Half-Guard / Deep Half
Turns a "losing" position into an underhook-driven sweeping machine.
Half guard used to be where you ended up when a pass was half-finished. This style makes it a destination. You trap one leg, fight for the underhook, and use it to come up into the dogfight or dive underneath into deep half, where you're beneath the hips and the sweep is already halfway done. Bernardo Faria and Lucas Leite are known for building whole competitive games out of it. Rolling against it is frustrating in a specific way: you feel like you're passing, you're on top, you have weight on them, and then the underhook comes in, your base gets stolen, and you're the one getting swept or scrambling a beat behind. It suits patient, physical grapplers who don't mind carrying weight and grinding for a grip. You don't need to be flexible or fast, but you need to be comfortable underneath pressure and willing to chase the underhook every exchange. The weakness is the flip side of living on bottom: a passer who flattens you out, kills the underhook, and crushes with a strong cross-face takes away your entries, and you can concede a lot of top time getting there. Start with the underhook battle and one deep-half entry. Winning the underhook, getting it, keeping it, and coming up on it, is the whole game in miniature; the deep-half dive gives you a bailout and a sweep when they defend the dogfight. Drill those two first, and the lapel sweeps and back-takes build naturally on top of them.
Key weapons
- UnderhookWinning the underhook under his arm lets you come to your side, kill his pressure, and hunt sweeps.
- Deep-half entriesSliding fully underneath his base steals his weight off the mat and sets up off-balancing before he settles.
- DogfightComing up to your knees in the scramble, you fight for the back or the reversal from underneath.
- Lapel sweepsFeeding his own lapel around your body builds a handle that steers his base up and over the top.
Where it breaks
Half guard willingly gives the top man his chest and weight, so a passer who flattens you and drives the cross-face can crush the position before you build a frame. Miss the underhook and you are pinned on your back with his shoulder in your jaw, unable to turn in or reach your side. The whole game lives on getting to your hip first; lose that race and you are only defending a pin.
The grappler type behind this style
The FortressAn immovable, patient guard built on frames and position. Impossible to rush, hard to pass.GPCAWho to watch
Bernardo Faria · Lucas Leite
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Related styles
Frequently asked questions
- What is the Half-Guard / Deep Half in BJJ?
- Turns a "losing" position into an underhook-driven sweeping machine. Half guard used to be where you ended up when a pass was half-finished.
- What are the main techniques of the Half-Guard / Deep Half?
- Core weapons include Underhook, deep-half entries, dogfight, lapel sweeps.
- What is the weakness of the Half-Guard / Deep Half?
- Concedes top pressure; vulnerable to flatten-and-crush passers.
- Which grapplers are known for the Half-Guard / Deep Half style?
- Bernardo Faria, Lucas Leite.
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