Last night we covered X-guard sweeps, particularly the waiter sweep. Good stuff. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu United’s Sharon Bonewicz is teaching on Tuesday evenings 8:30pm.

One of the most important details I learned coming up about x-guard was to not cross your ankles.  Even though your legs appear to be making an x, really its 2 individual hooks.  The front hook is lower under the knee to lift and shift.  The back hook is easier to place if you shoot the leg straight through the back and then bring the hook in more under hamstring.  I flex my feet to lock it in, but then again I always flex my feet when playing hooks.  Its how they stay in!

The second important part is getting that underhook on the leg with your arm so that its on your shoulder.  If its on your bicep it’s not locked in.  Deep Deep Deep.  Lastly, for the waiter sweep whether you keep your legs in x-guard or shoot the front over the top its always better to underhook the bottom foot.  pulling it up off the floor and to you getting as deep as you can.  Once that foot is off the floor they wont be able to stop the sweep.

The biggest mistakes made were because the person was not deep on the underhook on top leg/foot.  If the person is standing or kneeling it doesn’t matter.  The sweep changes, but you are always deep.  It puts everything else in the right position and your body.

Don’t cross your ankles doing my x-guard.  It is also because as you finish the sweep it lands you on top in perfect passing position.  If you have your ankles crossed there will definitely be a scramble.  Your percentage is lower with untangled ankles.