4 Half Guard Techniques From Jake Mackenzie

By Matt Bryers, February 21, 2019

These Half Guard Techniques Will Improve Your Game In No Time! Learn To Be Quick And Efficient While Playing Half Guard, And Dominate Even The Hardest Guys At Your Gym!

Jake Mackenzie is a world class competitor who is notorious for his half guard. Jake is a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt under Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu of Fight Sports. Jake is also regarded as one of the top North American grapplers of his generation, with impressive titles such as 4x Brazilian National Teams Champion, 2x Brazilian National No Gi Champion, 2x São Paulo International Open Champion, World Masters Champion and more. Jake has a great two part instructional series on the half guard called “High Precision Guard” volumes 1 and 2, available exclusively on BJJFanatics.com. In these two series Jake shares his top secrets for taking down any opponent in the gym. Both are these serious I totally recommend you buy if you want to improve your half guard game to a world class black belt competitor level.

Let’s take a look at some of the amazing half guard techniques that Jake shares in his his two High Precision Guard series. Are you ready? Let’s get started! Here are 4 half guard techniques from Jake Mackenzie.

Half Guard Basic Positioning

Half guard is so widely used because of its versatility. It is a great position to attack and defend from, often opening yourself up for great sweeps, submissions, or transitions into a variety of positions. Half guard is also popular because it is so easy to learn and can be effective even for a person with limited experience. But it takes good technique and proper positioning if you want to have an effective half guard. The way Jake plays half guard makes things super simple. He prefers not to use a knee shield but rather controls his opponent’s hips by grapping his belt. He then gets his knee to his opponent’s arm pit. Now Jake has a free arm for attacking. Mackenzie takes his opponent’s head off line by pushing with his knee in the arm pit. From here he shoots in for the under hook and circles off to the side. When Mackenzie secures the low under hook he grabs around his opponent’s shin, and puts his shoulder forward, giving himself a much more solid base for playing half guard.

Elbow Lock Roll

The elbow lock roll is an action to a reaction. Jake Mackenzie bumps his opponent to load his weight on his arm. A lot of the time your training partner will take his arm off. Make sure you keep your training partner’s head down after trapping hos leg. Do this by catching his elbow and locking it with both your arms. Your hand on the back of his head brings it to the floor and the other hand stays stretched. Once he rolls over you can push and pass.

Countering The Underhook

The under hook is your primary concern when playing half guard. As soon as your opponent goes for the under hook you want to prevent his head from reaching the mat. This will avoid him putting pressure on you, making it difficult to retain your guard. As your opponent is pushing forward to get the under hook you want to capture his opposite arm. Now you want to bridge and extend your arm out. Once you are fully extended you want to pull your elbow back and scoot your hips underneath. Now you can secure your under hook and come up to your knees.

Reverse Half Guard

This is a sweep from the reverse half guard position. To do it start by lifting your hip and put pressure on your opponent’s knee. Now you can switch your hooks. Jake slides his leg into his training partner’s leg, which causes him to be completely stuck. Once Jake gets on top he manages to hit a leg drag which allows him to sweep his training partner and pass the guard.

Half guard is a very effective position for many top level BJJ competitors! If you liked these 4 techniques then be sure to check out “High Precision Guard” volumes 1 and 2 from Jack Mackenzie available exclusively on BJJFanatics.com! It’s packed with tons of great advice for all the half guard enthusiasts out there. And as we saw from these videos, Jake is a great instructor too. His ability to break down concepts in to the fundamentals makes it very easy to learn his techniques. So be sure give these techniques a try you are on the mats!

Everybody feels in trouble when they play half guard with Jake. Now, it’s your turn to make everyone feel this way about your game.

When you finish watching this series you’ll leave them thinking you were born on the mat. REMEMBER! Half guard is a safe guard to play. It has no age or body-type restriction. Anyone can play it - literally.

The problem is most people play half guard wrong. Jake is like an encyclopedia when it comes to half guard. He’s all about technique without force and shows you game-changing details.