Sweep Someone Tonight, With Jeff Glover's Deep Half Guard!

 

Jeff Glover is a BJJ icon. He’s been in the game for a very long time. I’ve been watching and learning from Glover for years and what I love most about his style, is that its unpredictable. Glover has been a part of hundreds of exciting matches and he’s always willing to go outside of the box to make thigs more interesting. Often times frustrating his opponents with unorthodox guards and uncommon positional tactics, Glover has made a great career out of experimentation and exploration of the art. 

The deep half guard has been one of Glover’s biggest endeavors. He’s one the pioneers of the deep half guard and he’s developed it into an incredible part of his tool box. If you don’t have much experience with the deep half, it’s worth looking in to. In my experience, I almost started falling in to it on accident, usually during escaping. After delving in a bit more and learning some techniques, the deep half guard became one of my favorite positions and I was purposely trying to make my way there during my matches. The options are endless, especially with reversals and transitions. You are first and foremost really testing your partner’s ability to stay balanced and this is where we end up taking advantage and putting the seep half guard to work for ourselves. 

Glover was certainly one of my earliest references. I was finding anything I could by him at the time to try and gain a better understanding of the position. The position has evolved immensely and it’s become a favorite of many, but Glover definitely had a hand in its rise in popularity. 

If you’ve ever been on the other end of a good deep half guard, it can feel like you’re on-roller skates for the first time. The deep half guard’s ability to off balance a passer and get the reversal is legendary. If you have some good wherewithal on the bottom and you can find your way in to deep half, the passer shouldn’t get free without paying a price. If you’re in Glovers deep half guard, your demise is almost imminent. He’s refined the position and taken it to a new level and it looks like were going to get a new in depth look at his work. 

In this video, Glover demonstrates a simple and efficient deep half guard sweep that you can start trying to implement in your game right away! This technique is so easy to follow, I wouldn’t be surprise if you hit during your next training session! Check this out! 

 

Let’s talk about the position a little bit first. Here you can see how deep half guard looks when it’s set up. The passer is basically sitting on top of the guard player with one leg extended and trapped and the other underneath him to keep a base. This is what deep half looks like in most cases, sometimes with the addition of alternate hand placements and the use of lapels, etc. IN no gi, we obviously have less grips at our disposal, so as you can see here, Glover is employing a gable style grip. I have to admit there are probably many more options for deep half in the gi, but I actually really enjoy playing the deep half in no gi.

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So, when Glover first begins to attack, he starts by trying to get the knee of that extended leg to the floor using a tight gable grip around the leg. His partner will most likely resist. This allows Glover to ride some momentum back in the other direction and get up to his knees. Head placement is key when Glover arrives on his knees. Hell want to keep his head to the inside of his partners body to make sure his neck doesn’t get attacked.

Using his partners energy to help him rise up to his knees and begin attacking is the whole concept here. After Glover gets to his knees, he can then choose to start pursuing the single leg, or anything else he may be interested in chasing. This is super applicable and I feel it’s something you could probably get to work for you tonight! Give it a shot! 

We most think of the reversal when we talk about deep half guard, and its true, this is a great place to chase the sweep from but there are some submissions here as well. Here, Glover shows us how to transition to an inside heel hook set up from the deep half guard. This is very slick.

From the position, Glover begins to dig under his partners extended leg with the instep of his front side foot. As he elevates his partner’s foot, he creates room for his opposite foot to enter in to the mix. This creates a sort of “X” configuration on his partners leg. As Glover continues to twist and spin, he finds himself transitioning to the 50/50, where he can then begin to attack a heel hook. This is an excellent transition, which Glover does mention, may require some flexibility. But if you like to attack the feet, this is one that your training partners most likely will not see coming. Be careful!

The prospect of Glover making his game available is pretty exciting. For years he’s been making additions and evolving this incredibly dynamic position. IM very excited to see the content!

The first technique is a great entry level method of getting to know the position and it uses important elements of BJJ dealing with imposing forces. This is always a good thing to pay attention to as these themes tend to show up everywhere in our training. Great stuff here from one of the legends of the sport!

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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