sweep were both scored equally, but guard passes were eventually bumped up to emphasize the advantage of being on top in a real fight.
Guard passes (like sweeps and takedowns) are "Actions", meaning they are made up of an initial position, a transition, and an ending position. As with other actions, all three requirements must be met in order to score points for the pass.
