Top BJJ Dogfight Sweeps and Submissions: Ultimate Guide

This article will discuss how you can get from the initial position to the BJJ dogfight. We will also explain some sweeps you can make once you are in a BJJ dogfight position. You will learn well-known sweeps from the BJJ dogfight position and advanced BJJ submissions and defenses.

BJJ dogfight is one of the common positions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu where both you and your BJJ opponent are kneeling. You both are side by side against each other in BJJ half-guard.

BJJ dogfight position is important in many ways.

1. BJJ dogfight keeps you safe and stops your opponent from submitting and taking you down.

2. Another important aspect of the BJJ dogfight position is that it allows you to take an advantage over your opponent in many respects.

3. You can take back of your BJJ opponent.

4. You can make different BJJ sweeps in BJJ dogfight.

5. You can take advantage and win against bigger BJJ opponents in a BJJ dogfight.

6. Last, you can recover the BJJ guard in a BJJ dogfight.

7. BJJ dogfight’s significance and importance can be realized because it is used in many types of martial arts, such as Judo, Wrestling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).

Before going into the details of the BJJ dogfight position, we will discuss its basics. You have to learn the BJJ dogfight position and how to enter it. To learn how you can enter the BJJ dogfight position, we will take an example position. 

We start in the BJJ knee shield half-guard position. Let's discuss just a few basic pointers in this position. You must keep your knee shield pretty high to prevent your BJJ opponent from pushing it down, smashing, and passing you from the outside. You should use your elbow to reinforce it and block the far side cross arm that your BJJ opponent wants to cross face with.

You should keep a few things in your mind. When they give up the BJJ underhook, go straight for their back. Be aware of your opponent working up and setting up D’Arce choke. In that case, just continue your sweep. Each time they elevate their hips and come forward too much to pressure onto you, just dive on them. Start rolling and sweeping them. So, for now, we will assume your partner does a good job. You have their bottom leg trapped, so it doesn't just pop the leg up and go for a knee slice pass. So we are going to work on it.

What you should do here is to dive underneath the BJJ underhook. But for now, just assume your BJJ opponent will put some pressure and keep all that tight. So you need to open up some space. Now, lift your leg and dive underneath behind it. So your leg will kick up to open space, and your arm will dive underneath. 

The second thing we must be aware of is that if your arm just reaches, it is easier to collapse. Try to kick up and keep pressure on your knee so it doesn't just smash your knee shield as soon as you come up. The third thing you should be aware of is that you should not put your elbow or hand near your opponent’s hand because they will just pull you down and pass your knee shield.

So, to go to the BJJ dogfight, you will open the BJJ knee shield wide beneath. Throw your head against their chest and base their arm out far away. Then your head will be against their chest, and you will have BJJ underhook. We will assume that your BJJ opponent will take the whizzer immediately. If they keep control of your back, throw your head over and start working towards their back.

But for the current purpose, we will just assume they keep the whizzer . So the next thing you should remember is to keep the arm away from them. As they don't pull down, you will switch your legs. Your top leg is going to go over. Get it out and bring their leg to the far side. 

Now you have their bottom leg trapped. Catch their leg and pull the leg out. Pull their leg to the outside. You should now drop your second knee to the floor. So now you are here, knee shoots open up, knee shield wider pops up, base up, switch your legs, and bring the knee to the floor. Drag and pull the leg out underneath until you end up in the BJJ dogfight position.

Sweep in BJJ (BJJ sweep) refers to the technique or move in which the partner on the bottom tries to come on top of their opponent. The following are some sweeps you can do in the BJJ dogfight position.

So, in the BJJ dogfight position, you have the BJJ underhook, and your BJJ opponent has an overhook. Assume that your BJJ opponent puts pressure on whizzer, and they are trying to collapse you down. Now, you should drop your hand down and collect your ankle if you are a beginner in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. 

So then you will grab their foot and ankle, and when they want to base out, it is pretty stuck. Your hand must be going to reach for their far knee. Push them over. If you need extra pressure to push them over, the leg will be your base and power.

