13 February 2019

13/02/2019 - Sickle sweep

Teaching #836
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 13/02/2019

Short Version:
  • Turn your hips right out, putting you on your side
  • Put your 'top' foot to their opposite hip
  • Other leg behind their other leg, ready to chop
  • Grab their trouser leg with your same side hand, on the hip-push side
  • Knock them over, drawing your hip foot back to help come up, ready to pass

Full Version: The tripod sweep I always teach in a previous lesson combines well with the similar sickle sweep: as usual in BJJ, that almost certainly has other names (the most common alternative is 'hook sweep'), but I'm using the term from Theory & Technique (page 226). A good time to try this is if when you attempt the tripod sweep, they kick their leg free from your hooking hand. You could attempt to readjust to recover your position, but it is probably easier to pull yourself towards their other leg with your hooking foot, grabbing the heel on that side. Turn your body toward that newly grabbed leg, swinging your pushing foot over to that hip. With what used to be your hooking foot, chop back low on their other leg to knock them over.

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Of course, the sickle works on its own too. Indeed, Rener teaches this before the tripod on Gracie University. The entry he shows is to hook their leg, pulling yourself in to grab their ankle, then switching into the sickle position: opposite foot on the ankle-grabbed side hip, then chopping low on their other leg with your remaining leg, using your calf or possibly your heel.

In order to get the angle, you'll have to turn towards them, or hook their leg to pull yourself in. If you're going from the tripod, you'll already have their leg hooked. Note that when you follow them up after knocking them to their back, compared to the tripod sweep, your other knee will be raised. That means you'll need to make sure to shove their leg down and step over, enabling you to complete your knee slide.

While grabbing the heel is a perfectly viable grip, it is probably better suited to the tripod, as then you can use Kev's trick of jamming the heel against your hip. With the sickle your body is turned, so that's not easy to do. I'd therefore recommend grabbing the trouser leg for the sickle. That's because it means that once you've knocked them over, you can pin their leg to the mat while also pushing it away. That stops them from closing their guard. This is important, because the sickle sweep will generally put you in a position with one leg in between theirs. Wait as long as possible to let go of the trouser grip: ideally, you want to wait until you've slid your leg out.

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For finishing the sweep, I think with the sickle sweep, technical stand up works especially well. Base on the hand that's grabbing their trouser leg, also basing with your opposite foot. Use that to then bring your same side leg back and stand up. As you stand, thrust their leg into the air with your hand (you can bolster that by grabbing with your other hand too) and move around. It's really hard for them to do much if their leg is way up in the air like that, so passing should be fairly easy.

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Teaching Notes: I didn't include the switch from tripod to sickle this time, as I think that confuses people. I focused on getting up, with the simple option where you just come up into a kneeling position. I still need to recheck the Aesopian details on getting up from guard, that sequence of lessons was useful (plus he did a video). Holding onto the foot helps, using that as a post. I'm not sure about technical stand up from here, but I need to try that again, rewatch some videos. It's been a bit of a stressful week, so I haven't focused as much as I'd like to. ;)

Also, getting on your side, that's important. The retracting of the foot thing really helps for getting up, I find, but you need to make sure you do knock them over enough to get the sweep in the first place. Some more drills could be useful? I remembered to do the breakfalling stuff, at least.

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