Today, I stumbled upon one of Abmar Barbosa’s old closed guard instructionals.

And in it, he has a short sequence that he does with the pendulum sweep that flows from the sweep to an armbar and then to an armbar on the opposite arm.

There was something that I found particularly interesting, though.

It was how his execution of the sweep seemed like a merger between two other common sweeps.

Here’s what I mean:

There’s a sweep from the closed guard that Xande is famous for. To execute it, you grab the same side sleeve with one hand and the same side pant leg with the other, then you stomp your foot on the side of the sleeve grip to the mat, blocking their knee and hit them in the armpit with you other leg to off balance them.

It’s a really powerful sweep when done right.

And I even have an old video on the Tube that demonstrates how it’s done.

But I digress.

How Abmar does the sweep has similarities to the Xande version, but he doesn’t block the knee. Instead, he stomps on the hip and elevates to the sky before using his other leg to chop down into the armpit.

What makes that interesting is that it’s actually an inferior sweeping mechanic but when done right, it forces an extreme upper body rotation that leaves the arm dangling in the danger zone.

So it’s no surprise that the next attack in the sequence is an attack on that arm.

In that moment, though, the sweep is the primary threat, and the top guy’s structure has been completely compromised.

Real interesting stuff.

And I’m thinking about breaking down exactly what makes it so special in a video once we are all released from lockdown.