What deep half guard is
Deep half guard is a half guard variation played underneath your partner. Your arms wrap the trapped leg while your legs keep holding it, and your head stays tucked in close to their hip. It belongs with the half guards in our guide to BJJ guards.
From there, your body is close to your partner’s center of gravity, where the crossface and shoulder pressure that flatten you in regular half guard have little to work on. That makes it useful against heavier partners and pressure passers. Jeff Glover and Bernardo Faria are two competitors well known for it.
The guard is played in both the gi and no-gi. Without fabric, it depends more on the leg hug and on keeping your body under their hips.
Getting underneath
A common way in is from regular half guard after your partner wins the underhook on your top arm. Coming up on your side is then hard, so you go the other way: when their hips leave a gap, dive your head and shoulders into it and take the leg with both arms. Other entries come from a knee shield, from quarter guard when your partner has nearly freed their knee, from De La Riva or the lasso against a standing partner, and as a counter to the knee cut pass.
Sweeps and back takes from deep half
Deep half is mainly a sweeping position, with few submissions from the bottom. The main idea is to shift your partner’s weight from side to side until their base gives way in one direction.
Grips
- Leg hugYour arms wrap the trapped thigh and hold it tight to your chest.
- Lapel fed under the legTheir own lapel, pulled out and passed under the leg to your hand, gives you a handle on it.
- Pants gripA grip on the pants helps you lift and steer the leg during a sweep.
Main attacks
- Homer Simpson sweep
- Waiter sweep
- Lapel sweeps
- Back take
- Transition to X guard or 50/50
Grips
- Leg hugYour arms wrap the trapped thigh with your hands clasped, since there is no fabric to hold.
- Hand on the free legGripping or blocking their free leg stops them from stepping it out to base.
Main attacks
- Homer Simpson sweep
- Waiter sweep
- Back take
- Transition to X guard or 50/50
Distance
Half and knee shield
The waiter sweep and the Homer Simpson sweep are standard deep half sweeps, but instructors teach them in different versions, down to which leg you lift and which way you roll. Learn the version your coach teaches before you add another.
If your partner bases out to stop a sweep, you can come out behind them and take the back instead. If they stand up to get away, deep half connects to X guard and 50/50, which keep sweeps and submissions available.
How partners counter deep half
The first threat is to your arms. An arm you leave out in the open can be caught in a kimura or an americana. Tucking your far arm under their leg takes it out of reach. If they already hold your wrist, one way to break the grip is to swipe your knee against their arm.
Your partner can also work the trapped leg. Some sit back on that heel and straighten the leg, some drop that knee to the mat with their hips close to yours, and some switch their hips to the other side. Others circle the leg to pull it out of your hold. Deep half players learn a different sweep for each of these reactions.
Your neck is the third target. When your partner reaches for your head, lean forward and circle inward to hide it, since a head that drifts out is open to chokes such as the D’Arce.
Common deep half mistakes
A common mistake is falling flat on your back. Once your shoulders turn to the mat, your partner can crossface you and pass to side control, and you are back under the pressure deep half was meant to avoid.
A loose hug on the leg is the other common mistake. Any gap between your chest and their thigh gives them room to circle the leg free, so keep the leg pulled tight against you while you set up the sweep.
What a reviewer looks for in your deep half
On footage, a reviewer checks how you got underneath: what your partner did just before, and whether your arms were already around the leg when they reacted. They look at where your head and far arm were when your partner attacked, and whether each sweep went with their weight or against it. In a roll review, a verified black belt marks the moment your hold on the leg loosened, with timestamps on your own rolls.