Jake Mackenzie's BJJ Half Guard Pass Counter Series
Every year or two the local BJJ scene here in Nova Scotia, Canada, welcomes Jake Mackenzie home from Brazil. Jake started training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Nova Scotia when he was in his early…
With Sally Arsenault
Every year or two the local BJJ scene here in Nova Scotia, Canada, welcomes Jake Mackenzie home from Brazil. Jake started training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Nova Scotia when he was in his early teens. Eventually, his love for the sport led him to Florida to train with his friend Roberto "Cyborg" Abreu for many years, but he went on to make his home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with his wife Melissa. Both Jake and Melissa are members of the GF Team.
BJJ Heroes has a great article documenting Jake's competitive career here: www.bjjheroes.com/bjj-fighters/jake-mackenzie
I don't pay enough attention to the competition scene and Jake is so humble, I've never heard him talk about tournaments, but in working with him on these videos, I realized just how successful he'd been. In the year I first put this piece together, his accomplishments included:
- IBJJF Rio Fall International No-Gi Open, 2nd place
- IBJJF Zurich International No-Gi Open Champion
- IBJJF Zurich No-Gi International Open Absolute Champion
- IBJJF Rio International Winter Champion (closed bracket out with teammates)
- IBJJF Southern Brazilian Champion, middle weight black belt
- IBJJF São Paulo International Open, middle weight Champion
- IBJJF São Paulo International Open No-Gi, middle weight Champion
- IBJJF Brasilia International Open, middle weight Champion
- IBJJF Brasilia International Open No-Gi, middle weight Champion
A seminar that built Jiu Jitsu block by block
When Jake visits Nova Scotia, we love to hear his stories from the birthplace of our beloved sport and of course we want to learn all of the latest BJJ techniques. My team had the good fortune of having Jake come and teach us at my club, Titans MMA, regularly, and we also hosted his seminar. I would say it was one of the best seminars I've ever attended. Jake broke the techniques down into small, easily learned blocks that built upon each other to create a very nice sweep series from half guard. He made sure each student showed him the move correctly, and at the end of the day he stayed an hour extra answering questions and helping students with anything else they were stuck on. In an era when you can queue up any world champion's entire system on an instructional app or BJJ Fanatics, that kind of hands-on teaching is still something you can't download.
I wanted to share some of his knowledge with you, so I asked him to film a video series demonstrating some of his most successful techniques. His wife Melissa is a very technical grappler and I trained with her as much as possible while the pair were in Nova Scotia. At the seminar, we added a submission to the end of the sweep Jake taught and it flows so well together, we wanted to share that with you, too.
Four BJJ counters to the cut-through pass
If anything, this series has aged beautifully. The cut-through (what most of the Jiu Jitsu world now calls the knee cut or knee slice) has become just about everyone's A-game pass against half guard. Watch any modern ruleset, from IBJJF finals to the no-gi circuits where the Ruotolo brothers and Ffion Davies do their work, and you'll see it attempted constantly. A half guard player without an answer to it is in trouble, and Jake's answers are as relevant as ever.
The original series has since been taken down, but Jake still teaches these exact counters on his own channel, and the versions there are as sharp as ever.
The first counter is a back take: when your opponent commits to the cut-through, you follow the motion and end up on their back. Jake breaks it down here: Half Guard: Counter the Knee Cut and Take the Back.
The next idea is a counter for when the passer tries to back step out of the cut-through. Instead of fighting to hold the position, you let the back step happen and turn it into a sweep, landing in the leg drag or driving through to dope mount, the smash-pass position. Jake shows this "let them think they're passing" trick here: Counter the Knee Cut 2, the Jedi Mind Trick.
The seminar version Melissa taught us, which we still call "The Melly," takes that same forced back step but adds one detail: she slips her head under her opponent's arm before sweeping, so the arm triangle is already loaded the moment she lands in dope mount.
For more of his half guard, Jake's channel is here.
I hope these videos help you obliterate the cut-through pass on all of your opponents, and that the Melly ends many matches in your favor. If your club would like to book a seminar with Jake, you can reach him through his social media. All of us at Titans wish Jake and Melissa continued success and safe travels whenever the road takes them back to Brazil, and thank them for all that they've shared with us. See you on the mats!
Originally published in Jiu Jitsu Style by Sally Arsenault. Refreshed for 2026.