The Lumberjack Sweep is a fundamental half guard sweep that capitalizes on underhook control to off-balance and sweep an opponent who is attempting to pass. Named for the chopping motion used to break down the opponent’s base, this technique is particularly effective against opponents who overcommit their weight forward or fail to establish proper crossface control. The sweep combines hip movement, underhook leverage, and precise timing to elevate the opponent and transition to a dominant top position. This technique serves as a cornerstone of modern half guard systems, providing a reliable option when the opponent is pressuring into your half guard. The Lumberjack Sweep’s effectiveness lies in its ability to exploit the opponent’s forward momentum, turning their pressure into a liability. By controlling the underhook and creating the proper angle, the bottom player can generate significant leverage despite being in an inferior position. This sweep integrates seamlessly with other half guard attacks, forming part of a comprehensive sweeping system that keeps opponents defensive and hesitant to engage.
Starting Position: Half Guard Ending Position: Side Control Success Rates: Beginner 30%, Intermediate 50%, Advanced 70%
Key Principles
- Establish and maintain deep underhook control on the opponent’s far side
- Create angle by turning your body toward the underhook side
- Use your trapped leg to control opponent’s base and prevent posting
- Generate upward momentum through hip extension and bridge
- Time the sweep when opponent commits weight forward
- Chain to alternative attacks if sweep is defended
Prerequisites
- Half guard bottom position with one leg controlling opponent’s leg
- Deep underhook established on opponent’s far side armpit
- Opponent’s weight committed forward without strong crossface
- Inside leg (trapped leg) has hook or control on opponent’s thigh
- Free hand controlling opponent’s near side wrist or belt
- Head positioned on underhook side to prevent crossface
Execution Steps
- Establish underhook control: From half guard bottom, swim your inside arm deep under opponent’s armpit on the far side. Your hand should emerge near their far shoulder blade. Simultaneously cup your free hand around their near side wrist or grab their belt to prevent posting. Keep your head pressed against their ribs on the underhook side to block crossface attempts. (Timing: Execute immediately when opponent lacks crossface control)
- Create angle and hip out: Turn your entire body toward the underhook side, creating a 45-degree angle relative to your opponent. Hip out away from them by pushing with your outside leg and pulling with your inside hook. This angle is critical as it positions your hips beneath theirs and sets up the sweeping leverage. Your shoulders should now be perpendicular to theirs. (Timing: Movement should be one fluid motion with underhook establishment)
- Secure opponent’s base leg: Your inside leg (the one in half guard) should hook deep around opponent’s trapped leg, with your foot positioned behind their knee. Squeeze your knees together to control their leg completely. Your outside leg posts on the mat for base. This prevents them from extracting their leg or posting to defend the sweep. (Timing: Maintain constant squeeze throughout sweep execution)
- Generate sweeping momentum: Explosively extend your hips upward and toward the underhook side while pulling hard with your underhook arm. Simultaneously push your head into their ribs and use your free hand to prevent them from posting. The motion resembles chopping down a tree - hence the name Lumberjack Sweep. Drive your hips high to elevate their base leg completely off the mat. (Timing: Execute when opponent’s weight shifts forward or commits to passing)
- Complete rotation and sweep: Continue the rotational momentum, rolling your opponent over your body toward the underhook side. Keep your underhook tight and control their trapped leg throughout. Your body should rotate 180 degrees, bringing you from bottom to top position. Maintain constant pressure and connection to prevent them from turtling or rolling through. (Timing: Maintain smooth, continuous motion without pausing mid-sweep)
- Establish top control: As you complete the sweep, land in side control or knee on belly position. Keep your underhook deep and immediately work to secure crossface control with your free hand. Pin their hips with your weight and establish strong shoulder pressure. If opponent attempts to recover guard, use your underhook to control their shoulder and prevent them from turning in. (Timing: Transition immediately to prevent guard recovery)
Opponent Counters
- Opponent establishes strong crossface and flattens you (Effectiveness: High) - Your Response: Abandon sweep and transition to deep half guard or electric chair position. Use your underhook to swim back to deep half, or switch to attacking the far knee for old school sweep variation.
- Opponent posts their free hand on the mat to block the sweep (Effectiveness: Medium) - Your Response: Use your free hand to strip their posting arm while continuing sweeping pressure. Alternatively, transition to kimura attack on the posted arm, or switch to waiter sweep if they overextend their post.
