Technique Spotlight: The Scissor Sweep

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Introduction

The scissor sweep is one of the first sweeps many people lean in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. I would consider it one of the “classic” closed guard sweeps that are one of the fundamental moves of BJJ. One of my favorite things about it is that it demonstrates good knowledge of grip placement, being able to manipulate people’s base, and leverage. It also happens to be one of my favorite sweeps.

What is the Scissor Sweep?

The Scissor Sweep is commonly taught from the closed guard for beginners. Usually, you start with a strong collar and sleeve grip. Then you open your guard and place a knee shield on your opponent’s chest, the other leg hooks on the outside of your opponent’s leg and you turn to that side. The key action from this point is to get your opponent to commit their weight forward either by pulling to off balance them and load them above your hips or letting them start their pass to get them to commit their weight forward. After their weight is committed, you scissor your legs (hence the scissor sweep) to rotate their hips and put them on the bottom.

Key Mechanics of the Sweep

1. Establish Strong Grips

   • One hand controls the opponent’s sleeve, while the other grips the collar (or head if grips aren’t available).

   • Utilize the grips to pull tension through your opponent’s posture to prevent the back out when you open your guard.

   • If you are gripping the head, you can pinch your elbow in to keep the tension on your opponent’s posture.

2. Create the Angle

   • Open the guard and pivot your hips to the side, I like to put a high knee shield across my partner’s chest to prevent them from collapsing through my leg and passing my guard.

   • The other leg wraps around the outside of your partner’s legs.

3. The Off-Balance

   • I like to use the tension of my grip in combination with my knee shield to create push-pull motion into my opponent’s chest to get them to commit their weight forward.

   • Once I feel the person shifting their weight forward, I drop my knee shield across my partner’s waist to set up for the sweep.

   • I am trying to get my opponent’s base centered over my hips once it is there, I can complete the sweep.

4. Execute the Sweep

   • Once my opponent’s weight centered over my hips, I continue to pull them to prevent them from backing out.

   • Simultaneously, I push my top leg forward and pull my bottom leg backward to rotate my partner’s hips.

   • This combination of pulling, pushing, and scissor motion rotates my opponent’s hips and plants them on the mat.

5. Finish on Top

   • Lots of people like to finish in the mount from the scissor sweep which is ideal, and the scissor sweep is often an effective way to get to mount.

   • One thing to watch out for when you come up is your opponent being able to snake their legs back in and either put you in half guard or stop you from coming up into the mount.

   • I often like to keep the arm I had the sleeve grip on and use it to come up into side control and take the arm to advance towards a submission.

Why the Scissor Sweep Works

The sweep is effective at almost every level because it uses angles, leverage, and the opponent’s posture against them. By controlling the upper body with grips and using the legs to disrupt balance, even smaller practitioners can reverse much larger opponents.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Staying flat on your back instead of creating an angle

• Forgetting to pull with the grips while scissoring the legs

• Placing the leg to low initially on the sweep allowing your partner to smash through your guard.

Conclusion

The scissor sweep is an excellent sweep for beginners and as your progress through Jiu-jitsu, more and more variants of the sweep will become available to you. It can be a very versatile and dangerous tool to add to your repertoire of moves.