The Double Under Pass is a foundational and highly effective guard passing technique in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, renowned for its ability to neutralize strong open guards. It relies on superior hip control and pressure to stack your opponent, making their leg defenses ineffective and leading to dominant top positions like Side Control or mount.
**Establish Double Under Grips:** Begin by getting deep under both of your opponent's legs, securing strong grips on their pants near their knees or on their belt, ensuring your elbows are tight to your body.
**Lift and Stack:** Drive your hips forward, using your legs to lift your opponent's hips off the mat, effectively stacking them onto their shoulders and upper back.
**Pin Hips and Knees:** With your opponent stacked, use your chest and shoulder pressure to pin their hips and knees to the mat, preventing them from creating space or moving their legs.
**Walk to Side Control:** Maintain constant pressure as you slowly walk your feet around in a semicircle, pivoting towards one side of your opponent's body.
**Secure the Position:** Once you've cleared their legs, settle into a dominant side control, chest-to-chest, securing head and arm control or cross-face and Underhook.
**Hip Control is ParaMount:** The success of this pass hinges on your ability to control and elevate your opponent's hips; without it, they will easily recover their guard.
**Constant Pressure:** Never relieve pressure once you've committed to the pass. Any momentary lapse allows your opponent to re-establish frames or leg hooks.
**Head Position:** Keep your head up and chest out, maintaining a strong posture to avoid being swept or entangled.
**Small Adjustments:** Be patient and make small, incremental movements to clear the legs rather than trying to power through in one big push.
**Double Under to Leg Drag:** After lifting and stacking, instead of walking around, you can transition directly into a leg drag by isolating one leg and pinning it.
**Double Under to Stack Pass (Direct):** A more direct version where you focus solely on stacking and holding the opponent in a high stack, often leading to a quick knee-on-belly or side control.
**Double Under to Smash Pass:** Utilizing the double under grips to drive forward and flatten the opponent, often combining with a cross-face to smash their guard.
The Double Under Pass is highly effective when your opponent has a strong open guard (like Spider Guard, lasso guard, or DLR) and is actively trying to keep you at a distance with their feet. It's also excellent when you can get under both of their legs and lift their hips, negating their leg dexterity.
**Leg Entanglements:** Opponents will often try to transition into leg locks (heel hooks, toe holds) or set up sweeps from deep half guard if you commit too deeply without proper control.
**Triangle/Omoplata Setups:** If your head is too low or your arm extends too far, the opponent can use their free leg to set up a Triangle Choke or omoplata.
**Creating Space and Framing:** A common defense involves using frames with arms and powerful hip escapes to create distance and recover guard before you can fully stack them.
When executing the Double Under Pass, always aim to pin your opponent's hips and knees to the mat using your chest and shoulders, not just your arms. This frees your hands to establish stronger controls or transition to submissions, making the pass more stable and less reliant on arm strength.
π Competition Rules
The primary goal of the Double Under Pass is to bypass the opponent's guard by controlling their legs and hips from underneath, stacking them, and transitioning to a dominant top position like side control or mount, thereby neutralizing their leg-based offense.
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Most practitioners develop functional competency with Double Under Pass within 3β6 months of consistent drilling. Mastery β the ability to execute reliably in live rolling against resisting opponents β typically takes 1β2 years.
Yes. Double Under Pass is part of the core BJJ curriculum and taught at all belt levels. Beginners should focus on the fundamental mechanics and concepts before refining advanced entries.
3β5 times per week is ideal for rapid skill acquisition. Even 10 focused repetitions per session compounds over time β consistency matters more than volume.
BJJ is a linked system. Double Under Pass flows naturally to and from related positions. Study transitions in both directions to build a complete positional game.