Scissor Sweep

What it is

The scissor sweep is a closed-guard sweep where one shin lies across their waist, the other leg lies flat on the mat, and you scissor the two legs to cut away their base. Grips on the collar and sleeve pull them onto your shin first. It is one of the first sweeps every beginner learns because it teaches off-balancing.

When to use it

• They kneel in your closed guard with their weight on their knees.
• They lean forward and their weight comes over your shin.
• They post wide with an arm on the side you want to sweep toward.

How to do it

1. Grip their collar with your right hand and their right sleeve with your left hand.
2. Open your guard and put your right shin across their waist, lying on their belt line.
3. Drop your left leg flat on the mat, against the outside of their right knee.
4. Turn onto your left side and pull the collar and sleeve so their weight comes onto your shin.
5. Scissor: kick your right leg across toward your left and sweep your left leg back, cutting out their right knee.
6. They roll to their side. Keep the grips and come up into mount.

Key details

• Pull them onto your shin before you scissor. If their weight is still on their knees nothing moves.
• Get onto your side. On your back the scissor has no power.
• The bottom leg chops low at the knee, the top leg drives at the hip.
• Keep the sleeve grip through the landing so the arm cannot post.

Common mistakes

• Mistake: lying flat and kicking, so they are not off balance and the legs just slide off.
• Mistake: letting the bottom leg sit too high, so it hits their thigh instead of cutting the knee.
• Mistake: releasing the sleeve, so they post the arm and stop the roll.

What they will try

• They post their free hand and drive their knee forward over your bottom leg.
• They pull the knee free and sit back, turning it into a guard pass attempt.

Gi and no-gi

Replace the collar grip with a hand behind the head or neck and the sleeve grip with a wrist grip, and pull with the same off-balancing.