What coyote guard is
Coyote guard, also called the coyote half guard, is a half guard system created by Lucas Leite, a Checkmat black belt and multiple-time world champion. You lie on your side with a deep underhook and your head tucked in toward your partner’s hip. Your other arm reaches under their leg, and your legs do more than hold the trapped leg: they twist it outward and put pressure on the knee. With the leg turned that way, your partner is off balance, and sweeps and back takes need less strength. It sits with the half guards in our guide to BJJ guards.
Leite presents the system as a way to sweep bigger, heavier opponents. His instructionals cover it in the gi and in no-gi, and his course Killing the Coyote covers passing it. Instructors who teach it now add their own details, so expect the leg position to vary slightly from one academy to the next.
How it differs from half butterfly and other half guards
Regular underhook half guard uses the underhook to come up beside your partner, while your legs mainly keep theirs trapped. The coyote adds the twisting leg hook and keeps it on as you come up, so the leg stays under your control the whole way.
Half butterfly lifts your partner with a hook under the trapped thigh. In the coyote, your legs turn the trapped leg at the knee instead of lifting from underneath, and Leite’s passing course gives the half butterfly hook and the coyote separate chapters.
Deep half guard puts your whole upper body under your partner’s hips. The coyote keeps you on your side beside them, and players switch between the two during an exchange.
Building the position
One route Leite teaches starts from a knee shield, with control of your partner’s wrist and triceps. Bring your top elbow inside your knee, then kick that leg through as your arm slides into the underhook, so the underhook replaces the shield.
Then hand control of the trapped leg to your top leg, which scoops it and holds it on your calf. That frees your bottom leg. Coming up onto your knees from there puts you in the dogfight, and squeezing your knees together around their leg keeps them from pulling it out.
Grips
- Deep underhookYour top arm under their armpit, reaching far across their back.
- Arm under the legYour bottom arm reaches under their leg.
- Wrist and triceps controlFrom the knee shield, the setup that lets your arm slide into the underhook.
- Pants grip on the far legLifts that leg off the mat so their base gives way as you turn.
Main attacks
- Dogfight sweep
- Dogfight to the back
- Roll under when they sprawl
- Switch to deep half or X guard
- Kneebar from X guard
Grips
- Deep underhookYour top arm under their armpit, reaching far across their back.
- Arm under the legYour bottom arm reaches under their leg.
- Two-on-oneBoth hands on one arm from the knee shield, a setup for the kimura trap.
- Hands locked around the waistFrom the dogfight, the grip you keep as you walk around to the back.
Main attacks
- Coyote sweep
- Dogfight to the back
- Rollover sweep
- Kimura trap
- Kneebar from X guard
Distance
Half and knee shield
Rules
Under IBJJF rules, for example, kneebars are legal only for brown and black belts, in the gi and in no-gi. Other organizations set their own limits.
Sweeps, back takes and leg attacks
In the coyote sweep, you twist the trapped leg hard, lift with your shoulder in the underhook, and turn your partner over before climbing to side control. Leite’s sweep from the dogfight also works through the knee: instead of driving straight into your partner to knock them over, you lift the trapped leg and turn so the knee takes the strain, and their base collapses. You keep the pressure on the knee after the sweep and backstep behind them.
If your partner does not answer the underhook with a whizzer, you lock your hands and walk around to their back, often forcing them to turtle before you set the seatbelt and your hooks. If they do whizzer, you can keep your top hook on their knee and walk your hips under them in small steps until their weight comes onto you and they tip over to the other side. If they sprawl, you can roll under them or return to the dogfight. Leite’s courses also link the coyote to deep half and X guard, and X guard to the kneebar.
How partners shut it down
Passers try to flatten you and take the underhook themselves. One published sequence keeps their legs back where you cannot reach under them, puts a stiff arm on your back just below the armpit and angles a knee into your hip to push you flat, then pummels for the underhook and knee slices through. The D’Arce is a choke to watch for as you come up, and Leite’s courses include defenses against it.
The knee slice can also work in your favor. When a passer drives forward to cut through your knee shield, Leite releases the shield, lets their forward momentum carry them onto him, and comes up into the underhook. A bump with his top knee then gives him room to take the trapped leg with his top leg and come up to the dogfight.
What a reviewer looks for in coyote guard footage
On video, a reviewer checks whether the leg twist was on before you tried to come up, how deep your underhook was when you started the sweep, and which reaction from your partner, a whizzer, a sprawl or their own underhook, ended the attempt. A verified black belt can mark those moments on your own rolls in a roll review.