Outside Tripod Sweep
The outside tripod sweep places the pushing foot on the outside of the opponent's hip rather than the belly.
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The outside tripod sweep is a positional variant of the standard tripod. The mechanics are the same — push one point, pull another, remove the base — but the foot placement changes: instead of pushing the opponent’s belly button or inside hip, the bottom player’s foot goes to the outside of the far hip or the side of the thigh.
This change of angle serves a specific defensive counter. When an opponent successfully defends the inside tripod by turning their hip away or squaring their body, the inside foot placement loses its leverage — they can absorb the push. Moving the foot to the outside of the hip changes the push direction to a lateral one, pushing them across their base line rather than backward along it.
The outside tripod is not a standalone technique learned in isolation. It makes most sense as the second option in a tripod system — available when the opponent has taken away the first angle but not yet addressed the outside one.
INV-06Invariant "Base is a function of weight distribution over a support point. Disrupting the support point disrupts the base regardless of the size of what sits on it."
Why it works hereThe near leg remains the loaded support point, but the disruption travels laterally across the opponent's stance line rather than backward along it. Pushing the foot into the lateral hip while pulling the ankle outward removes that support to the side, where the opponent has no structural depth to rebase. The principle is direction-agnostic — once the loaded support is cleared in any direction, the base is gone.
See full invariant page → The outside tripod disrupts base through lateral displacement. Rather than pushing the opponent backward over their near leg, the outside foot pushes them sideways across their near leg. The near leg is still the loaded support point; the direction of disruption simply changes from sagittal (front-to-back) to lateral (side-to-side). base over the support point holds regardless of push direction as long as the ankle is simultaneously pulled.
INV-13Invariant "Destabilisation precedes control. An opponent who retains structural balance can generate defensive force regardless of the position they are in."