Takedowns from the Knees

One of the things that comes up often in grappling message boards is the topic of takedowns from the knees. A lot of times training partners spend must of the time grunting, pulling and pushing or one just jumps to guard.

Starting from the knees is an opportune time to work on basic sweeps, throws, and exploring kuzushi.

A few weeks ago in class we worked on Tai otoshi, Push-pull, Scissor and Butterfly sweeps from the knees.

Tai otoshi from the knees

1. Get a sleeve grip and lapel grip.
2. Bring your knee up (lapel side) between theirs.
3. Kick your back leg strongly to the rear.
4. Step to the outside of their knee (from the middle knee up) and rotate keeping your arms in front of you.
5. Establish side control.

Push-pull

1. Get a sleeve and high lapel grip.
2. Strongly pull the sleeve while pushing the lapel side.
3. Establish side control.

In the video below (at 1:44) this techniqueis shown except it is demonstrated with a large step to the rear and fall into Kesa gatame. For me as funny as it may sound it require too much flexibility and just doing the above three steps worked well too.

Stephen Kesting does a beautiful job explaining the Scissor sweep (at 0:35) and Butterfly sweep (at 1:35) from the knees in the video below.

Obi Tori Gaeshi

This one I picked up from the book, Attacking Judo. The video below clearly shows in detail the mechanics.

You can modify it as a sweep by doing the following:

1. When in guard and your opponent is posturing up sit up and get an underhook.
2. Pull and then push and get a foot in.
3. Push hard again and the opponent will resist by straightening up or pushing back.
4. Fall backwards and kick to the rear and if done correctly they will fly.

I did this the other day in class and I bounced my training partner against the wall and landed on him in side control. The first time you pull this one off correctly it can be bewildering because it is very easy to throw someone with almost no effort.