Top position (post-sweep)
Generic top position after successfully sweeping from half guard or arm drag series.
Source: Volume 02, §3.3 --- Watch at 00:08:53 (full transcript)
What it is
You have swept your partner and arrived on top. You are covering their hips, looking to consolidate the position and begin passing or pinning. This is the generic "winning position" that multiple escape chains deliver you to --- the offensive payoff for all the defensive work that preceded it.
Top position shows up as the terminal node for several independent move chains: the knee-lever scramble, the scoop sweep, the knee-slide takedown, and the arm-drag sweeps (Sumi Gaeshi and Hiza Guruma). The specific mechanics of how you consolidate vary by which sweep got you here, but the objective is the same: hips covered, shoulders controlled, pass or pin.
Key structural details
From the knee-lever follow-up scramble: once you've tilted partner over and separated their arms, take your far elbow over the top, reclaim an underhook, and begin to pin.
From the scoop sweep: walk your hips through underneath your partner, turn and climb. Leg-ride, step knee up over the top, climb into a winning position.
From the knee-slide takedown: gather the leg, lock your hands, put partner's shoulders flat on the floor, go to work to pass.
From the Hiza Guruma: extend with your foot to pull partner's leg across. Come up to mount with the underhook. Walk it forward to a dominant position.
The common thread across all these arrivals: cover the hips first, then work upward.
Principles that apply here
This position is the result of applying the principles, not a position where the defensive principles directly govern. The work that got you here --- back to floor, inside position, retraction --- is complete. Now you consolidate and attack.
Moves I know from here (outgoing)
(No outgoing moves documented yet. Volume 02 covers escapes and sweeps to arrive here; passing and submission chains from top position belong to other instructionals.)
How I end up here (incoming)
- Knee lever --- tilt partner over when their hands stay locked, scramble to top.
- Scoop sweep --- Trilemma prong 1. Roll partner forward from half guard with the whizzer in, climb to top.
- Knee-slide takedown --- Trilemma prong 3. Come up from half guard, torque partner's knee, gather the leg, pin shoulders flat.
- Arm-drag Sumi Gaeshi --- hook lift from seated guard when partner retreats. Elevate, tilt, land on top.
- Arm-drag Hiza Guruma --- chest-to-chest sweep from seated guard. Put back on floor, extend foot to pull partner's leg, come up to mount.
Source references
- Volume 02, §3.3 --- Watch at 00:08:53
- Volume 02, §4.3 --- Watch at 00:18:51