BUTTERFLY HOOK SWEEP

The butterfly hook sweep is the canonical sweep from butterfly guard, in which the bottom player uses the elevation of the butterfly hooks combined with an underhook on the opponent's far side to topple the opponent sideways and land on top. The technique is one of the most fundamental sweeps in modern no-gi competition and was refined by Marcelo Garcia as the structural foundation of his butterfly-guard system.

The mechanics begin from butterfly guard with the bottom player seated, both feet hooked under the opponent's thighs (the butterfly hooks). The bottom player establishes a deep underhook on the opponent's far-side armpit and a gable grip behind the opponent's back, or uses a head-and-arm wrestling grip if the opponent's posture allows. The bottom player then explosively elevates one butterfly hook upward while simultaneously falling back to the same side of the elevated hook. The combined hook elevation, underhook pull, and weight shift produce the rotational toppling that flips the opponent over to land in side control on top.

The butterfly hook sweep was Marcelo Garcia's signature competitive technique and produced his famous ADCC finishes and Mundial dominance through the 2000s and 2010s. Notable subsequent practitioners include Andre Galvao, Bernardo Faria (who refined the gi variant), and various Atos and Marcelo Garcia Academy students. Defensively the butterfly hook sweep is countered by maintaining strong posture (don't lean over butterfly guard), by hand-fighting the underhook before it consolidates, or by sprawling the legs back to neutralize the hook elevation.