Sweep the Leg, Johnny

The guard is a great sport grappling position.  It affords the athlete on the bottom many submission and control options.  The guard can be an equally effective MMA position.  Again, the athlete on the bottom (if skilled) can nullify the top athlete’s striking ability and again look for submissions.

From a street perspective, the guard can again be a very powerful position but how much do you want to be on the ground in a parking lot?  A sidewalk?  A cement floor?  How certain are you that the person in your guard is acting alone?  Do they have buddies that are going to hop in the fight?  Do you want to be on the ground when they arrive?

These are questions for the individual to answer how they see fit, hopefully after they’ve practiced a fair amount of striking and grappling.  Some of the tools that we like to see in our student’s toolbox (so they can answer the above questions) are a few sweeps from the guard.  These sweeps create a simple way of getting from a decent position (guard) to a dominant position (mount) and from there the student can stand up, ground and pound or submit.  The most basic of these sweeps is called the scissor sweep.  It involves opening the guard, shrimping to one side, putting a leg across the top player’s waist, putting the other leg on the outside of their leg, grabbing their triceps and then “scissoring” the legs while turning the arms.  If done successfully, it can be quite speedy.