Closed Guard Sweeps Playbook

Mat Manual companion guide to "Sweeping From Closed Guard." Print it. The article teaches sweeps as posture theft: the partner is made light first, then one side of their base is removed. This book builds that order as training: posture-breaking standards before any sweep card, scissor and flower progressions in full, partner-fed defence reads, landing standards that decide whether a sweep counted, and logs that track every attempt by sweep, side, and the read that stopped it.

Name: ______________________________ Academy: ______________________________ Belt: ______________ Start date: ______________ First sweep side (circle): Left / Right Current week: ______________

BEFORE ANYTHING: SAFETY, FALLS, AND LANDING RULES ☐ Tap rules are unchanged by position: a sweep that turns into a submission picture, a trapped arm, or a bad landing stops on any tap, hand, voice, or foot, instantly. ☐ The falling partner is protected. Sweeps are never finished by driving a partner's head, neck, or shoulder into the mat. The sweep removes a base; gravity does the falling; the sweeper controls the speed in drilling at every stage. ☐ Landing skills come first: a partner who cannot fall safely from a sweep's height does not receive full sweeps. Breakfall practice and low, slow, cooperative sweeps come before resistance, pass/fail. ☐ Mount landings are placed, never dropped. The sweeper arrives with hips and weight under control and never lands knees or full weight on a partner's ribs or stomach. ☐ Neck and spine care: no sweep is finished by cranking a partner over a trapped head or a posted neck. If a falling partner posts a hand or turns their head into the fall, the sweeper slows or stops the rep and resets. ☐ Resistance rises on the ladder in Part 17 only. A pairing that skips stages returns to the stage below, and any hard landing ends the set for review.

Part 1: The Two Sweeps at a Glance

System law: theft first, sweep second, landing always. A rep that skips the theft is not a failed sweep. It is a different, worse drill, and it is logged that way.