We’re working on the butterfly hook this week. We start from the sit-up guard position, hand-fight to get the 2-on-1 grip, and pull them down to get into half-guard. Make sure their knee doesn’t pass your bottom knee. Create a frame on their upper body (if you frame on their cross-shoulder, ensure your elbow is tight to prevent them from taking an underhook) and shrimp out with your outside foot on the mat to push their knee to the mat.
When pulling them into your half-guard, wedge your bottom leg behind their knee, between their thigh and calf. You can even hook your foot around their ankle, creating a sort of lockdown with your foot to prevent them from running away.
The goal of this half-guard position is to bring their knee to the mat while preventing them from tripodding up, pressuring down, or running away.
Note: Always keep your body leaning to one side; you don’t want them to flatten you out, make a chest-to-chest connection, or establish an ear-to-ear connection.
Once you’ve secured the half-guard position, get a near-side underhook and use one hand to control the wrist (*). Move your outside leg in and make a butterfly hook on their thigh. Your knee should point to the ceiling, and your shin should frame against their shoulder to prevent them from hip-switching and smashing down. Create a push-pull motion: push with the underhook, pull their wrist (killing their base), combine with releasing the bottom leg, build up your base by hopping to your toes, base your head on the mat, and make the sweep.
You can also use a cross-shoulder lock with a gavel grip on their far-side shoulder to execute the sweep.
What If They Post Their Far-Side Foot Down to Prevent the Sweep?
With your bottom leg, bring it in front of their far-side foot and create a scissor sweep motion, chopping at their ankle while continuing with the butterfly hook sweep.
(*) You can experiment with a collar tie grip or an overhook on their arm. The goal is to bring their hip past their knee line and their shoulder past their elbow line to make the sweep.
The ideal position after the sweep would be the mount position. If you end up in a knee-cut position, maintain constant pressure, keep the collar tie, and hold the grip on their arm longer if needed. Hand-fight to find an inside position for control, frame to prevent them from coming in, then flatten them out and go for the pass. You should end up in the side-control position.
I can sometimes make a butterfly sweep if my opponent doesn’t expect it, but I usually end up in a dogfight situation in the middle of the sweep. I need to workshop and experiment with this more during rolls.
I got choked so many times today by great people in the class. I’m still struggling with the bottom position as well as passing. I need to be more focused and stick to a system when passing guard.