Cut the Corner
Cut the corner — the trip finish for the single and double leg. Drive the controlled leg across the midline while stepping around the secondary leg.
Adapted from the original page. Grappling.Games did not write this. Sources.
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Cutting the corner is the trip finish shared by the single and the double leg. The attacker drives the controlled leg across the opponent’s midline while stepping around the leg that is still free, so that the free leg — the only remaining base — is blocked at the moment the opponent needs to step onto it. The opponent falls backward and to the side, across the corner the attacker has cut.
It is the finish that asks least of the attacker. Where the lift-and-dump removes the base by picking it up and the sweep single removes it by running the opponent out of steps, cutting the corner removes it by arriving where the step needs to go. That makes it the highest-percentage finish against an opponent whose weight is already back, and the one that survives fatigue best, because the work is footwork rather than lifting.
The name describes the attacker’s path, not the opponent’s. The attacker cuts across the corner of the opponent’s stance — from the front of the controlled leg to the outside of the free one — and the throw is the consequence of arriving there with the opponent’s weight still committed.
INV-ST01Invariant "Destabilising the opponent requires controlling the secondary leg — the leg that is not the primary base. Moving the primary base alone allows the opponent to step and recover."
Why it works hereCutting the corner is the clearest expression of this invariant in the standing game. The attacker already holds the primary leg; holding it is not the takedown, because the opponent can hop on the free leg indefinitely. The finish begins when the attacker's step blocks the secondary leg. Everything before that step is control; everything after it is the fall. An attacker who drives the held leg without cutting to the free one is moving the primary base alone, which is exactly the failure the invariant names.
See full invariant page → This is why cutting the corner works when strength-based finishes stall. The attacker is not competing with the opponent’s ability to post — they are removing the place the post would go. Against a heavier opponent the lift disappears as an option long before the corner does.
INV-ST03Invariant "Destabilisation to the hands or hips is the transition from standing to ground. Taking the opponent to their hands rather than their back is still a successful takedown entry."