The Half Guard is a very powerful position from which to sweep or submit your opponent. But just like all other forms of guard, it's really important to know how to move your hips and your legs correctly. No movement = no guard!!! Here's a half-guard drill that teaches you the basic leg and hip movements to manoeuvre into position to apply your techniques and prevent him from passing your … [Read more...]
Half Guard
Step by Step D’Arce Choke vs the Half Guard
If someone has you in their half guard and they have a strong underhook you're in trouble; they're DEFINITELY thinking about taking your back, sweeping your, or setting up a submission like a triangle choke. A great weapon to shut all that nonsense down is the D'Arce Choke (also known as the no gi Brabo choke). This choke is an absolute staple of modern no gi grappling, and you have to know … [Read more...]
How to Attack the Half Guard with the Kimura Armlock
If you're caught in your opponent's half guard then you have to be careful not to get swept, submitted, or have your back taken. That being said, you have attack options on top too! Here's how to use the Kimura, an amazingly versatile submission, to pass the guard and tap out your opponent when you're in the top half guard position... Let's break this technique down step by … [Read more...]
Rolling Kimura Guard Pass
The rolling Kimura is a surprising way to pass guard. This technique is increasingly being used at the higher levels of the sport, and especially in no gi competition. Here's Elliott Bayev showing you how to roll your way past the butterfly guard (aka sitting guard) and the half guard. With the details he shows I think you'll quickly find that it's easier than it looks! P.S. This … [Read more...]
Fancy Yet Effective: The ‘Shaolin’ Half Guard Sweep
Normally I advise against flashy techniques. Generally speaking it's rock solid basics and non-fancy fundamentals that win sparring sessions, tournament matches and MMA fights. But I have to make an exception for this technique... If you're already semi-competent from the half guard position then the Shaolin Sweep might be something you want to add to your game. First of all, the Shaolin … [Read more...]
How to Defend and Counter the Crossface from Bottom Half Guard
Getting flattened out, crossfaced, and smashed when you're in the half guard sucks, and in this article we're going to learn how to prevent that from happening. The key is to use your upper body frames to stop your opponent from getting chest to chest and flattening you out. Doing this also allows you to get back to offense from the bottom again. First, here's a breakdown of how not to get … [Read more...]
How to Defend the Leg Weave Guard Pass
When you're learning BJJ basics you've got to become familiar with the most common techniques first - they are the low hanging fruit and also the techniques that you're going to face most often on the mat. The Leg Weave Guard Pass is one of the most typical ways to pass the Guard so you better have a good answer for it! Here's a simple and effective way to stop, and then counterattack, when … [Read more...]
The 6 Ranges of Half Guard
The half guard is one of the three fundamental classifications of guard (closed, open, half). It can be used as both an offensive and a defensive position. There are many different variations of half guard, and one way to categorise those variations is by how far away you are from your opponent's hips. If there's a big space between your hips and his then you're at long range. If your hips … [Read more...]
The Butterfly Sweep from Half Guard
The half butterfly guard is a variation of half guard where you entangle one of your opponent's legs with your inside leg and then insert a single butterfly hook under his thigh with your outside leg. As such this position combines aspects of both the traditional half guard AND the butterfly guard. Two of the most popular attacks in the half butterfly position are Sweeping your opponent … [Read more...]
Getting the Underhook in BJJ
Getting the underhook in the guard, especially in positions like the Butterfly guard and the Half guard, is incredibly important. Entire matches have changed momentum just because the guy on the bottom got this one grip! The underhook gives you a huge amount of control over your opponent's body and also gives you a route to his back. But your opponent won't just give you this grip - he'll … [Read more...]
A Simple Adjustment That Shuts Down the Kimura from Guard
Cartwheels in BJJ and Submission Wrestling
So I saw something spectacular the other day... It was a clip from a wrestling match in which 125 lb Ronnie Bresser from Oregon State cartwheels himself over his opponent in a move called 'the Flying Squirrel' to get to a 15 point advantage and win the match by technical fall (thanks to "i like to wrassle" on reddit for giving me the proper name for it)! Here's the move: Of course … [Read more...]
A High Percentage Half Guard Pass That Works in Gi and No Gi
In the old days the half guard was a position of last resort. You used it when your opponent had almost passed your guard and now only one of your legs was between him and the full mount. Man, have times ever changed! In the last 20 years the half guard has been developed as an offensive position, with many sweeping and attacking options available to you from there (for examples of these … [Read more...]
The Figure 4 Straight Armlock: An Easy and Surprising Submission from the Top Position
The straight arm figure 4 was one of the very first armlocks I was ever shown on the ground. But it was super unreliable. In fact, for the next 3 decades, I would only be able to get it to work occasionally and then only against inferior or very tired opponents. Most of the time my sparring partners would simply twist or muscle their way out of it, or - most discouraging of all - just … [Read more...]
3 Fixes for Sore Fingers in BJJ
So I got a question the other day from someone looking for advice about the pain and inflammation they have in their fingers from training BJJ. I sent them back a super-quick email response with 3 suggestions, but now want to elaborate on my suggestions in hopes that this info will be useful to someone else too. First, here is a video I shot about exactly this … [Read more...]
The Training and Competition Strategies of Bernardo Faria
Bernardo Faria is a 5 x BJJ World Champion (and a good friend) so I was very excited to sit down with him and have an in-depth conversation about his competition, training and conditioning routine. The full transcript, audio and video are below on this page, but here's a quick preview of some of the things talked about: Exactly what a world champion's day to day training regimen … [Read more...]
A Strategy for Getting 15 Points in a BJJ Tournament Fast
The ultimate goal of BJJ competition is to tap your opponent out, not to win by points. That being said, the point system is still a very important part of the game and you have to understand how to use it! Here's why... First of all, the point system in BJJ tournaments generally reflects what would work in a real fight. For example, its better to be on top than on bottom in a fight, … [Read more...]
How To Do The Lapel-Based Brabo Choke in the Gi
From our very first day on the mat we're taught to pass the guard before attacking with a submission. Pass... Establish position... And only then try to submit! So when a technique like the gi-based Brabo choke comes along it seems very counterinintuitive. Because in it you stay in his half guard, you don't try to pass, and you still attack with a choke. Every rule - including the primacy … [Read more...]
A High Percentage Triangle Choke from Half Guard
In this new video my friend, BJJ black belt and world champion Brandon ‘Wolverine’ Mullins shows how to set up and finish his favourite submission from the half guard. As you watch it pay attention not only to the details of the movement, but it's really the underlying pattern of bridging and shrimping that powers the whole technique. Breaking a technique down into its fundamental components … [Read more...]
How To Use Moves You Already Know to Do Advanced Techniques
We've just launched the latest Grapplearts BJJ instructional mobile app with my friend Brandon 'Wolverine' Mullins. It's called Advanced BJJ Fundamentals. The name of this app isn't accidental, because it's all about using the fundamental building blocks of jiu-jitsu to make learning easier, to amplify the effectiveness and reliability of your techniques, and to build an advanced … [Read more...]