So, put the leg out and more to the front and back. So when they want to push you forward, you don't need to use the arm. Keep it there so once you push forward, you are strong. Push all the way and sweep. You are in the top position. So, to control their ankle, you must hope it's visible. Throw the hand to the other side, collect their knee, and start working for your pass. Get your BJJ sweep.

So once again, our first sweep, called the BJJ bulldozer sweep, will be a knee shield half-guard. Open up knee shield wider underneath, base out. Switch your legs. Bring your knee to the floor and go to the BJJ dogfight position. Your BJJ opponent keeps a tight whizzer. Now, you should base your leg out and control your opponent’s ankle. If you cannot reach it, their ankle doesn't matter. You must just keep control here. Throw to his far side knee. Push off from there and get to the bulldozer sweep. Work your pass.

Bring the foot over. Bring their leg to the outside. Put your knee down and switch your legs, base out. Collect their ankle or foot and grab their knee. Push them over and start working. So that's our first sweep, the BJJ bulldozer sweep. 

A common counter for your BJJ opponent is to base their secondary leg out so you cannot reach it and not push them over. You will end up in a scramble where they are pushing, you are pushing, or both, trying to get on top. So, in that case, we will keep the same setup. You and your opponent will be in the BJJ knee shield half-guard. Open up the BJJ knee shield wider. Go underneath, and the same things apply. Switch your legs and get to the dogfight.

In this case, your BJJ opponent wants to push you down. They want to resist you pushing them over. They also want to bring your head to the floor. So you need to bring yourself to this hand to base, or they might try to grab your hand. Grab your hand so what will happen is instead of them pulling you forward, you need to base your leg once again there. So if they bring you forward, you have some tight pressure here.

You have free hands, so go for the BJJ bulldozer sweep. Collect their ankle and knees, but they base out. Now, it's pretty hard for you to get there. You have to be aware of their counters as well. So what you should do now is try to go back to your knees. You should try to push them to the left. You should dive underneath when you feel them pushing back to the right. Now, there are different grips. Try to go underneath, grab underneath their tie, and roll them over.

Before you roll them over, you don't want your body to be here, so use your upper body strength to pull your opponent over you. It is going to be pretty hard, even if they are pushing back. So, you should dive underneath their center of gravity instead of just throwing your upper body underneath.

As you throw the knee to the inside of their knee, you feel it. So you should collapse their base here and then reach underneath. Push them back. As soon as they push back, we roll them over. You must know your arm is trapped as soon as you get there. You still have control over their leg. You should base out and framework the pass. You have to be a little bit careful with this armor. Keep your head low, start working it out, and go for the pass.

So, you throw your arm underneath their thigh to get good momentum and throw them over. Usually, you are training, sparring, and fighting against heavier opponents. You should be underneath the center of gravity. You can get away if you are in the BJJ dogfight or pretty strong. You are just falling on your back, not using the knee, and pulling them over. You might get that, but you should be technical and go underneath their center of gravity. Throw your knee to the outside of their knee.

They are basing out and have the whizzer. Pushing them back while scrambling. Throw the knee against their knee. Dive underneath, grab the outside of their thigh, and throw them over. Bring your body all the way through. So, just push and wait for them to push back. Drop your knee. Go underneath. Roll and put pressure forward, and start working on top.

You should learn these two sweeps: the dogfight setup and the BJJ bulldozer sweep. You can get the ankle or knee, pushing them over and tumbling while you get on top. It is called the gator roll. It still counts as a sweep. You will get your points, and you will get your position.

The third sweep you can do in the BJJ dogfight position is the BJJ knee reap sweep . So, let's imagine you are in a BJJ dogfight position against your opponent. There is a very sneaky way by which you can come on top of your BJJ opponent while you are in a BJJ dogfight position. You have trapped your opponent’s one leg.

