Greatest Half Guard Thread Ever

[codemonkey76]

sorry to show the colour of my belt, but what is z guard and reverse DLR?, can you post a pic showing the position

[Bubble Boy]

Those video clips of Shinzato and Silvestre are really sweet. They're also the kind of stuff I think you would excel at Sir Aesopian: short clips posted with related thoughts and notes, exactly as you've done for the clips above.
The rest of us would benefit tremendously.

[codemonkey76]

Originally Posted by Bubble Boy

Those video clips of Shinzato and Silvestre are really sweet. They're also the kind of stuff I think you would excel at Sir Aesopian: short clips posted with related thoughts and notes, exactly as you've done for the clips above.
The rest of us would benefit tremendously.

+1 2nd that

[Aesopian]

I have done detective work and found Jeff Rockwell's deep half guard sweeps series from the now defunct MMALibrary. It was too many images for Sherdog (only 7 allowed per post) so I put it up on my journal instead:

http://www.aesopian.com/173/jeffs-half-guard-sweeps/

[GuardGame]

Hey Aesopian can you post the link where you got the Jeff Glover fights?

[Aesopian]

It's a DVD: Nevertap.

[kaboom187]

I'm glad we're getting back into quality discussion around here again. It reminds me of around the period when Aesopian first got his moderator status... lets keep it coming

[sha]

I really like playing half guard. Every time I see MMA fights where a great grappler just gets stuck in full guard under a big strong wrestler, I can't help thinking the bottom guy might have more luck from half guard.

I'd like to know what's the difference between quarter guard, z guard, and reverse dlr, too.

One counter I like against the "knee on the hip" half guard it the toe hold. Either you push the knee in deeper (keeping it from moving) and get the tap, or he extends his leg to counter, and you've gotten rid of that pesky knee in your hip.

Also, a nice detail I've picked up from the SBG vids that somehow never occured to me, is to use your top leg for base to prevent getting flattened out (in the standard half guard). If you're already on your side you don't need to cross your ankles that much, and most of the time you can base out and cross your ankles at the same time anyway. Usually I would get on my hip but my oponent would then just have to drive into me and flatten me out.
I don't know if that makes much sense..?

[Aesopian]

Quarter guard

Two different positions fight over this term.

Gustavo Machado put out a "quarter guard" instructional that covered a half guard position where you wrap one of their arms with your shin against their biceps, like this:



The other position claiming this name is when someone has gotten their knee out of your half guard and you're hanging on to their ankle. It's half of a half guard, so "quarter". Eddie Bravo uses this term in all of his books so it's more popular.

Found a little video teaching it.

Z-guard

From half guard, bring your knee across their hip, stomach or chest like you're setting up a scissors sweep. Leo Kirby coined the term as a joke but then it stuck. Here he is showing it:



Reverse De la Riva

From the same position as normal De la Riva, bring the opposite foot than normal and hook under their knee. Here is Saulo teaching it in his first set:



There are even more unnamed positions and grips and variations of all of these, and it gets even more confusing when you start using them in combination and transitioning between them freely.

[Zankou]

Originally Posted by Aesopian

I have done detective work and found Jeff Rockwell's deep half guard sweeps series from the now defunct MMALibrary. It was too many images for Sherdog (only 7 allowed per post) so I put it up on my journal instead:

http://www.aesopian.com/173/jeffs-half-guard-sweeps/

Yep, that's a nice series that hooks in really well with the reverse DLR. It is missing some of the slick developments shown in those youtube sets. For example, capturing the arm and clamping it to the leg helps a lot in doing those last two sweeps. Also turning your "far" leg into a hook is very beneficial, like a reversed half butterfly.

I am starting to envision this as a continuous series depending on his orientation, from (1) regular DLR to (2) reverse DLR to (3) z guard to (4) deep half guard, all the same idea, depending on your opponent's angle. Add some shin/single leg guard action, and you have a whole world. Then top off with helicopter sweeps.

Not to add more fuel to the fire, but there is a "reverse DLR" variation on the deep half guard that I saw JJ Machado teach, and which I myself had been blindly experimenting with. Instead of clamping the leg tight with both legs as you transition to deep half guard, you keep your "open" reverse DLR leg position. As you go under, this means that you turn on your side, facing away from his legs, and your reverse DLR knee stays high under his leg, with your other foot staying low and screwing with his ankle.

Basically if you took that Saulo 9 screenshot, and his ankle-grabbing hand took the underhook of the free leg into deep half guard, then his outside foot would start pressing against the ankle.

Interesting stuff ...