Butterfly Sweep Leverage Explained

In my previous post titled “Understanding Leverage in Brazillian Jiu Jitsu" I explained some of the basic concepts for leverage in general in BJJ.  I wanted to give a more concrete example applied to just one branch of techniques.  So the technique is the Butterfly Sweep.  I’m not going to explain how to do one.  I am only going to explain the leverage behind it a bit more.

In my previous post I mentioned that I thought I saw the Butterfly Sweep as utilising a Class 2 lever.  Well I think that the sweep has more than one lever.

Using the Opponent as a Class 2 Lever

Let’s have a side on look at the butterfly sweep.  Btw this is Stephen Kesting demonstrating the sweep.  Let’s look at the Opponent (White Gi) first.  This is utilising a Class 2 Lever.  His Load is low to the ground on his hips.  If you look at the 3rd and 4th picture you can see that Stephen is creating a Fulcrum on the opponents left shoulder.  In the 3rd and 4th picture you can see that a Force is being generated from the hook . 

So this is our classic Wheelbarrow lever.  The opponents shoulder is the wheel, their load is now in the middle, their leg is the handle. These combine to lift the person over the Fulcrum point (their shoulder).

Using yourself as a Class 1 Lever

Stephen is also using himself as a lever.  To help generate the Upward Force to lift the handle he sits up and in.  He then propels himself backwards (Force going down behind him) while keeping his leg at the same position relative to his own body.  This seesaw action is key,  he doesn’t lie down and then lift his leg – the leg starts lifting as soon as he starts any backward movement. 

If you break it down to basic concepts.  The Load is on his left foot – the handle of the wheelbarrow.  His butt is the Fulcrum (the part that doesn’t move) and the Force is throwing himself backwards (which gives the bonus of gravity to add to your mass) to the ground.  What Class lever is this?  Well the Fulcrum is in the middle of this lever.  He becomes a seesaw.  So it’s a Class 1 lever – which is the strongest for lifting a heavy load.

If Stephen was stronger relative to the person he was sweeping then I’m sure he could have relied on his own muscle strength. He could potentially just sit back and then lift the person using a straight leg. I’ve seen strong guys to this to lighter people.  They muscle the technique. This requires a very strong Class 3 lever.  Where possible utilise Class 1 or Class 2 levers.

Another point is this, if you are too weak to be able to structurally move your leg up as you fall back, keep your hook leg (Load) closer to your Butt (Fulcrum).   Structurally you will make the Lever (your body) stronger, but the side effect is it’s now slower to lift.

This is where feel comes in.  I’m just discovering this, but I think the really good guys make all those adjustments on the fly to make the levers work.  I know I use to do everything correctly, but it felt impossible to actually lift the person because one minor part was wrong.  The part I was forgetting was I had to also make myself a lever.  This helps increase the Force generated to help me lift the opponents leg. It’s easy to overlook that part.

The Butterfly Sweep is a very powerful sweep.  It utilises both people as different levers.  Thinking about BJJ at this level sounds very complex, but the beauty now is once you understand this for Butterfly Sweep  you only need to think about 1 sweep instead of 10  – every butterfly sweep from now on is just a minor adjustment for a specific scenario.  Every Butterfly sweep should have a Wheelbarrow and a Lifting Seesaw.

Some Reasons Why things go wrong

Q: The sweep failed, when I fell backwards he lifted up but then he was able to post out with one hand which stopped him from being swept.

A:  Most instructors probably will say you didn’t secure his arm etc.  A more technically correct answer as applied to leverage is this.   He was able to MOVE the Fulcrum from his shoulder to posted hand (think how hard it is to lift a full wheel barrow when the wheel moves forward as you tried to lift it).  Make sure the Fulcrum can’t be changed or make sure you account for that change. 

Q: The sweep failed,  I did everything right, I used myself as a lever, he came forward but I could lift him.

A:  An Instructor might say keep your hook further down his leg away from the centre line.  A more technical answer is this: The upward Force was being applied to close to the Load.  The further back from the Load you can apply the Force, the less Force you need.  Think trying to lift a wheelbarrow full of cement from the point the handle meets the barrow – This is much harder then lifting it at the end of the handle.

These are just demonstration examples for highlighting  how to apply some good thinking. I’m much more concerned about fixing the basics of my BJJ.  If I can get these concepts correct then I think it will be easier for me to correct minor things such as poor grip selection in a particular scenario.  Through this understanding I will have LESS things to think about when rolling.  For me it’s about technically correct simplification of my applied BJJ.

Happy Rolling

Dan

PS:- Did  you see there are actually 2 Class 2 levers on the opponent – the one I didn’t mention is on the the initial pull down – Looks at Stephen’s arms...