Tag Archive for: half guard

When we learn a new move in jiu-jitsu, we want to learn it correctly. We want to perform it the right way.

A move is a collection of concepts and tradeoffs. There is no right way to always perform a move in the general sense. The specific way to perform a move will depend on the environment it is performed in.

We’ll use the knee-slide pass as as example. The knee-slide (alternatively knee-slice, knee-cut or esgrima) pass is a way of passing the half guard. It is conceptually simple – start in half guard, pin your opponent’s upper body and then pull your leg free to end up in side control.

Below are multiple demonstrations of this pass. Note the way that different instructors emphasise different aspects of the pass. Some are so different that it is easy to consider them different passes.

Here is Saulo Ribeiro teaching the pass. Saulo emphasises heavy pressure and preventing your opponent from regaining the closed guard.

Now consider Rafael Mendes. He is much lighter than Saulo. It is easier to sweep a lighter opponent than a heavier one. Rafael emphasises keeping his weight off his opponent to avoid the sweep.

Steve Campbell takes a more conceptual approach. He notes that by twisting your opponent’s spine, it will be easier to extract your trapped leg. Steve’s gi focused approach twists the spine by pinning the hips first and turning the shoulders second.

Marcelo Garcia also shows the spine twisting approach to this pass. Marcelo pins the shoulders first and then turns the hips. This approach works both gi and no-gi while Steve’s hips-first approach favours the gi.

There is no right way to perform a move. If the move works, then you did it the right way. The environment dictates what is correct. You may trade pressure for mobilitity or vice-versa. Gi grips allow you to sacrifice positional stability for positional advancement. Consolidating your gi and no-gi game trades possibilities for reduced cognitive load.

Being good at jiu-jitsu means being able to make the correct tradoffs to be successful against your opponent.

Until now, the bottom player has been reacting defensively to the top player’s counters. Even though her goal is an offensive one (gain head position), she has been going about it with a defensive mindset. Her thoughts have been on countering the obstacles that the top player is putting in her path. The top player is the aggressor as he is deciding which obstacles to present to the bottom player.

The top player has the advantage because there are many possible obstacles that he can use (sitting back, pressuring the far deltoid etc). The more possibilities he has, the more options the bottom player must mentally process and the slower her reaction time will become. To regain an advantage and to switch to a more aggressive mindset, the bottom player must reduce the options available to the top player.

The bottom player can create a frame (structure) with her limbs that restricts the options available to the top player. The structure we are using is similar to Robson Moura’s 93 guard but with the inside knee blocking the top player’s far hip instead of her far hand grabbing the pants (no-gi compatible). The key points of this structure are:

• Near-side knee/shin blocks the top player’s far hip as we covered in week 4.
• Far-side knee/shin block the top player’s chest or near-side shoulder/biceps.
• Hands are holding the top player’s upper body and pulling him towards her shins (pull-push like in spider guard).

The knee/shins create a shield that prevents the top player from being able to effectively crush. It may be difficult to transition from a half guard to this structure, so the bottom player may need to use stiff arm (locked elbow) frames to hold her opponent away as she positions her knees.

Faced with this structure, the top player’s immediate concern is not in preventing the bottom player from gaining head position. His attention must first be on dismantling her frames. There are only a small number of ways that he can do this. If the bottom player is aware of the likely behaviour of the top player, she has the advantage.

A strong frame gives the bottom player an advantage is it gives her respite from being crushed, time to think, and a staging platform to launch prepared attacks.

In the fight for head position, the obvious thing for the top player to do is to use his hands and arms to push the bottom player and prevent her from closing the distance to gain head position (head to chest). Regardless of which hand is dominant, his outside (crossfacing) arm will be able to apply more strength in preventing the bottom player from sitting up as it is able to apply force higher on her body and hence exert more leverage. This outside hand is his power hand, and it is the hand that the bottom player will need to defeat before being able to gain head position.

