10/04/2013 - Dónal Private: Windscreen Wiper & Sit-Up Sweep

Class #498 - Private #009
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 10/04/2013

As ever with jiu jitsu, the sweep I worked on today has several names: Andre Anderson calls it the 'Rey Diogo sweep' after his instructor. I first learned the windscreen wiper sweep from Ciaran Toal in Belfast, so I sometimes refer to it as the 'Ciaran sweep'. However, 'windscreen wiper' seems like the most descriptive term, which I therefore use most often.

Dónal was pleased when I mentioned I'd like to study this technique in more depth, as it is one of his favourites. He had various modifications to the versions I've learned before, beginning with his grips. Anderson grabs the elbow and pushes in. Dónal grabs the sleeve with his same side hand, grabbing just below their knee with the other hand. If you can't get any material, pull your legs inwards to knock them towards you and take their weight off their legs. That should enable you to get a good handful of cloth by their knee.

You don't just grip their sleeve with a typical pocket grip. Instead, Dónal used a principle similar to the grip on the shin when doing the knee cut pass. Grab the cloth then turn your hand inwards, pressing your knuckles into the side of their forearm. Just like when they sit on their heels and make the trousers too tight to hold, by turning your hand in their sleeve becomes tight and restricts their movement. They can longer easily circle their hand around to break your hold.

Remember the advice from Anderson's DVD about bringing your hips off the mat and closer to your partner. That way, they don't have as much space for a guard pass: you've taken it away, so to even begin a guard pass they have to first create that space. On the sleeve grip side, put your foot on the mat by their leg, keeping it tight so there is no room for them to wriggle. Anderson prefers to put his foot on the hip, but as I found during the Nic Gregoriades 'big class' on this topic, I think foot on the floor works better for me than foot on the hip. You could go straight for the windscreen wiper from here, but Dónal uses a combination instead: he starts off with a sit-up sweep.

For this initial technique, the sit-up is a bait. Angle your hips slightly towards your sleeve grip, then shove their arm into their other hip. Do the sit up sweep as normal, coming up diagonally towards the knee grip side and bumping into their hip. Their natural reaction will be to press forwards to prevent your sweep, which sets you up perfectly for the windscreen wiper. On the knee-grip side, kick your leg into their armpit, curling it around their back as you do. It's important that this leg stays tight to them, right from the moment you do a sit-up: imagine that leg is an arm, which you're using to hug them tightly.

You'll drop back slightly too. In order to do the hip bump, you'll have probably come up on your elbow. Don't drop straight back down. Instead, angle off in the direction of your knee grip, moving the shoulder of your posting elbow across. Your leg should end up across their upper back, the foot near their opposite shoulder. Kick the leg forwards to knock them over, thrusting up with your knee grip arm, then roll them into mount.

Keep hold of their leg and sleeve, also extending the sleeve forwards. Holding the leg makes it hard for them to bridge, while holding the sleeve and straightening the arm could lead directly into a submission, such as an americana. To further help with that, slide your knee up on the sleeve grip side, so they can't bring their elbow back to their side.

Keep in mind this is a combination: the option of completing the sit up sweep is also available, switching back and forth depending on where and how they resist. Sit-up diagonally, bumping with your hip, again shoving their arm into their other hip as you do. You also want to lock their arm in place with your sleeve grip side hip, pressing that into them.

If they don't lean forwards to resist (if they did, you'd go to the windscreen wiper), they will most likely post their arm on the knee grip side behind them. Let go of their sleeve and instead reach slightly below the elbow of that posting arm. Push it forwards and hook it, then continue the sit-up sweep/hip bump motion.

Bring your knee up to trap their arm again, for submission opportunities. Also don't let their other arm free: because you shoved it into their hip and clamped it in place at the other end with your hip, once you roll into mount it should be totally stuck underneath you. That means they can't use it to defend, putting you in a great position to attack.