I realized a few days ago that my wife’s dog Gracie is always trying to sweep me. The dog rolls on her back, dares me to get close, then pushes with her hind legs, and pulls with her front legs. She might have a name with pedigree, but she has the fatal flaw that a belly rub completely disarms her. I’m questioning her ability to get a blue belt.

Inspired by that deep revelation, this week we are going to be covering sweeps, and today will be sweeps initiated from a closed guard. The opponent in my guard has exactly one goal: pass. As he attempts to pass, we can use attack and sweep chains to loosen him up and make him more vulnerable to a sweep or submission. Tonight we will primarily cover triggers for the most common and effective sweeps from closed guard that you will use on your path to blue belt and beyond.

James Briggs, your private lesson tonight is going to be a supercharged version of the regular class, and I’m going to build on the regular class instruction, so you’ve got two hours of closed guard technique and tactics ahead.