The Two on One Scissor Sweep with John Danaher

By Fanatics Authors, November 05, 2019

I remember it like it was yesterday. Learning the scissor sweep for the very first time, I was completely enamored. I was so incredibly impressed by the fact that we could position our bodies in a manner that allowed us to perform this very dynamic technique. The scissor sweep immediately became my favorite jiu0hitsu theme and I began to attack it as much as I could.

I’ve seen the scissor sweep set up in a variety of ways. Different grip sets offer different ways to control our opponents and there are multiple ways to configure the legs. All of these different pieces are morphed together to achieve one ultimate goal, a reversal. Usually one that’s quite quick, hence the scissoring effect. Sometimes it even seems that the other person just disappears in to thin air if the move is executed properly.

The scissor sweep is an incredibly important part of your fundamental guard work. Contained in this technique are many basic themes of jiu-jitsu movement and mechanics, and understanding the inner workings of the scissor sweep will help to sharpen other basic elements of your game. If you’re a beginner, it’s definitely not one to be skipped.

With the release of John Danaher’s new instructional on the closed guard, we’re getting a look at what this jiu-jitsu genius deems most important when it comes to the position. This is exciting and with Danaher’s content, he seems to provide all of the missing links, as well as methods of performing techniques that are just plain better.

For me, the scissor sweep was a technique that worked for me throughout my time as a beginner. After blue belt, I had some trouble making the move work for me against more proficient guard passers who knew what to expect. After watching this video, I could see where things may have gone wrong. There are some important mechanics to observe if you hope to keep the scissor sweep as a part of your toolbox. Take a look at this segment of instruction from Danaher’s new series and see if you can pick out some things that you may be missing! Have a look!

As mentioned before, there are different ways to grip when trying to implement the scissor sweep. We can opt to control both sides of the body or focus our efforts on one side. In this particular variation, Danaher chooses the latter. He sets up with a cross grip on his partner left cuff and couples this with a grip on sleeve seam near the armpit. This seam is located on the underside of the sleeve and you’ll find every gi shares this seam in common, so you can always count on it being there to grip!

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As Danaher explains, this is normally a fairly easy grip set to achieve, as the passer will more than likely be looking to control your lapels and in the process, exposing this area for us to easily establish our grips.

With the grips in place, Danaher performs a pivoting action with his hips. This helps him travel to his right side, where he then inserts his top knee, making contact with his partner’s shoulder/chest area 9think knee shield). Danaher then plants his second foot squarely on his partners hip.

Now, this is where we need to carefully observe what’s happening. The next step in this process is to bring the top man’s weight forward over one leg. To do this, Danaher uses his shin to lift up in to his partners armpit and then forward causing the passers weight to become positioned over his left knee. With the off-balancing effect of the position now in full swing, it’s time for Danaher to perform the final movement in the technique. With a reaping action of his bottom leg, Danaher forms the scissor effect and easily reverses his partner. If the passer chooses to retreat a bit, which is very common here, Danaher simply switches to a pushing variation where he posts his foot on the knee and moves it backward to finish the technique.

As you can see, the importance of the off-balance is paramount to having any success with the scissor sweep. The action of getting the weight of the passer over that knee is absolutely critical. Once this has been achieved, the method of scissoring you choose will be less of a factor, as the most important part of the technique has already been accomplished.

This is obviously just the tip of the iceberg with Danaher’s closed guard series and even here in this short piece of instruction we find details and gems that will immediately add value to our closed guard game. I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to dive in to this one to begin re sharpening my fundamental knowledge of the closed guard!