Guard Theory

Wrestling for BJJ Foundational · Gi and no-gi

What a sprawl does with the hips

A sprawl takes your hips back and down out of the shooter's reach and lands your weight across their shoulders, so their hands arrive at legs that are no longer under you.

Position and problem

In a tie on the feet, the opponent drops their level and shoots at your legs. The first reaction tends to be pushing their head away with both hands or stepping backward, and against a committed shot both tend to fail: the hands meet a head already moving under them, and a step back leaves the legs within reach of arms that are still travelling. The sprawl answers the shot at its target. A takedown needs your hips over your feet, because that is what a shooter lifts and turns, and the sprawl removes them. Your legs kick out behind you, your hips sink, and your chest lands on the shooter's upper back and shoulders. Their arms close on the space where your legs used to be, and their head is now underneath your weight.

Objective

Move your hips back and down fast enough that the shooter's arms close short of your legs, then settle your chest onto their shoulders so they cannot stand back up into you.

Core concept

A shot is a race between the shooter's hands and your hips. The shooter changes level, steps in and reaches for the legs, and a takedown needs those hands to arrive at legs that still carry your weight. A sprawl takes the hips out of that race rather than blocking the hands. Throwing the legs back behind you carries the hips out of the shooter's path and lowers them in one movement, so the arms reach for thighs that are now further back and lower than they aimed, and the weight they needed to lift is lying on top of them instead. Where that weight lands decides what happens next. Settled on the shooter's shoulders and upper back, it pushes their chest toward the mat and keeps their head lower than their seat, which is the posture a shooter has little to drive forward from. Dropped onto the back of the head, it pushes the neck down while the shot is still carrying them forward, which is both dangerous and less effective, because a head can slide out sideways far more easily than a pair of shoulders. The hands do secondary work. One arm can overhook the shooter's arm as a whizzer, or a hand can push the head down and to the side, and either keeps them from turning the corner around your legs. Once the shot has stopped, the shooter is bent over with their head low, which is the front headlock position, and with their drive gone your chest can settle over their head and upper back as it does after a snap down; from there you can circle behind them, control the head with an arm trapped and go to the neck, or let them come up into a guillotine if that is the finish you want.

Key mechanics

  1. Throw the legs back, not the upper body forward. The hips have to leave the space the shooter is aiming at, and leaning over the top with the legs still underneath you leaves them there.
  2. Sink the hips as they travel back. Hips kept high leave your thighs hanging within reach, while hips low and back press their weight down onto the shooter.
  3. Land the chest on their shoulders and upper back. Weight there pins their chest down; weight dropped on the back of the head while the shot is still moving slides off and loads the neck.
  4. Keep the legs wide and the toes on the mat. A wide base stops them from turning you over their shoulder, and toes planted let you move the hips quickly again.
  5. Use one arm to stop the corner. A whizzer on their near arm or a hand pushing the head to the side keeps them from running around your legs to the back.
  6. Come back up onto your feet once the drive stops. Staying stretched out after the shot has died gives them time to raise their head and face you square.
  7. Move to a position from the sprawl. Circle behind, settle into a front headlock or take the neck; a sprawl that only stops the shot leaves the next one available.

Common errors

  • Sprawling with the hips high, which leaves the thighs within reach and lets the shooter finish the takedown underneath you.
  • Pushing the head with straight arms, which asks the arms to do the job of the hips and meets the shot with the part of the body least able to stop it.
  • Crashing the chest onto the back of the head during the shot, which strains their neck and lets the head slide out to the side.
  • Sprawling with the feet together, which gives a narrow base the shooter can roll you over.
  • Staying flat on the mat after the shot has stopped, so the shooter raises the head, rebuilds and shoots again.

Safety

In a sprawl the shooter's neck sits under the sprawler's weight, and how it lands is the sprawler's responsibility. Aim the chest at the shoulder blades, not the back of the head, and lower yourself onto them instead of crashing down, because a neck already bent forward by the shot has little room left. The shooter can help by keeping the head up and to one side while shooting, which lets a sprawl land on the shoulders, and should tap or turn out if weight arrives on the head. The sprawler's own knees, shins and toes hit the mat as the legs go back, so drill on mats that give a little and land on the balls of the feet with the toes tucked under, not on the tops of the feet. Do not sprawl onto a partner whose head is trapped under your hips with nowhere to go, since the weight then drives the neck into the mat.

Training progression

  1. Static: from a standing stance, kick the legs out behind and sink the hips, solo, then return to your feet. Check that your hips land low and your legs stay wide.
  2. Cooperative: partner shoots slowly and stops at your legs. Sprawl, rest your chest across their shoulders, and let them feel whether the weight is on the shoulders or the head.
  3. Reaction drill: partner shoots at half speed from a tie at random moments. Sprawl only on the shot, and return to your stance between repetitions.
  4. Sprawl to position: after each sprawl, circle to their back or settle into a front headlock before resetting.
  5. Constrained: partner shoots out of a collar tie with rising speed, and you may only sprawl and go behind. Reset after each takedown or go-behind.
  6. Takedown rounds: sprawl on every shot, then take the front headlock or go behind before they lift the head.

Written material cannot correct your positioning, feel your pressure or stop a submission in time. Everything here is intended to make training with a qualified coach more useful, never to replace it.

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