Yup.

When Gustavo Batista swept Renato Cardosa it sent me headlong into a whole bunch of studying. I’ve watched many of Gustavo’s matches since then. All with the intention of finding more examples of the sweep in action, and in the room, I’ve been laser beam focused on hitting it.

In fact, today I’ve probably hit it well into the double digits.

And every time, it has become a little bit more mine, as I make adjustments and notice more specific instances of opponent vulnerability.

Case in point:

I’ve actually started to hit the scissor sweep against standing opponents.

How?

Well, I step on their foot. Yup. And it works too.

If you curious about exactly how it’s done, though, you’ll have to wait. In the recent lesson I did on the Batista variation of the scissor sweep, I only mentioned the viability of a pinning the foot briefly.

What you can learn right this moment, though, is the specific adjustments to the scissor sweep that will enable you to hit it off a guard pull and with greater ease from closed guard.

The lesson awaits you here:

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And one of the sweeps he hits from the kneeshield half guard is a thing of beauty. When done right, it seems like some gnarly ninja trickery.

I have the same sweep in my arsenal too.

But I don’t do it the same way he does.

The biggest difference lies in the fact that I abandon the kneeshield in the transition of the sweep. In fact, it’s one of first actions I take when going for it.

Why?

It’s because of the mechanics of the sweep.

In essence, it’s just a back roll, but it only works as a sweep, if you put your opponent in a position where they’re forced to do a forward roll. To accomplish that, though, it’s essential that their body be pulled across yours and that their far side shoulder touch the mat.

So the challenge lies in the how.

And when I was adding the shaolin sweep to my game coming up, I found it really hard to pull opponents my size or bigger across to the execution position with the knee in. Not only did it force me to carry a lot of weight on my legs, but it was also a barrier that impeded their movement.

Of course, one factor was attribute related. It used to be difficult to the point of being impossible for me to fully flex my legs (ie bring my heels to my gluteus maximus).

And another factor (I realize now) is that my grip on the sleeve was different than the one that Shaolin uses, and that grip definitely warrants further exploration on my part.

But it didn’t take me that long to find another solution.

I started abandoning the kneeshield when people drove into it, and the result was that they would fall into the space where my knee used to be. The momentum of that fall also made it easier to pass the sleeve across the body and with an extra little shift of the hips, opponents would drop right into the strike zone.

Worked like gangbusters for me (and still does).

In fact, I taught someone my variation of the sweep last week, and just today, he told me that he hit twice already, and one was on a guy who had some weight on him too.

If you’re curious though, I once put a breakdown of my execution on tape.

And you can find it here:

The focus has slowly been shifting to what I’ve decided to call physical demonstrations of what not to do.

Case in point:

There are two rules that when it comes to staying safe in someone else’s closed guard, and unlike many other tactics in the game, I haven’t found any exceptions for them.

The first is that we must always address the cross collar grip when possible, and the second is that we must avoid putting our hands on the mat.

Why?

Because doom awaits us if we choose not to adhere to those rules.

The cross collar grip can be used to break posture, set up cross chokes, hit scissor sweeps and unleash many other threats on us. And a hand on the mat is a trigger for opponents to lash out with kimuras.

Saying that is one thing though.

It’s far better to demonstrate it.

And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing while teaching methods for passing the closed guard this week.

We’ll work on a pass, then we’ll work on a counter when the top guy makes a mistake like putting their hands on the mount or failing to address the cross collar grip.

Just building out a basic understanding of what’s possible in the position by exploring both the top and the bottom in the same class.

I’ve found helpful to me as an instructor when it comes to identifying a few immutable laws about the topic at hand, and I bring it now as an idea for you to focus on in your training as well.

Drill both sides of a position and identify the specific reactions that lead directly into offensive options.

And if you want to see this teaching methodology in action, I plan to use this format in the next micro adjustments lesson, which will delve deeper into the topic of killing the kneecut at multiple stages of threat.

Grab access here if you so wish:

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Case in point:

In the match between Gustavo Batista and Renato Cardosa, I saw a darn right sneaky variation of a scissor sweep.

And every time Gustavo went for it, he either created opportunities through major base disruption or hit the sweep, and frankly, it’s so rare to see the scissor sweep work at high levels that I had to stop everything and watch those moments over and over again to discern exactly how he was doing it.

This is kind of stuff that gets me excited about the game.

So obviously I’ve been playing with it in the academy ever since, and I’ve been able to identify a few crucial details like the importance of gripping behind the tricep instead of the sleeve or how the grips on the collar and sleeve must work as a push pull dynamic in addition to the actual scissor motion of the legs.

And you know what?

After I work on this for awhile longer and really streamline its execution, I’ll be making a video on the topic for micro adjustments, and you can find out more about how to get access here:

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