Dan Faggella is a BJJ Academy Owner, No Gi Pan Am Champion at 130 pounds, and recognized expert in the area of leg locks. Dan writes or Jiu Jitsu Magazine, Jiu Jitsu Style, MMA Sports Mag, and more – find more of his leg lock articles and resources at www.BJJLegLocks.com

In the high paced world of leg lock warfare, you always have to have a couple of tricks up your

sleeve. I love leg locks, I love reversals, I love being able to spring a couple of surprises onto my

opponent out of the blue that gets them to tap out. It’s a GREAT feeling!

However, sometimes you run into a guy that is just overly difficult to submit for various

reasons, so having all these super cool sneak attacks may not do the trick. When this is the

case, being able to throw out a sweep to secure some points and a dominant position is a must.

I’ve discussed in previous blogs, mainly my entry about my match with Alex Sunz, the likely

hood of exposing one of your own limbs while attempting a leg lock is very high. In this case,

you’re likely to be fending off an attempt or two while you go for the finish. For a scenario such

as this, I have a nice little sweep you can add to your arsenal.

No Knee Bar? No Problem!

From time to time you’ll encounter a freakishly flexible human with no regards to pain. You can

twist and turn, yank and pull; basically do WHATEVER you can to their limbs, but they just won’t

tap out. So you have a few options here: 1) Keep going for the finish, and risk gassing yourself.

2) Transition to a different hold. 3) Sweep them and gain a dominant position.

Luckily I have a move that does two of those things! Today I’ll discuss a knee bar sweep. Given

the scenario of you grappling Gumby, we’ll break it down:

 In this case, we have the knee isolated and we’ve tried our hardest to get the tap but he

isn’t budging. Not wanting to risk him getting out of the hold and getting the upper

hand, we want to advance past this and move on.

 First off, we want to hammock our hips out and replace our feet. Switching to our

opposite hip, we want to take our top leg and place it onto their hip, and take our

bottom leg and put it on their inner thigh, making their leg immobile. During this

process, we also want to pass over our hand as well.

 From here, you have the choice of slapping on a heel hook and going for the tap. But

we’ve already decided he’s difficult to finish, so we’ll pass on that, but remember it’s

always an option.

 Place your top hand onto his knee. Using your other hand to plant on the mat, cut your

bottom leg under you. This allows you the proper base to drive forward for the pass.

So there you have it! This process presents two options, as I previously mentioned, so it is good

to know that you have a variety of choices to pick from when doing this move. It’s a helpful

move because ideally you would not be in too much danger going for it, putting all the pressure

on your opponent to try and get free.

Now go hop on the mat and give it a shot! Again, the heel hook will be there but try to pass on

it at first so you can get the full move and score the sweep!

For More Sweep Information Check Out These Articles!

-Dan Faggella