POSITIONBOTTOM

Deep Half Guard

Sources and other names

Also called: deep half, deep half entry, deep half guard, deep-half, knee lever

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18 gi · 10 no-gi

Start with the example · Playing bottom

Deep half guard is being underneath them on purpose: you come off your side facing them, swing your legs around their trapped leg, and park your whole body under their hips so their base is stacked on top of you. From down there their weight stops being pressure and starts being something you can steer.

The chapter

Living under someone only works with structure. The corpus keeps returning to two details: alignment — arched back, no crunched neck — and the underhook fight on the leg you're holding, because the second either one goes, the position stops being yours.

Playing bottom

Everything from deep half is a way of cashing in the fact that their base lives on top of you — tip them with the waiter sweep, come up on the single leg, climb to X-guard, or slip out the back door.

1Waiter sweep
Underhook their trapped leg and carry the foot up like a waiter's tray so it can't post, then drive with your hamstring and legs to tip them over the base they no longer have.
WhenTheir leg comes off the mat. The moment you can serve the foot up, that whole side of their base is gone and the sweep is mostly gravity.
2Come up to the single leg
Build base onto your elbow, come up to your knees still hugging their leg, and finish it like a wrestler's single.
WhenThey base back or stall your sweep — their weight pulling away from you is exactly what lets you climb out from underneath.
3Climb to X-guard
Lift their leg with your inside hook and a grip on the pants or hip, slide your shin higher up the leg, and bring your outside foot through to build full X-guard under their base.
WhenThey stand up or stretch out to kill the sweeps — the more they extend away from you, the more room there is to climb.
4Peek out the back door
Slide your head out behind their hip and turn toward their back, pulling them down as they chase you.
WhenTheir weight commits forward past your head to smash the sweep — the space behind them opens exactly when they overcommit into you.

Also worth knowing

Kimura on the hanging armWhenYour underhook wins and their arm hangs down into reach — the attack is sitting there.
Berimbolo instead of coming upWhenYour shin finds their hips — invert underneath them to the back instead of wrestling up.
Darce when they win the underhookWhenThey beat you to the underhook — overhook the arm and find the tricep instead of conceding the position.

Why you keep failing here

“They step over my head and I'm suddenly under mount.”
WhyYour head lost contact with their thigh. The gap behind your head is exactly the space the step-over needs.
FixKeep the back of your head pressing into their thigh and refill that space every single time they move up or down.
“I keep getting kimura'd while I'm holding their leg.”
WhyHugging the leg parks your bottom arm out in front of them, and top players hunt exactly that trapped arm.
FixKeep the underhook deep and the arm hidden against their leg — if the grip is being isolated, deal with that before you chase the sweep.
“I can't hold it — they pull the leg out and smash me.”
WhyYou're static and shallow. A deep half that isn't sweeping, extending, or climbing is just lying underneath someone while they work.
FixKeep them answering something — sweep side to side, extend into X-guard — and when it's collapsing anyway, bail back to knee shield half guard instead of getting flattened in place.