UFC 139 Judo Chop: Matt Brown's Scissors Sweep of Seth Baczynski
by Ben Thapa on Nov 29, 2011 1:00 PM EST
in MMA Technique
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Tom Grant brings us another mini-Judo Chop, as he breaks down some of the subtle groundwork displayed in Seth Baczynski's submission victory over Matt "The Immortal" Brown during UFC 139. In this mini-chop, Tom explains how exactly Matt Brown used his long legs to scissors sweep Baczynski and regain the initiative he had seized during the stand-up phase of the first round.
The scissors sweep is a staple of submission grappling, as its seemingly simple mechanics lend itself well to being picked up by beginners and its efficient usage of weight distribution and timing allows it to work even in high level grappling and mixed martial arts.
The basic principle of the sweep rests in using a precise set of grips and the shearing motion of both legs to simultaneously off-balance the opponent and prevent any basing out with the arm and leg on the side being swept towards. If done well, the sweep can land you in mount or side control with a discombobulated opponent. In order to do this sweep well, it often has to be disguised and performed at precisely the right moment, as wary opponents will quickly see and counter this sweep. It also helps to have long legs that can slide into the right places quickly, as Matt Brown showed us at UFC 139.
Join us after the jump for a gif and breakdown of the scissors sweep, as delivered by Tom.
In the middle of the first round, Brown had the advantage standing and Baczynski hit a double leg takedown to try and stall Brown's momentum. Brown quickly establishes the open guard he wants and this is where the gif picks up. We'll let Tom Grant describe the action:
The scissor's sweep is one of the most basic sweeps in all of grappling, but it is rarely seen in MMA for a few reasons. One is that in order to do this sweep, the guard player must open his guard, which gives the top player a chance to pass his guard, and the sweep relies on a collar grip and posture breakdown that is rare to achieve simultaneously in the no-gi environment of MMA.
The grip can be converted to no-gi; it is just more difficult to maintain it along with the foot placement and posture breakdown against a savvy grappler. Matt Brown establishes the set-up grips strongly from his open guard against Seth Baczynski. One arm is hooking the back of Seth's head, keep his posture broken down and the other arm traps Seth's left arm, preventing him from using it to establish base and stop the sweep.
The legwork is what makes the scissors sweep go and you can see that Brown's left shin is pressing into Seth's hip, while his right leg is resting against the outside of Seth's leg to prevent him from basing. With the whole left side of Seth's body prevented from basing, due to arm and leg placement by Brown, Seth is now ripe for the sweep.
Brown pulls with his grips and pushes upwards with his left shin to off-balance Seth. Right as Seth's weight begins to be carried on Brown's shin, his knee floats off the mat and Brown scissors his legs. The shearing motion results in an almost effortless sweep. Brown lands nicely in side control, but when he foregoes securing the position to posture and strike Seth, Baczynski is able to establish guard.
Questions? Comments? Fire away below and thanks to Tom for the mini-Judo Chop.
Gif via Ironforgesiron.com
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The favorite first sweep that I learned in BJJ. It is actually a perfect move to pull off against someone like Baczysnski, who is taller and lankier. I’ve yet to pull off the move against stockier, brick shithouse type wrestlers with strong bases.
Great judo chop!
"Referees, be sure to step in and stop the fight on time tomorrow, because I might get carried away in the moment and my many punches may end up destroying my opponent." - Tatsuya "CRUSHER" Kawajiri
Getting the scissors sweep to work right means paying attention to the details of how exactly to trap the arm and block the leg from basing out. Different body types will take slightly different grip work and placement.
As for the strong base, that’s where counters come in handy – like the elevator sweep and so on. They flow in and out of each other so that there’s usually options to go for when dealing with someone possessing very strong base.
Twitter: @DefGrappler
InStrength dot com.
Yes, unfortunately, even after following all of those necessary steps, the scissor sweep is still an difficult sweep to pull off on wrestlers and as such, you’ll rarely see it occurring in the higher forms of competition (purple belt and above). Being a former wrestler myself, wrestlers prefer to keep their legs already based. Whether you block the leg or not makes no difference. Also, any true top game player is already sitting up in your guard, making it even more difficult to hold the collar tie.
