Problems with someone who starts by playing guard.

[Cassius]

Your advising someone with little to no guard passing skills to try a gimmick move?

That is not good advice.

Tangerine, if you can afford it and your instructor is a BB, pay for a private with your instructor. Ask him to teach you two to three basic guard passes. Failing that, ask a purple belt or higher for a private, purple belt privates are cheaper. If this is not an option, find one of the higher belts who doesn't seem to mind helping out the lower ranks and ask him to spend a little time with you during randori to work on your passing game.

Also, ask your sparring partners to pull guard on you when you start, every time. This way you can focus on your passing. Do this as often as you can if you want to get better. It's painful at first, but it's also the shortest path to improvement.

When you get swept or reversed, ask your opponent what they did to sweep or reverse you. They might not always be able to answer, but you'll never know if you don't ask.

If you're stuck in a rut, it's up to you to take the initiative to climb out of it.

jnp's advice is exactly what I would do. In fact, I'm considering taking it for a different problem I'm having with my own game.

[Cowardly Lurker]

If I'm that far out and he's stalling, I'll get either both arms under or over his legs just above the knees , passing around his legs that way. If I get under, I try to do a crush/stacking pass, and if I get over I'll go for a gable grip, tripod up and move around. Those two work pretty well if I'm stretching out his guard.

Personally, I don't try to get fancy. I'm working probably 6 situational guard passes, and until I can get those to work with what I consider passable proficiency, I figure I've got enough on my plate. I get swept, but not nearly as often as i used to, and I can get around most other white belts' guard more often than not.

[Res Judicata]

Why, oh why, is this in DHS?

1. Learn to pass the closed and open guard. Simple yet difficult. You need a handful of passes to begin with. Have someone teach you a few passes (2-3). Work on those passes. When you can sort of do them, learn a couple more.

The toreador (bull-fighting) pass, if that's what you're doing, is a good one -- but from open guard, when you control his legs. And most people know it's coming. Very situation specific.

2. Let/ask people pull guard on you. Practice passing guard. Practice passing guard. Practice passing guard. A common drill is, well, guard passing. If the person on top passes, or the person on the bottom subs or sweeps, reset to guard. Repeat.

3. Experiment" is actually pretty good advice (once you have a little bit of a clue). You'll figure out what works for you. I'm a shorter, stocky guy. I have maybe 7 or 8 working passes, but I generally usually try to pin a leg to the ground and pass a knee over, or stack. Life is different if you're smaller or thin (which I suspect the OP is).

You also earn pretty fast what not to do, and you learn to see subs and sweeps coming, as well as how to defend them. I got armbared and triangled hundreds of times when I was a new white belt. I rarely get armbared or triangled any more.