I have been looking at implementing the sweep demonstrated in the first part of this video, however I have one question: when he talks about shifting his hips a little bit, which way does he mean? My gut tells me that he shifts them slightly to his left, but I'd rather rely on a more experienced point of view.
YouTube - Xande Ribeiro - Arte Suave 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqJsG8UeKKY)

Lets say I am doing the first sweep and sweeping the person to my left side and am grabbing his pants leg with my right hand. I would want to shift my hips slightly to the right (so I'm resting on my left hip) that way I have an easier time swinging my leg up into his armpit and getting him offbalanced

In my experience, the shifting of your hips isn't as important as where he puts his LEFT foot. If you're not next to your opponent's foot, they'll step out and block your sweep.

As for how to move your hips, I was taught to move to your left, to create a better angle.

Coffeefan, In my experience, laying on your left hip is counter intuitive.

Kind of think of it as an armbar from the guard, or at least, the same motion, when you get the angle, bite into their armpit, etc.

I move my hips to the same direction I'm sweeping towards. So staying with Coffeefan's right-leg, right-hand-grabs-pantleg example, I move my hips slightly to the left, under where I want him to go. This allows me to load him onto my leg, instead of reaching when I kick the armpit.

The jujigatame similarity--creating the angle--resonates for me.

The jujigatame similarity--creating the angle--resonates for me.

it was never explained like that to me, and i sure as hell wish it was.

Whenever i show people this sweep, i use that comparison.

I understand what your saying with loading the leg, which is what I usually do when doing a flower sweep. I was personally finding if difficult to get my right leg up enough into the armpit with my leg posted by the foot, unless I shifted to the right. I'll play with it some more and see.

I actually ran into Coffeefan's method last night. Judo black belt was driving heavily onto my belly, leaning forward with his back at a 45 degree angle towards me, forehead above my belly button. So, some posture, but also weighing me down.

I tried the hips-towards-sweep (standard) version and it failed because he bore down onto me, and was too heavy. I shrimped and tried again, now with hips-away-from-sweep (Coffeefan/modified), and it worked great.

Except he posted with his arm. Careless of me.

Why didn't you triangle him?

He moves his hips to the side he's going to kick up on, to make more space to do the kick and lift. At least, that's what I see.

Why didn't you triangle him?

I know I can armbar the judo guys with regularity. I know I can triangle the judo guys with somewhat less regularity (I made it a project after I got bored of armbars and discovered I was absolutely atrocious at gi chokes). I know that I am very unskilled at sweeping and pinning the judo guys.

So I've been working on sweeping, turtlebreaking, and pinning. Once I have some success there, I'm-a gonna circle back to gi chokes.

Actually, I did end up with a triangle on the guy. Except he refused to tap, and I switched to my (boring, overused) jujigatame.

I'm atrocious at gi chokes from the bottom, but on the top i'm good with them.


You can turn triangles into sweeps, as well.

On pinning, Simon Sensei explained "the angle of Louie" If you feel on your chest, three ribs down, you should feel a little bump. If you keep your "angle of louie" on their "angle of louie" it makes pins much more...pin-like.