The overhead sweep, one of Jiu-Jitsu’s most traditional sweeps / Photo by Regis Chen / GRACIEMAG

There’s a simple formula for getting good at sweeping, but it requires repetitions. You’ve got to get good at grip work, have an array of techniques to draw from, and recognize when the time is right to wobble your adversary. That’s why you have to be agile when thinking as well, and you only get that from training and lots of repetitions.

Today GRACIEMAG.com brings you a number of sweeps to help you mistreat passers and send them a-soaring. Once you’re done trying them out, let us know which one you liked best and which one proved most useful to you.

1. Daniel Vianna teaches a backwards sweep with de la Riva guard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaRRRXnXdU4

2 . Overhead sweep, by Maurício Fett

3 . Half-guard helicopter sweep, as taught by Carlos Liberi

4 . Send opponents sailing with a hook, by Marcos Schubert

5 . Guilherme Caju shows how to do a twister-sweep

GRACIEMAG 187 is chock full of teachings for improving your Jiu-Jitsu and life, and it’s already available at better bookstores around the world. In the cover story, your favorite Jiu-Jitsu magazine shines a spotlight on the subject of bullying, listing the eight main reasons why Jiu-Jitsu is the best medicine there is when it comes to combating mistreatment in everyday life. However, we didn’t stop at the painless antidote for bullying.

Below you’ll find 5 lessons to relish from the magazine for gentle-art practitioners of all ages, from 7 to 70 years of age or more.

1. Naïve is he who thinks he can evolve alone

The coolest thing about Jiu-Jitsu is how in training we always “create the snake that’s going to try and bite us.” In one of this month’s exclusive articles, GRACIEMAG teaches how to constantly flee your comfort zone—a task for the body and especially for the mind. “If you start tapping out a training partner with certain ease you have two options: to teach him to defend against the move or to stop evolving. When we feel too comfortable in a determined situation, it’s time to scramble the board to move the pieces out of place,” teaches Jiu-Jitsu professor Halisson Santos.

2. What can you learn from BJ Penn?

This month, we serve up 12 lessons derived from the career of the UFC’s beast from Hawaii. What’s one of them? “To this day, no one has managed to tell that a given method of training is the right one, the only one.”

3. “Steal with your eyes” at the academy

In this month’s White Page, Professor Federico Tisi addresses the importance of stretching before and after Jiu-Jitsu training, not neglecting self-defense and knowing your roots; as well as teaches us to steal with our eyes when training at the academy.

4. The nitty-gritty of the overhead sweep

GRACIEMAG # 187 features Professor José Henrique Leão Teixeira teaching the ins and outs and variations involved in successfully executing one of the most eyeful sweeps in the Jiu-Jitsu playbook. “Zé Beleza prefers grabbing the enemy gi at the elbows. He also prefers not to use the sole of his feet against the enemy hips,” says a certain snippet from TRAINING PROGRAM.

5. Coffee, herbal teas and the Gracie Diet

Grandmaster Helio Gracie recommended substituting sugary coffee with caffeine-free teas. Now that coffee has been linked to glaucoma and other illnessses, it shows that the original Jiu-Jitsu professor was at the very least on the right track. Read more about Helio Gracie and his behavior and diet tips, through lessons recounted by Grandmaster Francisco Mansur.

Want more? Then rush to your nearest bookstore and get your copy now!

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