Sweeps

[bushido_man96]

How do many of you here practice your sweeps? As in trips for takedowns? We don't really do much of it in my TKD class, but in our DT training, we really get into it. I was just curious as to what some of the methods everyone had for working on them, and how you go about doing so.

[tallgeese]

We do some work on just moving into position during attack/defend drills. In other words, we set up something like a one step, then move to a position for a sweep after the striking portion. The movement is then halted so you can focus not only on the entry, but also on the proper set up position with the lower body.

It feels like there are about a hundred ways to sweep someone from standing. Front leg to front, front to back, back to back, straight in, inside/oustise the others leg, the configurations are about endless, some work better than others. Keep working through several until you find the ones that work best for you and mentally note those.

Then break the sweep down to just the actual sweeping portion for a while. Forget the entry and control at the end and everything. Just move into position and work the body mechanics of the movement.

Once you're there, add the entry to the takedown. Once that flows, follow up with control at the end. Then put it all together. Once you're at this point, try adding the sweep into different entrys until it's kind of comfortable.

Then, start working agaist a spontaneous attacker. You won't get the sweep every time, but you will get much more used to adapting it to several situations.

Another drill that works sweeps, or any kind of takedown, into your game is doing them during mitt work. Set up a combination on the mitts, at the end of your set, move in, set up and do a sweep on the mitt holder. This kind of drill works well into integrating other aspects of your game with striking. I use it with standing joint manipulations as well.

Hope this was kinda what you were looking for.

[NewEnglands_KyoSa]

We do some in both of my schools and both have a quick strike and a jujitsu coming first, making the sweep effective.

[DWx]

We do a quite a bit within our self defense side. Usually making the sweep after being grabbed or from a one-step senario. Because we are limited by our grappling knowledge the sweeps we do are focused on getting the opponent down, maintaining control through something like a wrist lock and/or attacking and then being in a situation where you can get away. We base most of our sweeps on a couple of standard front to front or front to back etc. but on a higher level these can develop into something a bit more complex like postions where you escape from stuff like bear hugs and sweep to side or something like that.

I managed to rip my sister's dobok sleeve off doing a wonderful takedown... she had sweaty arms and I was left grasping this sleeve which ended up coming half off in my hand.

[NewEnglands_KyoSa]

yea one of our black belts took my instructor down and ripped a patch off his sleeve. ironically enough just days before we broke away from the organization that was on the patch he was wearing!

[Throwdown0850]

what you can do to really help with your sweeps in practice Kazushi ( taking off balance ). then it becomes way more easy to perform the takedown or sweep..

[bushido_man96]

Great info, everyone. Thanks for sharing. Tallgeese, that is a lot of info, and I will look into trying to add some of those things into my workouts. Like I said, in Combat Hapkido, we get to do it quite a bit, but the setup is different than from my TKD class stuff.

[tallgeese]

Hope some of it helps with what you're doing.

Throwdown makes a great point about taking the balace prior to sweeps. However you take the others center, it's a vital componant the whole process.

[The BB of C]

I practice my sweep kicks a lot. They've proved a useful weapon to me. As for my other takedown techniques, I don't practice them as much on account of a lack of willing partner.

[NewEnglands_KyoSa]

I forgot to mention, but for those of you who have this theory(some of you may not, it is usually a high ranking theory), or any of you who have the basic idea of this theory...i've learned a lot from the opposite circles theory, applying to jujitsus(off balancing/takedown techniques). For those of you who don't know it, perhaps researching it or asking an instructor would be up your ally. It is a wonderful and confusing theory having to do with what's being said here.

Very hard to explain out of a dojo setting, though.