Your foot is strapping your opponent’s knees. This can damage your opponent’s knees. You should not try to do it. You can still come on top. The thing you have to do is to get their leg out away from your opponent and just tumble them over. Once you tumble them over, you have come on top of your opponent. This is the easy way to come on top in a BJJ dogfight position.

You have to ensure that you keep their leg in control all the time while doing this. Once their leg gets out of your control, they will get an edge over you. Start with your foot and get hold of their ankle while in the BJJ dogfight position. With your foot getting hold of their ankle, move their foot away from them while keeping their leg in control. Move their leg away from them so that they lose control over themselves. After that, tumble them over, and you will be in the top position, firmly gripping your opponent. Your opponent will be entirely in control of you after this.

This is a very easy way, but you have to master it to do it effectively. You must precisely and accurately move your opponent’s ankle away from them in the BJJ dogfight position. Once you master it, you can easily come on top of your opponent and control them. This is known as the BJJ knee reap sweep. But ensure you don't damage your opponent’s knee during this process because this sweep is pretty hard on your opponent’s knee.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu counters (BJJ counters) are the BJJ moves and techniques you apply to protect yourself against your opponent’s takedowns, sweeps, and submissions. Counter means using any move against your opponent’s move. In a BJJ dogfight, you can use many BJJ counters to help you take an edge over your opponent.

There are different counters for different types of BJJ moves and techniques, as well as submissions and take-downs. For example, you can hold and pull your opponent’s knee for countering BJJ submissions. In the same way, to counter the BJJ double underpass, you can use the technique known as the BJJ backward roll sweep.

Next up, imagine that you are in a BJJ dogfight. We are going to talk about BJJ counters. So you must know your opponent is pushing you over and their uchi mata move. Uchi mata move is the technique in which your opponent disturbs your balance. They sweep your thigh with their leg. Uchi mata is the most difficult to learn but also the most effective.

So what your opponent wants to do is use their leg and use their whizzer because you and your opponent are just like a standing uchi mata, but you are kneeling. Now, your opponent will try to just tumble you, throw you over, and get the top position. Your opponent wants to stay on top. So, the thing to learn here is how to prevent your BJJ opponent from doing and using uchi mata.

Your foot, away from your opponent, will play a role if you want to do uchi mata. Now you have way more resistance for them to tumble you over. If they manage to get it or are fast, they will tumble you over immediately. Try to go to their elbow. Get your knee outside and bring yourself back to the position. Prevent them from doing it again. So your BJJ opponent has the uchi mata counter. 

They also have a BJJ rolling knee bar counter. Let's go with the BJJ overhook. In that case, you should go for the back, but usually, if they are quick, they will dive under and roll. Your opponent will catch you in the BJJ knee bar. So, there is an easy way to prevent this. You should also do it when you are on the receiving end of the BJJ dogfight.

Roll and work a saddle position. But it is pretty easy to prevent it. If they go for it, you will just throw your hips in and bring your weight forward so they will continue to go to the BJJ knee bar. From that one, you can choose however you want to work or past the position and get to the side. So each time you feel them going diving underneath, that is when you just sprawl. You should just throw your hips to the floor, raise your chest, and push forward. Then, it will be pretty impossible for him to continue the rolling BJJ knee bar.

BJJ dogfight allows you to make many submissions and find many ways to take your BJJ opponent down. 

The first way that you can submit your BJJ opponent is by using BJJ grips. You can use many grips in the BJJ dogfight position, such as s-grips, gable grips, and butterfly grips. These grips will help you squeeze your BJJ opponent tightly, helping you submit your opponent.

Now, we will discuss a cool setup and a submission from the BJJ dogfight position. Imagine you and your opponent in a BJJ dogfight against each other. So your opponent has a tight whizzer. Now, what you should try to do is go high. Bring the palm towards your face. So don't face the inside of your hand. The back side of your hand will face you, putting more pressure on your opponent’s shoulder. Keep your hand to your opponent’s face so that your palm must be your opponent’s face, and the backside of your hand must face you. Now, get your other hand for gripping.

