Guard Theory

Half Guard Intermediate · Gi and no-gi

Deep half guard: under the hip, not the leg

Deep half guard puts your body underneath the top player's hip rather than beside their trapped leg, which takes away the base they were passing from and leaves you two exits.

Position and problem

You are in half guard on your side, the underhook is lost, and the top player's chest is settling onto yours with a crossface arriving. Half guard in BJJ is usually taught as two games, the knee shield and the underhook, and both depend on winning the torso, which is the contest that has just gone. One direction is still open, and it is down and under. Instead of fighting beside their trapped leg for space you no longer have, you slide underneath it, so that your body lies under their hip and their thigh rests across your chest. From there the top player is no longer kneeling on the mat but sitting on you, and the base they were passing from has been replaced by your body. Many gyms call this deep half guard, and the name describes the position: the same trapped leg, but held from underneath the hip rather than from beside the leg.

Objective

Get your body underneath the top player's hip with their trapped leg across your chest, so their base rests on you and you can come up or sweep before the crossface and the kimura arrive.

Core concept

Deep half guard works because a person cannot base on a body that is moving. In ordinary half guard the top player kneels with their weight on the mat and their trapped leg still under them, so their base is the floor and your legs are holding a limb. In deep half you slide under that leg until your shoulders are beneath their hip and their thigh lies across your chest, held by both your arms, with your outside leg hooked over their shin. Now their weight is on you rather than on the mat. Whatever you do with your hips moves their base, and they have to post a hand or a foot to stay upright, which is the first sign that a deep half sweep is available. Compared with a full closed guard, which holds the whole torso between your legs, half guard holds one leg and deep half holds that leg's hip, so it sweeps well and controls the upper body hardly at all. The two exits both run on the movement of your hips. Coming up means turning toward their trapped leg, reaching the far ankle and driving them backward off your body until you are on top of the leg. Sweeping means lifting their leg with your hips and rolling them over the side where their post has been taken. Both are half guard sweeps, and the choice between them is made by which hand they have posted and where. What you give up to get there is the head. Underneath the hip your face is against their thigh and your arms are wrapped around the leg. The top player has a free arm to crossface with, and one of your wrists is available for a kimura from top.

Key mechanics

  1. Enter by sliding down and under the trapped leg, not by pulling the leg toward you. The position starts when your shoulders are beneath their hip, and a leg pulled to your chest with your shoulders still beside it is ordinary half guard with worse arm position.
  2. Hold the thigh with both arms wrapped around it and your head tucked against it, on the far side from their free arm. With no cloth to grip, the arms are the connection, and a head that lifts is a head that gets crossfaced.
  3. Hook your outside leg over their shin and keep your inside knee driving up under the thigh. The hook stops them stepping the leg out; the knee is the lift the sweep will use.
  4. Stay on your side, turned toward their trapped leg. Flat on your back, their weight settles onto your chest and the base you took returns to them; on your side, every hip movement moves them.
  5. Watch which hand they post. A hand posted behind them means their weight is back and the come-up is open; a hand posted beside your head means their weight is forward and the sweep goes under it.
  6. Come up by reaching the far ankle, driving your hips forward and standing through the leg. Lifting them with your arms tires the arms; driving with the hips off the hooked leg carries their weight for you.
  7. Sweep by lifting the trapped leg with your inside knee and rolling toward their posted side once the post is taken or lifted. Their base is on you, so raising the leg raises their hip, and a hip with no post under it falls.
  8. Leave the moment the crossface lands or a wrist is taken. Deep half is entered to sweep, and a deep half held under a settled crossface is a pin with your arms already tied up.

Common errors

  • Pulling the leg to the chest while the shoulders stay beside it, which produces a tighter version of ordinary half guard with the arms already committed.
  • Lying flat once underneath, so the top player's weight settles onto the chest and their base comes back through your torso.
  • Lifting the head to look for the sweep, which offers the crossface and turns the position into a pin under a thigh.
  • Hanging on the leg with the arms while the hips stay still, which tires the arms and moves nobody.
  • Sweeping before the post is taken, so the top player puts the hand down and sits back onto the base they were about to lose.
  • Staying in deep half after the crossface and the wrist control have both arrived, when the kimura from top is being set and the position no longer has a sweep in it.

Safety

Deep half guard puts the bottom player's neck and shoulder within reach of the person on top, and the arms that hold the leg cannot defend either. The crossface turns the head away from the leg while the body is committed the other way. A kimura from top takes a wrist that is already wrapped around a thigh, so the shoulder is loaded with the arm pinned against your own chest. Whoever is underneath keeps the head tucked, and gives up the leg early rather than holding it while a wrist is being pulled behind the back. Whoever is on top applies the crossface as steady pressure across the jaw rather than a snap on the neck. Any kimura is set slowly, because the trapped player's arm has no free path to tap with until they let go of the leg, so agree on a verbal tap before the round starts. The bottom player's own knee is the other exposure: the inside leg is bent under a seated adult, so lift with the hips and never twist the hooked leg out from under a weight that has settled on it.

Training progression

  1. Static: partner kneels in half guard and holds still. Slide down and under until your shoulders are beneath their hip, wrap the thigh, hook the shin and tuck the head. Stop and feel where their weight is.
  2. Cooperative: partner shifts their weight slowly back, then forward, and posts a hand each way. Say aloud which exit is open before you move, then reset.
  3. Cooperative exits: partner allows the come-up one repetition and the sweep the next, at walking pace. Drive each one from the hips, with the arms only holding the leg.
  4. Constrained game: you may only enter deep half and take one of the two exits; partner may only post and shift weight, with no crossface and no wrist attacks.
  5. Constrained game with the counters: partner may now crossface and hunt the wrist. You score by leaving deep half within a few seconds of entering, by either exit or by recovering the knee shield.
  6. Positional sparring: start with the underhook already lost and the crossface arriving, full resistance, top player passing freely. Restart on a sweep, a come-up or a completed pass.
  7. Live rounds from half guard, noting afterwards how long you stayed under the hip and which arrived first, the sweep or the crossface.

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.

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