Stability Before Progress

The Foundation of Guard Passing

Before you can get good at passing, you must first become difficult to sweep. Passing is not simply about forward motion; it is about stability under pressure. If your opponent can consistently tilt you, off-balance you, or knock you to your side, you’ll never get to express your passing sequences in the first place. The foundation of a passing game is not movement, but base.

Think of it this way: a strong passer is like a tree with deep roots. No matter how hard the wind pushes, the trunk remains upright. Without that rooting, every attempt at motion exposes vulnerability. In Jiu-Jitsu, your “roots” are your hip position, your weight distribution, and your ability to recognize early when your opponent begins to shift your center of gravity.

Consider the knee-cut pass against a skilled open guard player. If you drive forward recklessly, they will set a hook under your leg and tip you into a sweep. But if you drop your weight through your posting hand, stagger your base, and redirect your knee line to the mat, you shut down the sweep attempt before it develops. From there, your opponent loses confidence in attacking your balance, and you are free to layer passing threats.

This is where strategy and tactics converge. The strategy is to advance past the guard. The tactics — building an unshakable base first — are what allow the strategy to manifest. As Danaher often emphasizes: “If you cannot stay on top, you cannot pass.” And as the Mendes brothers show in their game, the smoothness of their passing is built on a hidden discipline: the ability to neutralize sweeps before they even begin.

The lesson is simple, but not easy: before you learn how to go forward, you must master how to stay upright. Passing is earned through stability. Only when you are hard to sweep does the art of passing truly unfold.