Deep Half Difficulties

Sometimes when I'm in bottom half guard with the under-hook, the guy turns his body so I am facing his back and he can free his leg. I am always looking for deep half as soon as I in half guard but when he turns his back to me and pinches his knees I don't know what to do. I've tried prying the knee open to get to deep half but it doesn't work , my instructor told me if I am having problems with guys trying that pass that I have to keep the under-hook preventing them from turning their body but when I do that it doesn't seem to help. advice plz

 

like this but I have the underhook

 

if that pic is your position, your first mistake is being on your back. get to your side and work for the underhooks. I can't tell you more because i'm not exactly sure what you're talking about.

 

Caio Terra shows three sweeps/reversals from there in his halfguard set. The first involves getting up on your right elbow and essentially rolling into mount. The second comes up when you try the first one, but your opponent pressures back into you, and you change directions and take the back. The third is the one where you offbalance him and then do a backwards roll.

 

links please

 

We call that the "cold shoulder" position. It's my go to from basic half when on top.


Speaking as a top player, you must control either the head or far arm tightly. If not, they'll take your back. If you could get that far arm free....

 

You don't have to always go to deep half.

 

ok my question is can you transition from that position to the deep half ?( I thought I had seen a video of someone doing it ) and what are some escapes from this position in the picture

 

Back-roll sweep or threaten to take the back, IMO. His response to either of these can open up the deep half again.

 

I don't like to give technical advice, especially online, as I feel like it gives off a somewhat arrogant vibe. However, I'll put in my two cents. You could be digging for the underhook too early, making your underhook shallow, and your back too flat. Maybe try playing with a knee-shield. When you feel like you can dig for an underhook, open his elbow with your knee, and replace it with your underhook, but shoot your underhook with your whole body behind it. Get on your side, and get really low on the leg you have trapped. You don't have to go to deep half right away. You might just be too high up. When I get my underhook, I like to connect my hands around the leg I have trapped, and pull myself down as low as possible, so it's basically my whole body attached to that leg. Keep your head glued to the same-side hip as the leg you are isolating. Now most of your opponent/training partner's weight will be above you, and with you on your side and your head low, they won't be able to just shift their weight and flatten you. From here you can either transition to deep half, or just attack with a bunch of nice sweeps from basic half guard depending on how your opponent/training partner reacts.

Hopefully you can take something out of it! It's a tough concept to try to convey through text.

Edit: This was just a suggestion on how to prevent yourself from ending up in that position, not how to get out of it once you're there. There are times when I get stuck in that position when I get lazy with my underhook too. I'll either just squirm out of it or end up getting my guard passed, so unfortunately I can't give any technical advice in that respect.

 

I dunno if it's on youtube or anything, but the set is called 111 half guard techniques.

And to be clear, the techniques I mentioned are all for the situation when your left arm is above the guy's back, not when it's trapped like in the picture. I think you need to react quickly when the guy starts to go inverted to not get the arm trapped. I think you're in a way worse spot with your arm trapped.

 

I think this works pretty well. People also do it to me sometimes when I am on top.

 

I use that butterfly hook to back take as well. The only thing I don't like about it is that you have to be swift, as going half butterfly without controlling the opponent's arm on the same side as your butterfly hook (you can do this with the whizzer in a regular half butterfly situation, i.e. when the opponent doesn't sit facing the legs), means that he can potentially grab your hooking leg and back-step if you're not careful. For this reason, I try inverting to tornado and back-rolling (preferably with control of his trapped leg with my near side hand) before I go the half butterfly route. Unless both of my arms are behind his back, in which case taking the back becomes a stronger option.

 

If you hook the leg like that, a good top player will backstep like a boss.

 

Ok so am I doing something wrong if I have the underhook ad the guy manages to still turn his back to me and face my legs ? With my underhook can I steer his upper body away from doing that ? not very experienced with using half guard underhooks for much or with half guard in general it's been biggest hole that's why I'm focusing on it as of lately