[Aesopian]

One more note. This one is probably the most important, since it has to do with why this game has yet to feel natural.

When I slide down the leg and go really deep, it feels like their leg is barely being trapped. I have to stretch my legs and even open them sometimes to get the momentum to rock down and get deep. I worry their leg will slide or pop out. I end up with my ankles crossed way down at the bottom of their leg, and I worry their knee is too free to drive through. They're looming over me and it seems like they should be able to crush me.

But despite all of these "feelings" it works. And it works surprisingly well. The angles of our bodies, the rocking motions, the simple crossing of the ankles and putting hooks in the right spots, getting the right grips, and it all works out fine.

Just need to keep insisting on it and accept that it feels unlike anything I've done before. It'll come with time and experience.

[Lovesong]

Aesopian,

Are you a teacher by day? Your ability to break things down into components and analyze them is an amazing gift.

Do you consider yourself a fast learner in other subjects?

[blanko]

Aespian,
The "deep" half guard is actually my go to guard when fighting someone who is a higher belt than myself. It's a great guard.

[Zankou]

Awesome posts!

I have become more and more convinced that the biggest key to half guard games is simple: Elevate the hips. It is the key that makes everything else happen. Once you get your opponent's hips elevated, he is screwed. Jorge's video on Aesopian's website really brought this home to me (although Jorge himself didn't explain it real well). The regular half guard game emphasizes getting deep under the guy. But that's really just a subset of the larger key to the half guard game, which (like so much about jiu jitsu) is fundamentally based on seizing control of the hips -- in the case of half guard, elevating them so that his pressure and base are lost.

I was playing deep half guard last night, and had excellent luck transitioning into leglocks (caught a purple w/ kneebar, for example). Once you elevate your opponent's hips, he senses his balance is lost, and often tries to stand up to escape. I have instinctively been rolling into the kneebar at that point, but I think the "standup with ankle on shoulder" takedown and the single leg are something I should work on from there.

Need to work on: Sweeps when my opponent postures up and sits back in deep half guard, fighting hard against hip elevation. In that case, I think I need to transition to the pure "Paragon half guard" position that Aesopian shows above.

Also needed: A better regular half guard game. Mine is still rudimentary at best. All of these moves flow together and set each other up. Z guard or DLR/reverse DLR opens the door to entering (a) regular half guard, far in and on my side with the underhook; (b) deep half guard; or (c) worst case, half butterfly with the hips elevated high.

It's a really fun game, and it reminds me of the turtle guard in that it takes a lot of work and technical discipline to get it off the ground ... but then it starts flying.

[blanko]

zankou,
I think that getting under your opponent's base is essential for any sweep and that's what i have been working on. Before i would use my quickness to sweep my opponent but recently i have tried to become a more "accurate" sweeper. I slow myself down, i use less power and i try to hit the "sweet spot" when i sweep.

[Zankou]

Originally Posted by blanko

zankou,
I think that getting under your opponent's base is essential for any sweep and that's what i have been working on. Before i would use my quickness to sweep my opponent but recently i have tried to become a more "accurate" sweeper. I slow myself down, i use less power and i try to hit the "sweet spot" when i sweep.

Yep, I have long had great success sweeping from open guard using my strength and speed. It's my best game. However even though it has been very effective, many of the higher belts have criticized my sweep approach for failing to get under the opponent's hips enough. And I'm starting to see the correctness of their critique more and more --- ironically I've been relying too much on timing, opposing combinations, and speed, and that has camouflaged fundamental flaws in my sweeping mechanics.

I want to be one of those guys that people describe as having "unstoppable" sweeps, in the sense that you know exactly what they are doing, but are completely hapless as they slowly take you over. Like Leo Kirby was saying about Jorge in that clip on Aesopian's website -- you are so unbalanced that it doesn't matter what the sweep is, you are going over.

Then add in the speed, power, and timing, and you've got a truly scary game.

