All manner of sweep
It’s snowing, raining, and sleeting simultaneously in Minnesota and I had about seven near-death experiences on the icey roads driving to the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy. By the time I got there my nerves were frazzled and I was grinding my teeth so hard I gave myself a head ache. But I’m glad I made it because today Tom Schmitz taught us all manner of sweep and my head is spinning from all the stuff we learned. This class went by in the blink of an eye and I’m not sure I grok the techniques well so I preface this blog with my usual admonition that the following should not be considered even remotely instructional.
Butterfly Sweep
- Posture up
- Hip back so your head is in front of your butt - this way your opponent can’t just push you down onto your back
- Grab your opponent’s near wrist while rotating your body so your arm is over your opponent’s arm
- Reach down and scoop under your opponent’s far thigh
- Hip in so your head is behind your butt and you can easily pull your opponent on top of you
- Sweep your opponent over your shoulder without releasing control of his arm
- Land in side control and mind your tail-side leg or your opponent will hook it and get half-guard
Half Guard Sweep
This is a cool move when you can’t get to your opponent’s back from half guard. The context is that you have an underhook and your opponent counters your transition by getting a whizzer on your underhook.
- Break down the whizzer by surrendering the underhook and drawing your elbow into your torso. By doing this you maintain control of your opponent’s arm
- Exert pressure on your opponent by hip-driving into his side. Your opponent will resist your hip drive which sets him up for the sweep
- Quickly drop and scoop your opponent’s far thigh
- Roll back and use your opponent’s momentum to sweep him over
- Land in side control
Turtle Sweep
The context here is that your opponent is turtled up and you don’t have a good place to get a hook in. Tom explained that if you cross your opponent’s center line you are vulnerable to a sweep so it’s very important to maintain a strong position at his side, rather than directly over his back.
- Reach across your opponent’s back and grab his kimono or armpit
- Block your opponent’s ankle with your near knee
- Pull his knee out from his side with your free hand
- Put your head into the space you just created
- Reach under and scoop your opponent’s far thigh
- Roll back and sweep your opponent onto his side so you are behind him
- Put your mat-side shin high on your opponent’s back
- Pull your opponent onto his back
- Establish heel hooks
Arm-Bar to Back
This sweep occurs in the context of a battle for arm-bar. You’re postured over your opponent trying to extend his arm for an armbar. However, he has his arm bent and you’re not able to isolate the arm. In this case, you can transition to back control and work for another submission.
- With your head-side hand reach under your opponent’s head and grab his far armpit. It will look like you’re cradling his head. You now have very good control over his torso and it will be easy to lift him into your hooks.
- Slide your head-side shin high on his shoulder
- Pull him into back-control