If you just have a minute to ponder the beauty of the ham sandwich, here’s a quicky:
Of course B Mac has a lot more on this topic:
Rolling footage of repeated ham sandwich attacks:
If they keep their leg straight to deny the ham sandwich, get even more 10th Planet on them and switch to an electric chair:
He continues deeper into the dark arts with a toe hold if the ham sandwich doesn’t do the trick
and one more from another favorite of halfguardlife:
There are a few extended videos at https://www.10thplanetjj.com/techniques-archive/ but there isn’t much from 10th Planet on Youtube.
This isn’t my favorite video from Coach Brian. It gets extended a bit by his coaching of the young camera operator. It’s probably the best I’ve found:
I found a second one:
Here is Giancarlo Bodoni showing it from full guard:
I don’t know what happened to part 3. I didn’t find it on Youtube.
Bonus: Pinch headlock into triangle (for DJ).
Here’s Eddie Bravo doing it at high speed, ending with the transition to spider web. He points out that he prefers the head control rather than the shoulder crunch. I do too. Gordon Ryan, the best in the world, prefers the shoulder crunch variant. It is not clear to me what Gordon gains from his approach compared to the head and arm. I’m sure there’s something there, but I don’t see it.
Since the other elements of the pinch headlock/homie control are covered in the other videos, here’s some help with the swim move:
I appreciate the comments at the end about not doing the move to the guy. It’s in line with the Rabbit Season Duck Season concept. Put yourself in position to help the move happen when your opponent asks for it.
It applies to nearly all of Jiu Jitsu, but I find myself needing the reminder when I struggle with butterfly guard. If you’re fully committed to pulling someone in, they’ll sit their weight back and it’ll be hard to move them. Sometimes you gotta give’em the ole Rabbit Season, Duck Season and threaten them in a different direction so that they’ll help you move them in the direction you want to go.
I watched Gordon’s sweep of Buchecha over and over again:
Look at Buchecha!
He’s a big dude. He’s sitting all the way back to the opposite side of the trapped arm. He also has his left leg posted out in opposition to the anticipated sweeping direction. Outside of detaching his left arm, Buchecha is doing everything to stop a roll to his left, Gordon’s right. But that’s what happens. I know Gordon consumes his share of acai, but how the hell does he just roll over from there?
He doesn’t. He pushes into Buchecha first:
Gordon mentions this in his video with Bernardo, but you don’t see him really push Bernardo because Bernardo is being a cooperative uke. Compare the position of Buchecha’s hip to his knee. In the second picture, he’s being driven backward. If he goes further back, he’ll be on his ass. He can’t accept that, so he pushes forward to get his right leg back underneath him.
At that point, he’s Daffy declaring “Duck season! Shoot!” and Gordon “Buggs” Ryan gets what he wants.
I posted this one before, but here’s Saulo talking about butterfly setups as “going through the guy” to get them to push back:
This guy hunts:
rabbit season duck season Read More »
Some highlights just stick with you. Watching Eddie Bravo hit the electric chair sweep on Royler Gracie repeatedly sent me down the lockdown halfguard rabbit hole. More recently, the clip of Gordon Ryan sweeping Buchecha has been stuck in my head. It’s not a brand new technique, and it’s been used elsewhere but watching Buchecha flail as he gets caught and rolled is pretty wild.
lol @ glappers
That short clip just makes it easy to rewatch the sweep. The whole match is on youtube if you want to see it.
Gordon gave a step by step walk through of that exact exchange:
Here are a couple other breakdowns that show Gordon using it in multiple matches:
Before Gordon was the greatest, there was Marcelo Garcia. He had butterfly moves too:
If you only have a minute, here’s BMac with a tip:
shoulder crunch sweep Read More »
We’ll be moving on from the half guard emphasis at the beginning of the year, but I like this video and I don’t think I’ve posted it on this site before. Jason Scully’s videos are the opposite of Danaher’s: quick demonstrations of moves without long monologues. Sometimes you just want ideas for some options and don’t need a research paper.
By popular demand, we’ll start to dabble in the dark arts. Since I’ve spent nearly all of my recent training time in the gi, I am not fully comfortable playing footsie. I have more work to do on my own understanding of it. To get started, I want to pick moves and positions that complement things we’re already doing and won’t be illegal for everyone in their normal competition contexts.
That brings us to footlocks/straight ankle locks. Here are a pair of finishes. The second finish accounts for positioning that acknowledges heel hooks but doesn’t require us to break IBJJF rules:
Below is my obligatory inclusion of Lachlan Giles. I agree with him that I don’t want people in class to get focused on footlocks from top position rather than working on passing the guard. Still, we gotta start somewhere.
I’m less bothered by leg attacks initiated from the bottom. It feels less like giving up on positioning. Single leg X guard attaches nicely to footlocks, so we can work on transitioning into and sweeping from SLX.
Watch Gers escape the footlock attempt in the middle of his match by clearing the bottom leg. His opponent didn’t step over with his other leg to keep Gers away. Gerson shucked the leg and went directly into a dominant top position. This is also a reminder of why everyone is encouraged to work guard passing more than footlocks. Gerson’s opponent could have taken the top position and worked a pass but he fell back for the foot and ended up getting smashed on bottom for it.
Here’s a version of establishing SLX from half butterfly:
From butterfly:
Leg details from Marcelo on the butterfly to SLX transition and sweep:
More Lachlan on sweeping from SLX:
Our attacks from butterfly have so far been similar. We’ve either gotten underneath our opponent to sweep him directly from butterfly or gotten underneath to enter into an x guard position. The setups are so similar that if one isn’t working, you might find that the other isn’t working either. To add some variety to the attacks, consider the arm drag. Arm drags can be performed standing and in closed guard as well, but here, we’re focusing on the butterfly version.
I watched several videos. This one was my favorite for the description of the grips and the demo that works nicely as a drill:
Bernardo has a short and sweet video against a standing opponent. I’m interested in his gripping strategy that leads with him baiting a wrist grip:
An arm drag has happened. Now what? Marcelo discusses defense (stand up!) and what to do to finish the back take:
Maybe one day I’ll make a post that doesn’t reference a Lachlan Giles video, but today isn’t that day. I just really appreciate how he explains details that go unspoken in other videos. A notable difference from Marcelo’s video is that he switches to a single leg takedown when his opponent stands as opposed to jumping into a backpack position.
Finally, a message from Wardziński on the subject. His instructional series has more about back takes and additional coverage of this position, but what I found on YouTube is this variant of a familiar roll-under sweep. His grip preference is unique with a cross sleeve and armpit grip (rather than a tricep).
Butterfly Arm Drag Read More »
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:
Butterfly to X Guard Read More »
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:
Getting to Butterfly Guard Read More »
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.
Adam Wardziński Butterfly Read More »
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.
Intro to Butterfly Guard Read More »
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.
Here we go:
Butterfly Back take Read More »