Deep Half Guard Tips with Jeff Glover

Today we’re going to go DEEP with Jeff Glover.  Deep half guard, to be exact. 

One element that it’s sometimes easy to forget with martial arts is the “art” part. Just like any other art it takes a huge amount of dedication and cultivation of a skill set so that it can become an “art”, something which we truly express who we are as an individual through.

Jeff Glover’s BJJ definitely expresses his personality;it’s unorthodox, creative, playful and incredibly effective. In this video we’ll be looking at a sweep and a submission by Jeff Glover from no gi deep half guard. 

 

No gi black belt World Champion, third place in ADCC, Jeff has also beat some of the biggest names in the sport such as Caio Terra, and also inspired the half guard maestro Bernardo Faria in his own no gi half guard game. 

It’s great to have Jeff Glove with us at BJJ Fanatics, and we can’t wait to bring you his NEW tutorial! Check out the original Glover Deep Half Instructional today!

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We’re starting with a sweep that’s been a really high percentage technique for Jeff in some great tournaments like Grapplers Quest where Jeff is using a classic principle of combat, which is action/reaction.

Jeff starts on bottom deep half guard and takes a Gable grip around Bernardo’s leg, just above his knee. From here Jeff pulls Bernardo’s leg in towards him and rotates his body at the same time so that he can pull Bernardo’s knee towards the ground. 

Typically people don’t like being controlled and moved around against their will so they will act against this action and pull their knee back out and up. This is exactly the reaction Jeff is looking for here.

Jeff uses his opponents momentum to ride their leg back upwards and rotate to his knees so he now has moved from a deep half guard position to a single leg on Bernardo. 

One thing Jeff has to be really clear about here is head placement. If when Jeff comes up he takes his head under Bernardo’s armpit and out the back he is offering Bernardo a guillotine on a silver platter. Not what any of us want to do!

So as Jeff comes up we can see he’s driving his head on the inside of Bernardo’s chest and maintaining control from there. Using this principle of action/reaction and riding our opponents momentum is a core philosophy within grappling arts so once Jeff had got this move down he didn’t need to rely on flexibility or athleticism to start landing a lot of single legs in competition. After landing the single leg Jeff could build on his top position and build his attacks from there. 

Challenge yourself to drill this one and see what kind of results you get in your own no gi game!

The second piece we will look at with Jeff here is moving from a no gi deep half guard to a really smooth transition to an inside heel hook. 

This is a movement that requires flexibility and leg dexterity, which Jeff has helped people with using a series of playful and progressively structured balance ball exercises so be sure to check those out.

From deep half guard Jeff first laces his inside leg around Bernardo’s trapped leg to create a hook with the front of his own ankle. Once he’s landed this hook Jeff begins to lift Bernardo’s leg and scissor around with his other leg to a 50/50 position. 

Once in the 50/50 position Jeff is set up for the heel hook and Bernardo has gone from being on top to facing a really dangerous submission attempt from Jeff. 

It took Jeff a few months to really learn this movement and part of the crucial detail here is having the sensitivity in the hooking leg to balance Bernardo’s leg on his own. What we don’t want to do is elevate our own foot to the point where our opponents leg is now slipping down and out of our control. 

While maintaining that control and balance, Jeff’s leg now comes underneath Bernardo’s while crossing his own and this sets him up to spin underneath Bernardo to land in a controlling 50/50 position. Driving Bernardo down from here the inside heel hook really presents itself for the taking. 

Jeff gives Ryan Hall a lot of credit for this technique but as the artist Pablo Picasso said “good artists copy, great artists steal” meaning that a great artist will take something and understand it and incorporate it to such an extent that it becomes their own. 

Jeff Glover is an OG when it comes to Half Guard. While you wait for the latest and greatest from one of Jiu-Jitsu's most entertaining grapplers, check out Glover's original Deep Half Guard DVD! 

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