The importance of the hook sweep
The importance of the hook sweep
The importance of the hook sweep was taught to me very early in my BJJ journey. Mastery of the hook sweep also known as the sumi gaeshi, has always been an essential part of my approach to Jiu-Jitsu. In my purplebelt and brownbelt days training at the Renzo Gracie Academy in NYC, very often visitors would recount recount their training experiences to me. A very common theme that I hear many many times is this – “Man, I was expecting everyone to be good at leg attacks and back attacks and guillotine 9all staples of our Academy at the time), but the one thing that really caught me by surprise was how easily and often everyone swept me from butterfly guard.†There is a reason for this. A very heavy emphasis was put on the hook sweep by our instructor, especially John Danaher, who favored entries from butterfly guard and open guard game for his competition team. No other sweep is performed as often and in so many forms the my coaching program. for me personally, one of my favorite fighters to watch was Jean Jacques Machado, I always loved the smoothness of his technique and how he was equally effective gi or no gi. He was the master of the hook sweep and I must have watched his match in ADCC vs Cael Uno 1000 times. The hook sweep can be used from any grip, in both left and right directions, standing or on the floor and creates defensive reactions that set up all our favorite entries into lower body and upper body submissions. Development of a strong hook sweep game is one of the first signs I look for when assessing the progress of a developing students bottom position skill level. All of my top students excel in this move without exceptions. I have even done hook sweep months where half your sweeps had to be hook sweeps. There aren’t many moves that I enforce upon my students, generally I liked to let them pick and choose their favorites past purple belt, but the hook sweep is one of them. We drill it every class in warmups. Make sure you devote time to this classic and powerful move. It will benefit every aspect of your bottom game both position and submission.
