The Intriguing World of Half Guard

Half guard.  Not surprisingly, it feels about half as secure as full guard.  So what should you do if you find yourself on the bottom, holding on to one leg?  Get out to a better position!

Pull guard.  Slip around the back.  Sweep.  As mentioned before, get out.  Half guard is not the happy fun place that full guard is.  The top player can submit – or use submission attempts to set up better positions like cross body or mount.  Bad news – all of it – get out.

Alright.  Now after all those warnings, there is some strange stuff that can go on in half guard.  The bottom player can occasionally pull off a submission – guillotine and kimura come to mind but honestly, it just takes playing from that position a lot to find stuff.  Yeah yeah, the priority is to get out and get a better position but sometimes it’s fun to play from a bad position and see what happens.  Try it.