My Love Affair with Sweeps

Part of the last few days I’ve spent a fair bit of time drilling my guard sweeps and going over the basics of them.  The basics are fair from simple when it comes to sweeps.  You can’t really force a sweep. I want to make my sweeps feel effortless for me and my partner - I’m finding the best time is in the transitions of attacking and defending from guard.  Feeling where their weight is committed.

So with that in mind I’ve gone through the basics again of Scissor Sweep, Sitting Rollover sweep, Rolling Shoulder sweep and the Hook Sweep with all starting from closed guard.  They all have advantages and difficult timings.  I’m trying to identify for myself the exact timings to use on each one and also the likely blockages when I’m not doing the technique correctly.

For instance what I’m working on mainly is Scissor Sweep.  I picked this sweep specifically because:

1. I like it
2. I can get it but not as often as other sweeps
3. Rickson Gracie likes it, and there is a good chance he will be teaching it in his seminar soon.

So what are some of the challenges I face for the Scissor Sweep?

1. Partner puts all his weight down very low, to stop me from getting his weight onto my shin
2. Opponent pushes down the knee the is across the belly pinning it
3. Opponent doesn’t open his leg to the side that benefits me transitioning from closed guard to Scissor Sweep.

Still with these challenges I’ve also had some good wins with it.  Mainly the following little tips

1. Grip, get it first before anything.
2. Timing – Anticipate and feel their reaction
3. Space,  don’t get cramped and have no room to move.
4. Push Pull action to load up their weight onto your shin.
5. Feel where their weight and posture is, understand it
6. Drive with your grip hand and commit to coming up onto your knees into mount.
7. All sweeps have a window of opportunity,  transition once that window is gone.

Weight Distribution is basic.

Something that I’ve used averagely to my advantage in the past is my weight. – unfortunately it’s never been in a focused way.   As part of my going back to basics I have been thinking a lot about what makes up the true basics of BJJ.  Is it a set of 30-40 techniques or is it a smaller set of concepts?

When a person starts out on their BJJ journey they discover a range of techniques ranging from hip escapes (shrimping), to simple arm bars, simple guard sweeps and simple transitions.  I call these simple because they are often taught very simply, and without sufficient detail and practise to work against a seasoned veteran.  So when we get to active rolling we discover all sorts of issues that weren’t covered. For example, the cross choke from mount. Often I see examples such as this for teaching the move.

1. From mount, open the lapel
2. Slide your right hand up the lapel (fingers in)  getting a deep grip behind the neck
3. etc etc

What happens when I can’t get past step two?  Do I need step 1?  It’s hard getting a deep grip against someone that knows what you are trying to achieve.  Try as I might for ages, there were people that were outstanding at defending the neck.  I made a mistake,  I was going for the technique without applying the concepts. I was stuck trying to thrust and out muscle my opponent to get the deep grip, when actually I needed to use some principals of jui-jitsu.

So I spent many weeks experimenting on using my weight to get the grip for me.  Not only can I get the grip quite comfortably now (against an active resisting person who knows the counters to the counters) I also feel like my mount is 10 times more stable against attack. 

How, by using a simple concept of letting my weight do the hard work for me. By locking my grip elbow into their sternum (weight down and to the left) and using my hips (weight forward) to drive my hand forward getting the deeper grip. Let your hip via good weight distribution do the work for you. There are a lot more details and concepts involved, but instead of more details I will say think about where your weight is at all times, and how to apply your weight in a focused way to achieve what you want and spoil what they want ( such as bridge and roll).

I believe the same concept exists when defending, thinking about where their weight is, and how to use it against them.  Now when I train I’m always feeling and thinking about weight distribution and how I can exploit it.  It’s a learning process.

Happy problem solving.

Dan