Powerful Sweep from Deep Half Guard

By Ismail Safi, February 25, 2019

Deep half guard was one of the most popular positions in Jiu Jitsu a few years ago, and then everyone learned, kind of like how leg locks are. This was for good reason, though, the deep half guard was and still is one of best positions to play from guard. This position provides the guard player a lot of power to destabilize the top player and finish sweeps.

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The reason deep half guard works so well is that once the position is achieved, the top player’s hips are placed directly above the guard player’s hips. If you have a decent instructor, he probably should’ve told you never to place your hips above a guard player’s hips if you are passing. In deep half guard, the legs of the top player also become immobilized, forcing them to balance with only their hands.

There are numerous sweeps from deep half guard, and you can sweep the top player in many directions too including sideways, forward, or even backward. Usually, it will take multiple attempts in different directions to finally get successful with a sweep.

In the following video, Masahiro Iwasaki illustrates a great sweep from deep half guard dubbed the Faria sweep, named after Bernardo Faria, who also loves this sweep. Although this technique is best done in the gi due to the lapel grip Masahiro shows, it can be done without the gi just as well. See Below:

You might be thinking to yourself that the defender can just place their hands behind them to base, but they actually can’t. Because the defender is rolling at an angle, after enough distance has been covered, their hands can’t help them base. It’s kind of hard to explain but have someone do this to you and will see what I mean.

Even if this sweep fails, it will allow the guard player to come up to a powerful single leg. If you watch Bernardo Faria’s competition matches, you will see often he does this and just how effective it is as a finish, all it takes is willingness to actually get up and wrestle.

In order to be a great grappler, the techniques you execute need to be natural and perfect. Drilling is the key to unlocking this success! Tom DeBlass has THE resource on drilling ready for you here at BJJFANATICS!!