The top player’s power arm is at it’s strongest when his elbow is close to his ribs. It is weaker when it is extended, or when it is drawn back so his hand is close to his chest.

The main problem for the bottom player is that as she starts to bring her head closer to the desired position, she is moving her head towards the top player’s power hand in its strongest position. She is effectively running into a wall.

It is advantageous for the bottom player when the power hand is either fully extended or fully drawn back. A good tactic for her is to have the top player extend his power hand. She can then restrain it in some fashion before moving her head into good positioning. When the bottom player has control of the top player’s power hand, he can no longer use it to defend against her gaining head position.

One way to entice the top player to extend his power hand:

1. Move your head far away from the top player. Use z-guard (knee shield – outside shin in top player’s hip) to provide a foundation then arch your back to move your body away.
2. With your body extended, the knee shield loses strength. Elevate the knee to block against the top player’s chest/shoulder instead of his hip. This provides a frame to help prevent him crushing you with his bodyweight.
3. The top player now needs to use his power hand to remove this frame. Wait for him to bring his hand within range, then grab and extend it.
4. Extend your top leg. This removes the frame and creates an easy path to sit up and gain head position.

We are now well aware that the main battle that is occurring with half guard is that the bottom player is attempting to gain dominant head position and the top player is trying to prevent this from occurring.

A common way the top player does this is by squashing the bottom player with his bodyweight. But it’s a little more technically involved than this. The top player is specifically trying to squash the bottom player’s farside deltoid (shoulder). If he does this then the bottom player will find it difficult to turn on to her side and hence it becomes difficult for her to gain head position. If he only squashes her body, she will be able to raise her farside deltoid enough and keep wriggling until she can turn on her side enough to initiate the battle for head position.

The counter we are looking at this week is when the top player is applying pressure to the bottom player’s farside deltoid. He may have a crossface and underhook as well (or not). It is important to understand that we are looking at the position where his arms are hugging the bottom player’s body. The situation where both of his arms are on the same side of the bottom player’s body is a different situation that requires a different response.

With her deltoid pinned and body flat, there is little the bottom player can do. Her goal is to free this deltoid so she can turn on her side. The way she will do this is to move away from the top player until she is far enough away that his bodyweight is no longer able to pin her deltoid.

The top player has freedom of movement, so he will follow when she tries to move away. The bottom player’s solution is to build a frame to hold the top player in place, and then move away from this frame to free her deltoid.

Frame details:

1. Create an initial frame on the top player’s outside knee with either an elbow or straight arm.
2. Use this frame to insert the inside (bottom) knee to block at the top player’s outside hip and front of his thigh to create a stronger frame. The arm is no longer needed.
3. The outside (top) knee now pinches the top player’s hips. This pinch creates a frame that controls the top player’s hips and reduces his movement.

Now that the frame has been created, the bottom player can push herself away with the power of her glutes and with the assistance of her arms. As soon as her shoulder is free she can return to the battle for head position.

Last week we understood that a major battle in half guard is the battle for head positioning. If the bottom player wins this battle, she is in a more advantageous position than her opponent. This advantage reduces the amount of effort she needs to use to successfully sweep her opponent.

Winning the battle for head position means the bottom player has slightly more control than her opponent. Her goal is to increase this disparity and obtain the maximum amount of control possible. To do this, she will attempt to gain control of her opponent’s centre of mass.

Having her head positioned against her opponent’s chest means it is easy to gain a near side underhook on her opponent’s body. The bottom player uses this underhook to pull herself deeper underneath her opponent until her head is underneath her opponent’s belly. Now her arms can naturally wrap around her opponent’s belly/hips (his centre of mass).

Even with this control, the top player still has some freedom of movement. He can use his hands, and more importantly, feet to move himself around to find angles to create pressure. If the bottom player is able to snag his farside foot and pull it to his butt, his ability to move is severely restricted.

With control of his centre of mass, and with his movement restricted, the bottom player is in a good position to sweep and come on top.