- Opponent extracts their trapped leg and passes (Effectiveness: High) - Your Response: If leg begins extracting, immediately switch to butterfly hook or transition to single leg x-guard. Use your underhook to prevent them from establishing side control and create frames to recover full guard.
- Opponent sprawls back and pulls their weight away (Effectiveness: Medium) - Your Response: Follow their movement by transitioning to deep half guard or coming up on the single leg. Use their backward motion to establish deep position or attack their base with single leg control.
Test Your Knowledge
Q1: What is the most critical positional requirement before attempting the lumberjack sweep? A: Establishing a deep underhook that reaches the opponent’s far shoulder blade while creating a 45-degree angle with your body. Without this positional foundation, the sweep lacks the necessary leverage to elevate the opponent, and they can easily defend by establishing crossface control or posting their arms.
Q2: Why is creating an angle by hipping out essential to the lumberjack sweep’s effectiveness? A: The angle positions your hips beneath the opponent’s center of gravity, creating the leverage necessary to elevate and rotate them. Without this angle, you’re trying to lift them directly upward against gravity, which requires significantly more strength and is easily defended. The 45-degree angle also prevents them from driving their shoulder into your face for crossface control.
Q3: How should you respond if your opponent establishes a strong crossface while you’re attempting the lumberjack sweep? A: Immediately abandon the sweep attempt and transition to deep half guard or electric chair position. Use your underhook to swim deeper rather than fighting the crossface directly, as the crossface negates the sweeping leverage. Once in deep half, you can reset and attack with different techniques that work against the crossface pressure.
Q4: What is the purpose of controlling the opponent’s near side wrist or belt during the lumberjack sweep execution? A: Controlling their near side prevents them from posting that hand on the mat to block the sweep. If they can post their hand, they create a third point of contact with the ground, significantly strengthening their base and making the sweep extremely difficult to complete. Stripping or controlling this arm is essential for high-percentage sweep completion.
Q5: How does the lumberjack sweep integrate into a comprehensive half guard system, and what techniques should it chain with? A: The lumberjack sweep functions as a primary sweeping option from half guard bottom that works particularly well against forward pressure. It chains naturally with deep half guard entries (when opponent defends with crossface), kimura attacks (when opponent posts their arm), electric chair submissions (when opponent sprawls back), and old school sweeps (when opponent shifts weight to defend lumberjack). Advanced players use the threat of the lumberjack sweep to create openings for these other techniques, developing a complete system where all options feed into each other based on opponent’s defensive reactions.
Q6: What timing cues indicate the optimal moment to initiate the lumberjack sweep? A: The sweep should be executed when the opponent commits their weight forward toward the pass, when they’re actively trying to establish crossface and their weight shifts, or immediately after you establish the underhook before they can counter it. You want to catch them in motion rather than when they’re statically based. Additionally, if they lift their trapped leg to extract it, this creates a moment of reduced base that’s ideal for sweep initiation.
Safety Considerations
When practicing the lumberjack sweep, execute the technique with control to avoid dropping your partner unexpectedly or causing them to land awkwardly. The sweeping motion should be smooth and controlled, especially during initial drilling phases. Partners should communicate if they feel uncomfortable with the speed or force of the sweep. Be particularly careful when transitioning to top position to avoid driving your knee into your partner’s ribs or landing with full body weight on them. If you’re being swept, don’t post your arm rigidly to block the sweep as this can result in shoulder or wrist injuries; instead, learn to roll with the momentum and turtle if necessary. When drilling, start with slow, cooperative repetitions and gradually increase resistance as both partners become comfortable with the mechanics. Ensure adequate mat space around you as the sweep creates rotational movement that can carry both practitioners several feet from the starting position.
Position Integration
The lumberjack sweep is a cornerstone technique of modern half guard bottom systems, serving as a primary sweeping option that integrates seamlessly with other half guard attacks. Within the positional hierarchy, half guard represents a defensive position where the bottom player is trying to recover full guard or sweep to top position. The lumberjack sweep provides a reliable sweeping mechanism that works particularly well against forward pressure, complementing other half guard sweeps like the old school sweep (which works against upright posture) and deep half sweeps (which work when opponent is more defensive). This technique connects to the broader BJJ system by providing a transition from bottom position to top position, directly improving positional standing and earning sweep points in competition. The lumberjack sweep also chains naturally with submission attacks, particularly the kimura (when opponent posts to defend), creating a powerful sweep-or-submit dilemma. Advanced practitioners integrate this sweep into a comprehensive half guard game where the threat of the lumberjack sweep forces opponents to defend in ways that open other attacks, effectively creating a system where each technique supports and enables the others.
