Is Your Opponent Stacking for the Pass? Surprise Him with a Sweep

Anderson stacks for the pass during training at Black House academy. Photo by Gustavo Aragão/GRACIEMAG.

Few guard passes are as classic and effective as the stack, a technique that even Anderson Silva makes sure to practice, as you can see in the photo above, taken by Gustavo Aragão.

Useful both in and out of the gi, the stack was also used to good effect by Xande Ribeiro in the World No-Gi Championship final against guard-specialist Leandro Lo.

So what do you do when someone pressures you like the aforementioned Xande and Anderson do? Today GRACIEMAG.com has a remedy for this problem for you.

Rule number one in keeping from getting stacked is to keep your hips flush up against the ground.

But how do you do that? Rodrigo Cavaca explains it.

“When your hips are on the mat, the opponent can’t come up with the room he needs. So what I do is sink a grip on each of his sleeves and push backwards so he can’t get his hands together to stack me,” says the coach for team CheckMat.

“When the opponent makes it to a position from which he can stack me, I grab his gi and start shrimping out my hips until I’ve got both feet on the ground. After that, I grab his belt with my left hand. I post on my right hand so I can draw in my hips and sit. I use my left arm to put pressure on the opponent’s shoulder and keep him from posturing up,” says Cavaca.

“I reach my right hand under his arm to grab the lapel on the opposite side. After that, I bring in my right elbow and move out my hip until I’ve got room enough to stick a hook in under his leg. With the hook and my arm holding the belt, I tip him over for the sweep. Then I release the grips and mount,” said the man who gave Marcus Bochecha his black belt in conclusion.

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