Deep Half Guard

[Omega Supreme]

I'm a DHG man but if you want to play it with strikes you'd better be hella active so you always keep the top guy unbalanced or really good at reclaiming full guard if you fail at sweeping. Preferably both.

Without strikes one can usually unnerve the top guy by playing with his balance making him over-commit to one side and then boom you go the other way. That's a much more patient way of playing which does not translate well to MMA at all.

With my MMA game I yell at my guys to get the forehead to the hip before deciding where to transition. They'll have to flatten you you to get their balance back or risk loosing position. I have a huge caveman on our team that always fight me on this and he still has yet to punch my face in. He always has to fight my leverage or I'll sweep him.

[SantosCruz]

What you should do, is sit down, and bring your leg up to 90 degrees on the matt and then slide his knee off you. Thats the best technique of escapeing the half gaurd

[Uchi Mata]

I find this happens a lot with me, are there any realistic back take options from here that your opponent can't roll back into open guard from?

Yes. The trick is to turn it into a rolling back take.

The way this works: you're in deep half, he leans forward, and you come out the back. The standard back take is to use a hook to try and lever his leg, preventing him from turning into you, and take the back from there. The problem is that it's very hard to prevent that turn. Instead, keep your front leg locked around his and don't try to go directly to his back. Reach over his hip, and lock your hands around his opposite leg. Now, roll over your shoulder that is closest to him to get to a banana split type position. From there you can spin him into full back control. Ryan Hall doesn't specifically show this on his DVDs, but the rolling back to is shown on his Back Attacks DVD, and the position is pretty easy to get to from deep half. He actually does it in the well known 'path to the back' clip from his match with Hermes Franca. I'd study that vid a lot and try it a few times. This is the only way I can consistently take the back from deep half.

[captainbirdseye]

Yes. The trick is to turn it into a rolling back take.

The way this works: you're in deep half, he leans forward, and you come out the back. The standard back take is to use a hook to try and lever his leg, preventing him from turning into you, and take the back from there. The problem is that it's very hard to prevent that turn. Instead, keep your front leg locked around his and don't try to go directly to his back. Reach over his hip, and lock your hands around his opposite leg. Now, roll over your shoulder that is closest to him to get to a banana split type position. From there you can spin him into full back control. Ryan Hall doesn't specifically show this on his DVDs, but the rolling back to is shown on his Back Attacks DVD, and the position is pretty easy to get to from deep half. He actually does it in the well known 'path to the back' clip from his match with Hermes Franca. I'd study that vid a lot and try it a few times. This is the only way I can consistently take the back from deep half.

I guess that could work, usually when I do that my opponent will base out with his hands so I reverse the roll and sweep him. Never occured to me to go to the back from that way.

[Alan Belcher]

I actually like deep half a lot. If I see an opening I go right for it and attack with a sweep.

[Plasma]

Yes. The trick is to turn it into a rolling back take.

The way this works: you're in deep half, he leans forward, and you come out the back. The standard back take is to use a hook to try and lever his leg, preventing him from turning into you, and take the back from there. The problem is that it's very hard to prevent that turn. Instead, keep your front leg locked around his and don't try to go directly to his back. Reach over his hip, and lock your hands around his opposite leg. Now, roll over your shoulder that is closest to him to get to a banana split type position. From there you can spin him into full back control. Ryan Hall doesn't specifically show this on his DVDs, but the rolling back to is shown on his Back Attacks DVD, and the position is pretty easy to get to from deep half. He actually does it in the well known 'path to the back' clip from his match with Hermes Franca. I'd study that vid a lot and try it a few times. This is the only way I can consistently take the back from deep half.

Yes it is, it's Deep Half Guard Disk 2 #25 -Waiter Sweep to Rolling Back Take. That is exactly what he did in the Hermes Franca Super Fight.