Expert Insights
- Danaher System: The lumberjack sweep exemplifies the fundamental principle of using leverage to overcome positional disadvantage in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. What makes this technique systematically sound is its reliance on mechanical advantage rather than raw strength - by creating the proper angle and establishing deep underhook control, you position your hips beneath the opponent’s center of gravity, allowing you to generate rotational force that exceeds what their base can resist. The critical detail that separates effective execution from failed attempts is the 45-degree angle created by hipping out; this angle transforms what would be a vertical lifting motion requiring tremendous strength into a rotational sweep that uses the opponent’s forward momentum against them. From a biomechanical perspective, the lumberjack sweep creates a lever system where your underhook serves as the fulcrum, your hip extension provides the effort force, and the opponent’s body represents the load being moved. Understanding this mechanical relationship allows you to troubleshoot failures - if the sweep doesn’t work, you’ve likely failed to establish proper angle, lost underhook depth, or attempted the technique when the opponent’s base was too wide. The beauty of this sweep within a systematic half guard approach is that it creates defensive dilemmas for the opponent: defend the underhook aggressively and you open deep half entries; establish crossface and you create kimura opportunities; post your hand and you expose it to arm attacks. This interconnectedness is what transforms isolated techniques into comprehensive positional systems.
- Gordon Ryan: In competition, the lumberjack sweep is one of my highest-percentage techniques from half guard bottom, particularly in no-gi where the underhook is easier to establish and maintain without gi grips interfering. What makes this sweep so effective at the highest levels is its ability to work against pressure passing, which is how most elite grapplers try to pass half guard. When someone is driving forward trying to flatten you and establish crossface, that forward pressure becomes the fuel for your sweep - you’re essentially redirecting their energy rather than creating it yourself. The key to making this work against world-class opposition is speed of execution and commitment to the angle. You cannot establish the underhook and then slowly work to create your angle; by that time, they’ve countered with crossface or adjusted their base. Instead, the underhook and angle creation must happen simultaneously in one explosive movement, giving them no time to react. I’ve successfully swept multiple ADCC champions with this technique because even when they know it’s coming, the mechanical advantage is so strong that defending it requires them to completely change their passing approach. Another competition-specific detail: always control their near wrist or belt before initiating the sweep. Against high-level opponents, if you don’t control that posting arm, they will base out every single time. In my matches, I often use the threat of the lumberjack sweep to force opponents into defensive reactions that open other attacks - if they defend the underhook too aggressively, I transition to deep half; if they post to block the sweep, I attack kimura. The sweep itself becomes more effective when integrated into a complete attacking system rather than used in isolation.
- Eddie Bravo: The lumberjack sweep is fundamental to the entire 10th Planet half guard system, and we’ve developed several innovations that make it even more effective in no-gi competition. The traditional version works great, but when you add the lockdown - our signature leg control where you grapevine their trapped leg - the sweep becomes exponentially more powerful because they literally cannot extract their leg or establish proper base. We call our variation the ‘lockdown lumberjack’ and it’s one of the first techniques we teach to students developing their half guard game. The lockdown not only prevents their escape but also breaks down their posture, making it easier to establish that crucial underhook. What’s really interesting is how this sweep chains into the electric chair submission - if they defend the sweep by pulling their weight back or posting, you’re already in perfect position to transition into the electric chair by threading your leg over. This creates what we call a ‘sweep or submit’ situation where they’re screwed either way. In the 10th Planet system, we emphasize that the lumberjack sweep shouldn’t be viewed as a single technique but rather as an entry point into multiple attacking sequences. From the lockdown with underhook position, you can hit lumberjack sweep, electric chair, old school sweep, or transition to deep half - the opponent has to defend everything simultaneously, which is overwhelming. Another innovation we’ve added is using the ‘whip up’ variation where instead of rolling them over, you explosively whip them up and over your shoulder, which creates more dramatic elevation and can catch even experienced grapplers by surprise. The beautiful thing about this sweep is that it works at all levels from beginner to world championship, and it embodies our philosophy of creating systematic attacks from bottom positions that force opponents into no-win situations.