You’re right about the last bit though; counters are the difference. If you fail the scissor sweep, you might switch over to an opposite side elevator sweep and furthermore into an armdrag if they happen to stick their arms out any step in the way.
"Referees, be sure to step in and stop the fight on time tomorrow, because I might get carried away in the moment and my many punches may end up destroying my opponent." - Tatsuya "CRUSHER" Kawajiri
The collar tie isn’t strictly necessary. All that matters is the brief breakdown of posture. The grip can come from elsewhere.
Also, look at what I said about disguising the sweep. Tenney down below mentions all kinds of different things that flow from the scissors sweep, but remember that you can adapt the flow so the scissors sweep flows from all of those thing.
Twitter: @DefGrappler
InStrength dot com.
Thanks for recognizing none of my points. As for the collar tie, it is almost necessary against high level players. Good luck getting the sweep without control of the head against a heavier opponent above blue belt level.
Also, I’m not saying its impossible to get the scissor sweep on more skilled opponents, I’m simply saying you’d be hard pressed to do so. I’m talking specifically about the scissor sweep, not things that flow from it, which is different direction altogether.
"Referees, be sure to step in and stop the fight on time tomorrow, because I might get carried away in the moment and my many punches may end up destroying my opponent." - Tatsuya "CRUSHER" Kawajiri
Someone like Seth Baczynski
You mean someone with a terrible base.
by Steadiest Pink on Nov 29, 2011 5:18 PM EST up reply actions
Haha, if you say so. I’m sure has a better base than most brown belts, at the least.
"Referees, be sure to step in and stop the fight on time tomorrow, because I might get carried away in the moment and my many punches may end up destroying my opponent." - Tatsuya "CRUSHER" Kawajiri
Even though...
… the GIF is blocked/filtered for me, still a great read.
The scissor sweep was the first BJJ sweep I learned. It’s an easy sweep to learn, but tricky to master once you start to roll with blue-belts and above who can recognize it being set up.
Scissor sweep is awesome and will always be awesome because eventually you’ll learn how to turn it into a deep half entry, inverted triangle setup, rolling omoplata or triangle setup, and so many other things. The scissor sweep is the base for so much technique.
-AboveThisFire
The mat is my church, the ground is my heaven, Jiu-Jitsu is my religion. And once you hit the ground you're in my world. My world is like the ocean, I’m like a shark and most people don't even know how to swim - Draculino
If I live in a castle and you want to kill me, storming the gates is probably not the best idea. You'd do a lot better hitting me in the head with a brick when I come out for the mail. -Ryan Hall
I then rip off my shirt and do like a hulk scream and pose and then say to the kid " don’t you no I would fucking destroy you are you fucking retarded? -Areyouforreal
IMO
The leg position for the scissor sweep is more valuable than the sweep itself, for all of the setups and attacks you mentioned.
However, most people fail to recognize that, when you place your hips sideways like that, with the knees so close together, it leaves an opening for the guy on top to just bearhug both of your knees together, sprawl out and move to side control. 90% of my own guard passing game revolves around killing this sweep.
If it seems like everyone around you is an asshole, you are probably an asshole.
90% of my own guard passing game revolves around killing this sweep
i found this out, the hard way
aka BuckeyedBear34
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
-Napoleon Bonaparte
To have a Cannae you must have a Varo
-George Patton
"The complete man must work, study and wrestle."
-Aristotle
theres no chance to squeeze the knees together if you’re legs are in the right position. Your top leg should have the shin on the hip, but not angled to go across the belly. It should be angled upwards more toward the shoulder to prevent exactly what you’re describing and also giving the sweeper more control over the top guy’s weight.
Exactly right
People think of the scissor as low-%, but I’ve hit it on purple belts, and even when it doesn’t work, it forces a reaction that you can use for something else – a popular variation is to push/kick their knee out to break their base, as shown here:
http://www.lockflow.com/gi-technique/stupid-simple-scissors-sweep
The gi grips really do help enormously though. If you’ve got a good grip, you can do an almost uchi-komi like hand motion (I’ve heard it described as like putting on a giant hat) instead of a simple pull, and they’ll fly through the air instead of just toppling.
by CaptainArmbar on Nov 30, 2011 3:54 AM EST up reply actions
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