Improve Your Half Guard With These 5 Tips

5 Tips To Improve Your Half Guard by Bernardo Faria &Tom Deblass

There seems to be a love / hate relationship with the half guard in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Several top competitors are known for their half guards, such as Bernardo Faria, Jeff Glover, Minotauro Nogueira, Tom Deblass, and Caio Terra. But many others in the community tend to shy away from the position and favoring more the open guards. The half guard didn’t even gain any recognition as a strong attacking position until the early 90’s when Roberto “Gordo” Correa, unable to use full guard effectively due to an injury, revolutionized the half guard game and introduced the underhook.

With the underhook now established as the preferred position for half guard, the position changed dramatically from a pure defensive holding position to a dynamic attacking position ripe with sweeps and back takes.

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As a smaller grappler, I tend to find the half guard to be a much more efficient attacking position than the full guard. In the half guard the lower on the leg you can get, the more dangerous you will be. This is incredibly effective against larger opponents;you are using your entire body against one of their legs instead of fighting their entire body. If you can get low on that leg and start making angles as Bernardo and Tom show in this video, your opponents will have no choice but to go to their butts conceding a sweep. And if you have any wrestling experience, the half guard is definitely for you.

Half Guard is essentially a single leg takedown on the ground instead of standing. And if you swap that thought, a single leg takedown is just half guard on the feet, so half guard can help your single leg takedown and your single leg can help your half guard.

Half guard should not be a position to be ignored. Yes you can, and probably will be, smashed a lot while playing half guard. But if you learn to embrace the suck of being smashed, and find ways to utilized minimum amounts of space to get on your side and find angles, you will be a devastating sweeper and back taker. You’ll be able to find the maximum amount of leverage while using your entire body against a single limb and your opponents won’t be able to overcome that. Let’s start winning some world championships with our half guard. Oss

The Half Guard is one of the most important positions in jiu jitsu, MMA and submission grappling. Dive further into the hald guard with Tom DeBlass and his DVD / On Demand series called Half Guard Domination. Here's what you will learn:

Sweeps / Bottom Z-Guard Half Guard Attacks

• Basic Shield Z Guard
• Z Shield Entry With Underhook
• Attacking Near Side Leg/Back Door
• Countering A Strong Wizzer: Sweep To Over/Under Pass
• Weave Counter To Arm Drag/Under Hook
• Knee Flare Sweep
• Far Leg Attack To Stand Up Sweep
• Waiter Sweep
• Alternative Waiter Sweep
• 4 Options From The Waiter Sweep Entry

Guard Passing / Top Half Guard Attacks

• Getting Past The Knee Shield
• Countering The Under Hook
• Kimura From Top Half
• Guillotine From Top Half
• Weave Pass From Top Half
• ShinOn Shin Pass
• Over/Under Pass
• Toe Hold From Top Half
• Butterfly Hook Pass
• Knee Slice Pass

More Sweeps &Submissions from Bottom Half Guard

• Elbow Trap Sweep From Smash Half
• Alternate Recovery From Smash Half
• Reframing With The Hook
• Butterfly Hook Sweep
• Butterfly Half Guard Reversal
• Spartan Push
• Calf Crank From Lockdown
• Reversal From Lockdown
• Belly Down Leg Lock Series
• Kimura From Half Guard
• Kimura Series
• Omoplata Sweep From Half Guard

Bonus Half Guard Training

• Half Guard Retention Workshop

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