Since this is mostly a Lachlan Giles fan page, let’s start with his entry into X guard:
He has good tips for controlling the position and keeping your opponent’s posture broken down. The entry involves altering your butterfly position a fair bit. You’re abandoning the butterfly sweeping position. What if you’re already committed to the butterfly sweep? I like this version that puts the transition right into the failed sweep:
Once you’ve gotten that far, then what? Stephen Kesting’s summary covers several options in a nice, succinct video:
I think this one moves a little fast for an instructional, but if you really want to taunt someone with your awareness of the matrix, this back take is fun and so is the ham sandwich at the end:
So far, we’ve been emphasizing the mechanics of sweeping from the butterfly guard, but in order to use those skills, we’ll need to establish the right positioning. A hinderance to my adoption of butterfly guard has generally been the lack of control I feel when I approach someone with the mindset to enter butterfly rather than establishing a different guard. My legs get grabbed, hopped over, or danced around before I get anything going. Pulling half guard generally reduces the movements and encourages my opponent to perform a more high-contact guard pass, which I prefer. I’d rather be smashed than have to chase someone.
My preference for slow control makes Marcelo Garcia’s approach problematic for me. He replaces physical control with an onslaught of attacks. He doesn’t need so much control if his opponent is always on the defensive. It obviously works for him, but his instructional is about nogi where grips are not so powerful. Wardziński seems to drag people into butterfly with collar and sleeve grips. That’s a bit closer to my comfort zone, but the sleeve grips are not a natural move for me yet. What else is there?
Saulo doesn’t seem to like a direct entry into butterfly either. He shows how to move from a full guard position into butterfly. One point of emphasis that I took away from this video is the priority of pushing into the opponent first. It’s more important to post with a hand behind you and get your hook deep underneath them than to start worrying about their posting arm for the sweep defense.
I already live that half guard life, so maybe butterfly is a place to go but not to start. We worked on a version of this back in the half guard unit:
Maybe you don’t like being smashed so much and like knee shields more than I do. There’s a good reminder here that although there’s some visual similarity between half butterfly and a knee shield, they work differently. Your butterfly hook needs to go outside, it cannot go inside the way the knee shield does:
This next one doesn’t necessarily belong in this post, but it’s something that I watched while I was pondering the other resources. Gordon explains the necessity of combining multiple guard systems:
Here’s the John Wayne Sweep from our guru of the month, Adam Wardziński:
Here’s some more from a familiar face (Lachlan Giles):
I have no idea why it’s called the “John Wayne Sweep.” Danaher described the same movement in his half guard series as a “knee lever.” Just for funsies, here’s the “knee lever” being applied in MMA:
I was looking for butterfly resources in the gi. Apparently, Adam Wardziński is the man. I found a reference to the BJJ Scout study of his game first, but that rabbit hole goes deeper than I’m ready to handle right now. Let’s start simple:
On the question of lifting with the legs, this video emphasizes the bottom leg:
5 drills to fix my butterfly guard? I don’t need an experienced training partner? Yes please.
Lastly, here’s the first (of 5) BJJ Scout study of his butterfly game. You’ll see that he likes to use a half butterfly position a lot. As you would expect, I’m intrigued.
As a relative n00b to butterfly guard, I’m already finding resources challenging with contradictory information. Like any other jiu jitsu positions, it will come down to what works for you and the combination of bodies involved in your current roll. When someone says “don’t do it like this, do this instead” try to understand why they have that preference, but everything has tradeoffs and other people might prefer to balance them differently.
Let’s start with a common reference on this site, Lachlan Giles. He’s great at breaking things down with clear instruction. Note the lack of lift and amplitude in this sweep. I’m drawn to it because it more closely resembles my experience, but it differs greatly from some other demonstrations that involve kicking up in the air. In fact, he says not to do that:
Here’s a bigger kick version of the basic sweep:
Even in videos featuring other famous Jiu Jitsu players, everyone references Marcelo Garcia when discussing butterfly guard. I don’t find his explanations to be as clear or detailed as some others, but he definitely applied the techniques at the highest level so it’s worth considering his thoughts on the subject:
Another guy that you have to consider based on performance is Gordon Ryan. He describes some principles regarding the entry and inside control that are lacking from the other instructions that I’ve seen. Gordon seems more willing to roll onto his back than Lachlan or Marcelo.
Kenny Florian has an interesting breakdown of the body connection required to succeed with butterfly attacks:
To wrap up this first post, here’s one that addresses a concern that I’m sure a lot of people have. He’s so heavy! I can’t move him! He uses a principle we’ve seen many times before and will see many times more: switching between pushing and pulling to get opponent reactions that will help you complete the movements.
Marcelo shows this move at the end of the first disc in his Butterfly series. It looks pretty slick and it seems like the grip should be even more effective with sleeves. If I find a clip teaching it, I’ll add that later.