Countering the "amberjack" sweep

[NeelyWCU]

i dont know what u guys call it, but...inside closed guard...you stand up to break the guard...the guys on the bottom uses an arm to underhook your leg/ankle/heel...doesnt open his guard (or shouldnt)...uses his hips against the side of your knee to take you off your feet...now once you hit the ground it normally turns into a little scramble of him trying to get up and finish the sweep/you trying to get back up...

buuttt..point being, I love standing up inside my guys guard...it breaks all guard if done correctly, regardless of how long the guy is

but, i have a lot of trouble with figuring out how to correctly react to when he attempts that sweep...for instance, say he hooks under my right foot to sweep...i try and counter by driving and turning my knee into him to kill any leverage for the sweep...but i still find myself gettin put on my butt...most of the time the guys dont even finish the sweep...i get myself back up to my knees, but back in his guard = having to start over


to my standing guard passers...how are u guys reacting to this sweep?

 

[FLMikeATT]

The key is early prevention and making sure you have control of one of his arms when you stand up.

Right when the guy reaches to underhook the leg, immediately sprawl back into kneeling position.

If you do it right he shouldn't even be able to reach your leg. Say you control his right arm with your left hand. When you stand up, keep your right leg back so he can't reach it. Break the guard however you wish and initiate whichever pass you are partial to.

 

[Ashton]

You can also hide your lead leg behind his back (knee on his butt/small of back) while keeping the rear leg out of reach.

 

[codemonkey76]

as these guys have said don't stand up square, control an arm, and that is the leg that should be forward so there is no chance of him grabbing it... if he does grab it go straight back down and initiate standing once you have controlled the sleeve/arm

 

[StevieSparkZ]

I'm pretty sure I know what sweep you speak of. He underhooks one side and his body lines up with that leg. Now he takes his other arm that isn't underhooking and posts it by his head and pushes off and drives his hips upwards as if he's doing a pop up right?

If that's the sweep, then what I do is the leg he is underhooking I turn the knee INSIDE. Meaning my toes are pointing at his body and if you look down at your feet, your toes point at about 10 o clockish. Let's say your right leg is underhooked, so the right foot is pointing inward to 10 o clock. Your knee is now inside and for him to tip you over he needs to have your knee "buckle" outwards. After I establish my underhooked leg this way I will then reach back, in this case with my left arm will go back and inside of his legs and "torque" my hips back while using the left arm to leverage his guard open. This is very similar to how you would do it with the basic opening the guard on your knees technique.

Now just react accordingly to what he does next, a star sweep can come right off of this.

 

[Will_N.O.]

I thought this was called the "lumberjack" sweep...did I miss-hear?

 

[ViceGrip]

I thought this was called the "lumberjack" sweep...did I miss-hear?

Correct, the "Lumberjack" sweep is what he's talking about. I guess since your opponent goes down like a felled tree when performed correctly, the name is appropriate enough.