Deep Half Escape with Lecitia Ribeiro

By Fanatics Authors, July 23, 2019

Getting frustrated with deep half guarders getting under you?

Look no further! Here, 9-time World Champion and IBJJF Hall-of-Fame inductee Leticia Ribeiro shows you how to escape deep half and go straight through to the pass.

Ribeiro starts by grabbing her partner’s pants and posting on their shoulder. The hand on the pants prevents her partner from turning when she moves, and the hand on the shoulder gives her a base that will help her move while maintaining weight on her partner.

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Then, she slides to the other side of her partner, making sure to maintain weight on her partner at all times. If she doesn’t stay heavy while she slides, her partner can come up and end up in a host of advantageous positions.

Once Ribeiro gets to the other side, she makes sure to post with her leg (the one not caught in the deep half). Her foot is more or less parallel to her partner, which allows her to push off the mat with her foot and direct that force into her partner, keeping her heavy.

This whole time, Ribeiro maintained her grip on the pants. This restricts her partner’s hip movement, and ultimately their ability to escape.

After she’s established her base on the other side of her partner, Ribeiro switches which hand is controlling the pants, and uses the now free arm to put her elbow to the mat. It’s a little hard to see in the video, but she puts her elbow in between her and her partner’s hip.

Then, when she goes away from her partner a little bit and steps over the other side, Ribeiro already has a grip around her partner’s back.

When Ribeiro steps to the other side, she puts her shin on top of her partner’s leg and grabs their sleeve, putting her right in a knee slice pass position.

From there, all she has to do is block her opponent from turning with her head, slide her leg through (maintaining pressure on her partner), and switch her hips back through to side control.

So you see that this escape puts you in a really good position. Not only do you escape the deep half, but you pass their guard entirely in the end. And all the while, you eliminate your partner’s control of your base and maintain constant pressure on them.

All that being said, deep half is still a position to avoid getting into if at all possible. Deep half is a powerful position for the bottom person, since it gives them total control of your base, making a sweep almost inevitable.

So, the best defense to deep half if one of the more frustrating things to hear in BJJ -- namely, to keep your partner from getting there in the first place. That’s done by maintaining distance and/or good grips at all times when your passing.

If you control your partner’s ability to get under your base, they won’t be able to enter deep half, and you’ll have a much better chance of passing successfully.

However, if preventative measures don’t work (and they may not always work with a good deep half player), this escape legend Leticia Ribeiro shows is a strong tool to have.

Check out Gordon’s “Systematically Attacking the Guard”, and while you are at it, you should probably pick up “Getting Swole As A Grappler” his complete meal plan and workout strategy that allowed him to pack on insane amounts of muscle and functional strength. Besides, does anyone not want to be shredded? Yeah…. Didn’t think so.

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