Grab using an S-grip and put all the pressure on top of their shoulder. As you pressure your BJJ opponent, they will lose control over themselves, and you will control them entirely. Now, switch to a deeper grip, like a butterfly or gable grip, as soon as you get that. Put pressure on their arm with your head and make it like a BJJ Kimura submission.

BJJ kimura is the submission technique in which you hold your opponent tightly by holding your opponent’s arm. It is also known as double wrist lock or double joint armlock. You apply pressure to your opponent’s shoulder joints. So, this is the first type of submission you can use against your opponent while in a BJJ dogfight position against your opponent.

Another way to take your opponent to submission is BJJ side control . As soon as you go for it, they feel the pressure. They will just limp arms and go out. Switch to a seat belt and start working to attack their back, which is a win from your perspective. You can also prevent them from limp arming. So, as soon as they try to limp your arm, put your head on it. Try to get your arm out. Then, your head slides over your opponent’s elbow.

Keep your head pushing to the left. Bring your elbow down, lift, and put pressure. If they fall and want to go for a knee bar, just keep the arm in control and get the submission. Another option, if you want to go for the submission, is to go underneath if they fall on the left shoulder. Cross and get the head. Bring your hips down. Start working and get the top position from there. So now you have full control of your opponent, keeping them in side control, allowing you for submission.

BJJ dogfight is a versatile position that allows you to use many BJJ moves and techniques. You can go for different types of BJJ submissions and BJJ sweeps. You can go for different BJJ counters from the BJJ dogfight. This significance makes BJJ dogfight necessary for you to learn and master. Start practicing first how you can enter into a BJJ dogfight position. Master taking your opponent to a BJJ dogfight from any position.

Then, start practicing different attacks and submissions from the BJJ dogfight position. Master the position to the extent that you are confident that you can take your opponent to a BJJ dogfight from any position. You can apply different BJJ sweeps from this position and take your opponent to different submissions. This will give you an edge over your opponent, which you can utilize to take your opponent to match-winning submissions anytime.

BJJ dogfight is one of the common positions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu where both you and your BJJ opponent are kneeling. You both are side by side against each other in BJJ half-guard . BJJ dogfight keeps you safe and stops your opponent from submitting and taking you down. Another important aspect of the BJJ dogfight position is that it allows you to take an advantage over your opponent in many respects. 

You can make two BJJ submissions once in a BJJ dogfight against your opponent. The first one is gripping your opponent with s-grips, gabble grips, or butterfly grips. The second submission you can make is the BJJ butterfly grip. 

Among the BJJ sweeps you can make from the BJJ dogfight position are the BJJ knee reap sweep, BJJ bulldozer sweep, and BJJ gator roll. You can also first go for BJJ butterfly grip from the BJJ dogfight position and then immigrate to BJJ bulldozer sweep.

The way to take your opponent to submission from the BJJ dogfight position is by using BJJ side control. As soon as you go for it, they feel the pressure. They will just limp arms and go out. Switch to a seat belt and start working to attack their back. So, as soon as they try to limp your arm, put your head on it. Try to get your arm out. Then, your head slides over your opponent’s elbow. Keep your head pushing to the left. Bring your elbow down, lift, and put pressure.

If they fall and want to go for a knee bar, just keep the arm in control and get the submission. Another option, if you want to go for the submission, is to go underneath if they fall on the left shoulder. Cross and get the head. Bring your hips down. Start working and get the top position from there. So now you have full control of your opponent, keeping them in side control, allowing you for submission.

There is a very sneaky way by which you can come on top of your BJJ opponent while you are in a BJJ dogfight position. You have trapped your opponent’s one leg. Your foot is strapping your opponent’s knees. This can damage your opponent’s knees. You should not try to do it. You can still come on top. The thing you have to do is to get their leg out away from your opponent and just tumble them over. Once you tumble them over, you have come on top of your opponent. This is the easy way to come on top in a BJJ dogfight position.