sweep

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:

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:

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).

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.