[Muscleshart]

I'm new to submission grappling, so it's interesting to read these posts. I really want to improve my guard and working to get back to half guard from side control. I have a wrestling background, so I'm really comfortable on top, but it's very strange to work off my back.
I tend to give up half guard, so that I can scramble and get off of the bottom.

I plan on working on getting and keeping half and full guard.

I'd also like to add a couple of strong submissions from the top. I can keep control of most people, but I have very few ways to finish the fight.

I plan on working on the Americana and Kimura from side control for the next month

This is a great idea, and it's a very interesting read.

[Aesopian]

There's a female blue belt who comes to me for advice and guidance. She picked up most of her open guard game from the times I taught her lessons on butterfly, x-guard and De la Riva. So last week when I started unveiling my new half guard game, she took particular interest and wants to learn it too. Showed her some last week, and showed her even more tonight. It was good to teach her from scratch since it made me think about the key points and how to breakdown the material in a way other can understand and use.

Sparred a round with her. We traded sweeps from half guard. I'll break it down to when I was on bottom, then when she was.

Started from long distance half guard like always. Did my little mental checklist to make sure everything was how it should be. Dove into Paragon half guard by reaching under the hips instead of under the free leg. Used the rocking motion to slide underneath and carry her leg on top of my body. Got way down her leg, with my right ankle on top of hers, left hook under. Kept rocking and sliding down until felt she couldn't put any real weight on me. She actually freed her leg while I was still down, but I just kept hugging it and used my rocking momentum to turn up to my knees as I came out the backdoor for the sweep. There was a moment of panic when I thought she would pass, but I just decided to commit to the movement and it worked out fine.

While she was on bottom, I fed her particular resistances to get her to start playing the game and get a feel for it. She commented how tiring it was to keep trying to pull the leg on her shoulder, so we went over the two primary hip movements and how you should be moving under them more than you're pulling them on top of you. Even if they stay in the same spot, you should be able to scoot under them. But the only way to do that without using too much strength and energy is using your core, hips and legs to do it.

Afterwards, I reviewed the main points again:

Long distance half guard

- how the knee and hooking ankles control the space (both pushing and pulling)
- framing the neck avoids the underhook and creates space
- paw on the arm protects the crossface
- staying on your side
- defending basic passes

Deep half guard

- the timing to dive in from long distance
- clearing the crossfacing arm and traffic cop hand
- the backroll motion
- the rocking motion
- elevating the hips and keeping them up
- the two primary sweeps energies: out the backdoor and standing up

Showed her the "Trog" sweep where they put the leg up and you grab the ankle or underhook the leg, then rock them back. She liked it a lot and will likely use it the most, since it's close to x-guard.

Showed her one of the simpler helicopter type sweeps just to give her an idea of how loose and open a half guard game could be, instead of the usual "underhook and fight to your knees" style.

Showed her reverse De la Riva when they're standing, and how that works together with normal DLR. You can get one when the angle is bad for the other.

Went over how long distance and deep half guard work perfectly with the traditional game since they each setup each other and you can switch between them, and how this all works right in with butterfly, half butterfly and x-guard.

[blanko]

"guidance" my ass. you ain't gotta like aeospian

[Aesopian]

Going to train with Trog. The agenda:

- Discuss the overall half guard game: postures, grips, controls, positions, movements, concepts and strategies. Share opinions and experiences so far.
- Drill maintaining long distance half guard with light to medium resistance.
- Drill the two primary hip movements (backroll and rocking) with zero to light resistance.
- Drill armdrag from half guard.
- Drill the kimura from half guard.
- Drill the 2 primary sweeps from deep half guard on a single leg.
- Drill the x-guard style stand-up sweep.
- Drill Trog's rockback sweep.
- Experiment and drill the half guard sweeps from Jean-Jacques books, KenFlo's no-gi DVD and the Shinzato/Silvestre clips.