Defending against the leg on shoulder stacking smash pass
Skip ahead to about 18:00 in this video, ‘TWIBJJ Episode 98 with Roy Harris Part 2 of 2 – Roy’s favorite guard pass’ for a demonstration of the pass:
The first counter that you might think of is to go for a triangle, but against those who are good at this pass, it’s a bad idea. The pass is deliberately designed to bait people to try to throw up a triangle. When the bottom guy shoots his hips up in the air for a triangle, it makes it easier for the passer to lift the bottom guy’s hips up and stack him on his neck.
I would focus on a few other things.
Stop the arm under the leg from grabbing your collar or shoulder
If you look at this still image, you can see that the top guy’s left hand is grabbing the bottom guy’s shoulder. This helps lock him on top and can also lead to a stacking choke, demonstrated here by Simon Hayes:
In order to prevent that, on the bottom, I would immediately grab that wrist and elbow and extend my arms to push it away from me.
Get the back of your leg to their bicep instead of their shoulder
The pass is done by getting the bottom guy’s calf on the top guy’s shoulder and using the top guy’s back and hip extension through his core(center-line) to apply pressure. If you can get your calf out to the bicep, he can’t apply nearly as much pressure because his bicep is far to the side of his core.
If you compare the images below, Cobrinha on the left has his leg on the bicep, which is better for resisting smashes than the right picture, where the leg is on the shoulder.
Scoot away to the north
The goal of the stacker is to put your knees over your nose. If you can scoot your shoulders north, that moves your nose farther away from your knees. Ralek Gracie demonstrates that in this clip, ‘Ralek Gracie – Get The Triangle Everytime – BJJ Weekly Issue #099’:
Before you’re stacked too hard, set up an elbow push escape
Once you’re really stacked with your knees over your nose, life is miserable. There’s a certain point at which you can tell that the passer is about to stack you. In that case, deliberately allow your leg to pass over their head and give up side control, and immediately set up the elbow push escape. Marcelo Garcia demonstrates that in this clip, ‘MG in Action – Elbow Push to Fireman’s Carry’:
Another take on this topic from Ryron Gracie involves doing a back roll and guard pull. Note that he has to do it BEFORE he is stacked too badly. ‘How to deal with the stack with Ryron Gracie’:
In this video by Inverted Gear, ‘Defending the single stack pass’, the guy in the gray gi shows a lot of the elements that I mentioned:
Related posts:
http://bjjpressure.com/defending-and-countering-the-overunder-guard-pass/
http://bjjpressure.com/category/guard-retention/