Guard Theory

Butterfly Guard Intermediate · No-gi first

Butterfly guard when they drive forward

When a passer drives forward into butterfly guard the hooks either become the lever that lifts them or the thing you are flattened over, and the difference is whether your seat is still under you when the weight arrives.

Position and problem

You are seated in butterfly with both hooks in and a partner who has decided to walk straight through you. Chest down, head low, driving. Your back rounds, your shoulder blades touch the mat, and the hooks that were supposed to lift now hold your own feet under a person who is lying on you. Many passes against butterfly are built to arrive exactly here, with the seated player flat and the hooks dead. Keeping butterfly hooks against pressure has less to do with the feet than with the seat they are attached to.

Objective

Keep your seat under your shoulders as the drive arrives, so that the hooks stay loaded and the forward pressure becomes the lift rather than the pass.

Core concept

Forward pressure on butterfly guard is a contest for your seat. A hook lifts by carrying weight from your hip through your shin, which only works while your hips are under your shoulders and your head is level with theirs. Once you are flattened, the hook is a foot under a thigh and the shin points at the ceiling, and nothing about that arrangement carries anything. So the defence against the drive has three answers, keyed to how much of it has arrived. While the seat holds, keep the head up, and if you post a hand behind you, as many coaches teach, the hand and the two hooks make a tripod that sends their weight into the mat. When the chest reaches yours, take the hips off their line and elevate on one hook, because a body driving straight forward is already leaning past its own knees. When the seat is gone, convert one hook into a knee between you before their chest settles. A seated, square butterfly also tends to keep your legs out of the leg-entanglement game, and the reason is the shape. A leg attacker needs a leg extended toward them to wrap, with the knee out in front of your hips. In butterfly both knees are bent, both feet are inside their thighs, and the hips face them squarely, so there is no straight leg to catch and the knees sit close to your own body. That protection lasts only as long as the posture does. Flattened with a leg extended, or with a hook kicked out straight to hold distance, the leg is on offer again. Treat it as a tendency of the position rather than a guarantee.

Key mechanics

  1. Keep the head level with theirs, because the drive has your seat the moment the head drops below their shoulder line. A high head is what keeps the hips under the shoulders.
  2. Post a hand behind you on the side the drive is coming from, or use upper-body ties and head position if your coach prefers them. The posted hand and the two hooks make a tripod that carries a driving weight into the mat rather than into your spine.
  3. Meet the drive with the hooks loaded rather than with the arms. A body driving forward has already leaned past its knees, so lift as the weight crosses them and their pressure becomes your elevation.
  4. Take the hips off their line when the chest reaches yours. Hip out to an angle, keep the upper-body connection, and elevate on the hook on the side they are leaning over.
  5. Keep both knees bent and both hooks inside their thighs. A hook kicked out straight to hold distance is a leg extended toward a person who may want it, and a bent knee inside the thigh is neither long enough nor free enough to wrap.
  6. Convert a hook into a knee between when the seat is gone. Before their chest settles, one shin comes across their hip or chest, and the position becomes a knee shield with the other hook still live.
  7. Remove the hooks when they stand unless you are elevating into an entanglement of your own; a foot left passively hooked under a standing opponent's thigh gives them the leg and the angle.

Common errors

  • Sitting back onto the tailbone with the head low as the drive arrives, which gives up the seat before the hooks have lifted anything.
  • Pushing on the chest with both arms, which posts nothing behind you and leaves the hooks carrying no weight.
  • Kicking a hook out straight to hold distance, which offers an extended leg to a partner who was driving forward to find one.
  • Keeping both hooks in while flat on the back, which is two feet under two thighs and two shins pointing at the ceiling.
  • Waiting until flattened before taking the hips off the line, when the angle was available while the chest was still arriving.
  • Leaving the hooks in passively as the opponent breaks to standing, which hands over the leg and the angle at once.

Safety

The hook is a foot under a thigh, and a driving passer who steps over it or sits through it holds the foot while your knee stays where it was. The load arrives at the ankle and the knee of the hooking leg together, from a direction neither joint tolerates. Free the hook as soon as their weight passes over it or they break to standing, and when you are the one driving, step over a hook rather than pinning it and pivoting through it. A drive that folds a rounded back forward also puts the seated player's chin to the chest under the passer's weight, so keep the head up while the seat lasts, and let the back go to the mat with the chin tucked rather than folding forward under the drive.

Training progression

  1. Static: sit in butterfly with a partner resting their weight forward and not driving. Post a hand, find the head level, and feel which of the three points, hand or either hook, is carrying the weight.
  2. Cooperative: partner drives slowly straight forward. Lift with both hooks as their weight crosses their knees, let them come back, and repeat until the timing of the lift matches the drive.
  3. Cooperative: partner gets the chest to yours and pauses. Hip out to an angle and elevate on one hook, with the partner going with it, then reset.
  4. Constrained: partner drives at half effort and may only try to flatten you; you may only post, angle and lift, with no sweep finished. Reset the moment your shoulder blades touch the mat.
  5. Constrained: partner flattens you deliberately each repetition. Convert one hook to a knee between before their chest settles, and reset when it does.
  6. Positional: full-resistance from seated, with the partner free to pass or stand, restarting when they are past your knees or you have swept.
  7. Live rounds: count how many times your shoulder blades touched the mat with both hooks still in.

Written material cannot correct your positioning, feel your pressure or stop a submission in time. Everything here is intended to make training with a qualified coach more useful, never to replace it.

Editorial policy Found a mistake? Tell us