Rolling someone from the butterfly guard is a fundamental ground fighting skill you need in your arsenal.
In today’s video and article I will provide 3 tips to help you get better at rolling someone from the butterfly guard.
Why Roll From the Butterfly Guard?
The first escape I teach my fighters to use from the bottom of the full mount is to hip thrust, trap, and roll. But when your opponent has a wide base, usually long legs, and great balance you may not be able to roll them.
Shrimping to a version of the guard to roll them can be a very effective alternative. In today’s case we will use the butterfly guard.
I Can’t Roll Them with My Butterfly Guard
There are 3 common reasons people struggle to roll someone from the bottom of the butterfly guard or any guard for that matter.
- The top person is too low
- The person on the bottom doesn’t know the proper mechanics to roll
- The person on top is basing out wide with their arms or legs
#1) Top Person is Too Low
If the person on top is too low they will feel super heavy. It is all about leverage. What you want to do is use your arms and legs to raise them up closer to your head.
In many cases you should have a double overhook around both of their arms. This will make your life a lot easier. It also will help with #3 which we will cover in a moment.
In the top image you can see the guy on top is low which gives the person on the bottom very poor leverage to roll them. But in the image below that the guy on the bottom has pulled the top guy up higher on his own body.
What that does is high centers the person on top. The person on the bottom has their weight supported on the bottom person’s body. Thus if the person on the bottom rolls the person on top is going to go with them.
The way to get from the top image to the bottom image is simple:
- Do a sit-up type motion
- While you are up sink your overhooks in as deep as you possibly can. This connects your opponent to your body.
- You can also hook your feet / ankles to anything you can get ahold of. In the image above the right toes are hooked under the guy on top’s calf. While you can’t see his left foot his left toes are hooked on the inside of the guy on top’s thigh.
- Now fall backwards pulling them with you with your arms and also by doing a reverse sit-up motion (pulling your knees to your shoulders).
As a bonus tip you can actually use the momentum to start your roll.
#2) Poor Mechanics
If you struggle and strain and use a bunch of muscles then odds are you are using incorrect rolling mechanics.
If you lay on your back without a partner, raise your right knee, put your arms over your head just to get them out of the way, and now simply make your right knee go to the floor on your left… that is how you roll someone.
Let your momentum take you all the way over so you wind up on all fours.
#3) Person on Top is Basing Out Wide
Obviously if the person on top reaches out with their arms they can stop themselves from being rolled. Your really tight double overhooks should take care of that.
But they can also stabilize against being rolled by reaching out with their feet or knees, especially if they have long legs.
As seen in the image above the guy on top is hard to roll because his feet are out wide. The red arrow indicates the direction that you would normally roll someone but in this case you won’t be able to.
However if you notice the guy on top doesn’t have any way to reach out at a 45° angle. If you roll them at the angle of the yellow arrows he will have no way to stop himself. The roll from the butterfly guard will be successful.
This is a little more advanced so start by learning how to roll purely to the side first with a more compliant partner. Then once you have the hang of it have your partner widen their feet and roll them at a 45° angle.
Final Thoughts
You want to rep these out over and over until you can do them in your sleep. In a real fight you don’t want to panic and freeze or go back to trying to outmuscle a larger stronger person.
Until next time,
BrianT
