Sweeping Bigger Opponents: Open Windows and the Sweep Game

Heavy feet and the slight moment

Some people are big and strong with heavy legs, and when they plant, they stay planted. I bump the leg and nothing happens. “He ain’t going.”

The sweep on a person like that isn’t about strength. It is about timing. There is a slight moment, when he moves, where his foot leaves the mat. In that moment I can take the foot and get him down.

“Is it ten out of ten times? No. But listen, one really good one out of ten, I’ll take.” Obviously I want better odds than that. The way to raise them is to stop waiting.

Don’t wait for the sweep

“I don’t wait for the sweep, because he’s not going to wait for me to sweep.” As soon as his knee comes up, as soon as my foot touches, the sweep is already happening. That is how fast it has to be.

You don’t start fast. Practice it on a count, one-two-three, slowly, until the pieces are connected. “You practice that modality, then you can go fast anytime.”

Open windows and closed windows

Here is how I think about a big guy who’s covering up. One side is locked down like a house before a storm. “All the windows are closed.” Elbows tight, strong body, hard to get a knee in.

So I look for the open windows. Sometimes I have to open one myself. That’s why my knees come in intermittently. A knee (hiza-geri) to one side may make him close that window, and another one opens. But I have to be honest about each technique. If my knee just clips his elbow, “am I really hitting a target?” A wasted technique against a big person often means he bullies straight through me.

When he does bum-rush me, I post on him, and now we’re fighting. “He can punch, he can knee, he can elbow.” Everything is an exchange. “If you think you can get through a full round of fighting and not get hit, I don’t care if you’re fighting a white belt, yellow belt, whatever belt, you’re going to get hit.”

Build the chain: block, hook, sweep, strike

A sweep often starts as an aha moment. You block a front kick (mae-geri) and it works. Then you block and catch it. Then you block, hook, and sweep. Then block, hook, sweep, and strike. “So it’s one, two, three, he goes down, strike.” Each small success becomes a launching pad for the next.

When the sweep isn’t there, don’t stop. If I go for the sweep and it doesn’t happen, I’ll reconnect with a knee to the side and try to shoot again. Or I start attacking with strikes, and the fight just continues.

Sweeping someone who knows it’s coming

The hardest sweep is on someone who expects it. For that, “you just have to have that commitment, and you just have to go for it. But you have to be a disruptor.”

My brain is on the sweep. I’m not thinking about punches. The disruption is a small nudge with the knee that unweights his foot just enough. You’ll see foot sweeps (ashi-barai) done with the foot in Judo. I always like to use my shins. For the drill, though, nobody needs to slam a shin into anyone.

1. Throw your knee and step.

2. Tap your partner’s leg lightly with the knee. “Tappy tap.”

3. Have your partner keep that foot light so you feel it start to move.

4. Knee, then lift, and let it turn into the takedown.

“It’s a drill, people. We’re not on the street right now.” You’re working on his reaction, not trying to hurt him. Here’s that part of the lesson on its own.

Watch: Kyokushin Karate Training at The Phoenix Way Dojo #karate #shorts #shortvideo #training #short

If you’re wondering where drilling like this ends and real-world self-defense begins, I take that question on in street vs. sport: what training can and can’t do.

Breathe out, out loud

A lot of the noise you hear from me in these videos is breathing. If I’m in close holding my breath, a shot to the body knocks the wind out of me. When I’m engaged and the air is moving out, that doesn’t happen. Breathe out on every effort.

Yes, Kyokushin grabs

“A lot of people will say, well, Kyokushin doesn’t grab. We grab. We hook. We trap.” We’re not in a tournament-style fight with no grabbing. In this lesson I front-load my weight off the back leg for power, use my forearm to wrap and lock, then throw knees. From there I look for my angle to the hook of the foot.

One warning. If he starts blocking your knee with his forearm, don’t keep throwing the same knee. Don’t get tunnel vision. Go over the arm, go to his face, then back to the thigh. When he’s reacting to everything else, the sweep comes into play.

Getting past the stiff arm

Big people often keep you away with a straight arm. This short clip shows the entry.

Watch: Kyokushin Karate Leg Sweep Tutorial by Shihan at The Phoenix Way [4K]

Turn your shoulder, break the arm in, and shoot the gap. Drive your body into him to break his structure, and keep your head tight to his body so you aren’t open to a head butt, an elbow, or a cross-side punch. From there, the sweep has a chance.

What to drill

“You want to start brain mapping generally at least threes.” Don’t drill one move in isolation forever. Drill the chain.

1. Knee-tap drill, slow, both sides.

2. Block, hook, sweep, strike.

3. Failed sweep, reconnect with a knee, shoot again.

4. Break the stiff arm, shoot the gap, clinch.

The smaller-fighter version of this game, framing and taking the angle, is in clinch to sweep. Sweeps, clinch work, and takedowns are all part of our adult class.