FLMikeATT
Purple Belt
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- Jun 10, 2006
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I'm probably going to get some heat some this, but let me explain.
IMO, butterfly guard is the guard that 'unifies' all guards. If you want to look at it from a flowchart point of view, butterfly is one step away from closed, half, x, under side mount, under mount, and various open guards. I'm including half butterfly because if you separate guards due to minor details, there are literally hundreds of guards.
There are so many options from butterfly it's ridiculous. It's sweep city. Hook sweeps from both underhooks, overhooks, over/under, under/knee grip, etc. Ankle picks and knee picks. Armdrags and other ways to take the back. Hell, you can even snap down to front headlock or shoot a double from butterfly. I actually did both of these just 2 hours ago in class. I had a guy in buttefly and went for a double underhook sweep. He based so I came up to my knees and shot a double. In the same roll later on he tried to pass my butterfly and I sat up, grabbed his belt, snapped him down, and then took his back. I'm not even including x guard sweeps, which are pretty easy to set up from butterfly, and multitudinous.
Also, there are tons of submissions which you can chain together with sweeps. I like setting up submissions from the half butterfly with the overhook, but you can do a few from straight butterfly. Gi chokes, triangle setups, guillotines, kneebars, etc. So many options.
I would say butterfly has had the biggest impact on my game, even more so than half guard. I used to be a guard puller, and would only try shit from closed guard, and would fight like hell defending the pass. I would get my guard passed often, and would have to fight to retain guard or half guard. The only time I ever got on top was from hip bumps and pendelum sweeps, which any experienced white belt and above can defend. I hardly ever spent anytime in top position. Sure I got good at armbars/omos/triangles from guard, but my game had some serious holes.
When I got good at butterfly, I found myself in side across, mount, and back position a lot more. I've been able to get subs recently that I've never been able to before thanks to sweeps from butterfly. In my first year and a half, I would say the ratio of subs from bottom vs top was something like 20:1. Now that ratio looks more like 5:10. I still get subs from the bottom occasionally, but I've been getting a lot of subs from the back, N/S, side across, and mount. I really feel like butterfly is the 'keystone' to my game now.
thoughts?
IMO, butterfly guard is the guard that 'unifies' all guards. If you want to look at it from a flowchart point of view, butterfly is one step away from closed, half, x, under side mount, under mount, and various open guards. I'm including half butterfly because if you separate guards due to minor details, there are literally hundreds of guards.
There are so many options from butterfly it's ridiculous. It's sweep city. Hook sweeps from both underhooks, overhooks, over/under, under/knee grip, etc. Ankle picks and knee picks. Armdrags and other ways to take the back. Hell, you can even snap down to front headlock or shoot a double from butterfly. I actually did both of these just 2 hours ago in class. I had a guy in buttefly and went for a double underhook sweep. He based so I came up to my knees and shot a double. In the same roll later on he tried to pass my butterfly and I sat up, grabbed his belt, snapped him down, and then took his back. I'm not even including x guard sweeps, which are pretty easy to set up from butterfly, and multitudinous.
Also, there are tons of submissions which you can chain together with sweeps. I like setting up submissions from the half butterfly with the overhook, but you can do a few from straight butterfly. Gi chokes, triangle setups, guillotines, kneebars, etc. So many options.
I would say butterfly has had the biggest impact on my game, even more so than half guard. I used to be a guard puller, and would only try shit from closed guard, and would fight like hell defending the pass. I would get my guard passed often, and would have to fight to retain guard or half guard. The only time I ever got on top was from hip bumps and pendelum sweeps, which any experienced white belt and above can defend. I hardly ever spent anytime in top position. Sure I got good at armbars/omos/triangles from guard, but my game had some serious holes.
When I got good at butterfly, I found myself in side across, mount, and back position a lot more. I've been able to get subs recently that I've never been able to before thanks to sweeps from butterfly. In my first year and a half, I would say the ratio of subs from bottom vs top was something like 20:1. Now that ratio looks more like 5:10. I still get subs from the bottom occasionally, but I've been getting a lot of subs from the back, N/S, side across, and mount. I really feel like butterfly is the 'keystone' to my game now.
thoughts?
