What spider guard is
Spider guard is an open guard played in the gi. You hold both of your partner’s sleeves at the wrists and put one or both feet on their biceps, so your legs push their arms away while your hands pull the sleeves toward you. That push and pull keeps your partner at the length of your legs and takes away the arms they need to pass or to post. It sits with the open guards in our guide to BJJ guards, and you can play it against a partner who is kneeling or standing.
The classic version has both feet on the biceps. A common variation keeps one foot on a biceps and the other on the hip, and the second foot can also hook behind a leg. Another pairs a spider hook on one arm with a lasso on the other.
Grips, feet and tension
Grip the sleeve at its end, near the wrist, and hold it firmly enough that it does not slide. The grips are hard on the fingers. Grips that bunch the cloth in your fist, such as the pistol grip, let you hold longer than a pinch of loose fabric, which your partner can also strip more easily.
Place the sole of your foot in the crook of the arm, on the biceps just above the elbow. A foot on the forearm or the shoulder controls the arm less. Many instructors teach switching feet from one biceps to the other as a basic drill, because the tension has to hold while you change sides.
Grips
- Sleeve grips
- Foot on the bicepsOne or both feet hold an arm straight and away from the body.
- Foot on the hipHolds distance, and can move to a knee, behind a leg or to the other arm.
Main attacks
- Scissor sweepOne foot stays on a biceps, the other moves to the inside of their knee, and both legs extend to turn them over.
- Balloon sweepWhen your partner drives in, you get under their hips and lift them over your head while the sleeve grips keep their hands off the mat.
- Triangle choke
- Omoplata
- Armbar
No-gi
Spider guard depends on holding the sleeves, so it is a gi guard. No-gi players use other open guards.
Distance
Open with grips
Rules
Under IBJJF rules, putting your fingers inside the opening of a sleeve or pant leg is penalized, so the pocket grip common in training is not allowed there.
How the sweeps and submissions work
Many spider guard sweeps combine three actions. The foot on the biceps lifts or extends one arm so your partner cannot post with it. Your other leg blocks or hooks one of their legs, at the knee or behind it, so they cannot step to catch their balance. The sleeve grips then pull your partner over toward the side they can no longer post on.
The triangle and omoplata come from the same control. For the triangle, one foot stays on a biceps while your other leg comes off the arm and chops down over the shoulder and behind the neck, leaving one of your partner’s arms inside your legs and one outside. For the omoplata, you pull one arm toward your hip, swing your leg over that shoulder to trap it, and sit up to finish. Pull your partner’s head and posture down as you go, because a partner who stays upright can pull the arm out.
How partners pass spider guard
A passer starts by taking the power out of your legs. They keep their hips low, bend their elbows close to their body, and step back, which weakens the push of your feet on their biceps. Stepping toward you makes the sweeps easier. Some instructors also tell passers not to come down to their knees in front of a spider guard. A common way to free an arm is to circle the hand under your leg from the outside and push it through on the inside, using your leg as a wedge to break the sleeve grip.
Once a foot comes off, common passes include the leg drag, the toreando, the knee cut and the stack pass. Respond while you still hold one grip. Put the foot back on, switch it to the other biceps, or move to a lasso or De La Riva before your partner gets past your knees.
Common spider guard mistakes
Lying flat and square under your partner leaves the sweeps and submissions with no angle to start from. Turning your hips slightly to one side gives them that angle.
A slack leg loses the arm it was holding. Once the foot stops pushing, your partner can bend the arm free or step in.
Pulling with your arms held straight out tires your grip quickly. Keep your elbows close and pull the sleeves toward your chest, which holds the grips with less effort.
What a reviewer looks for in your spider guard
In your footage, a reviewer checks where each foot landed on the arm, how long it stayed there, and whether a foot or a sleeve grip came off first when a pass began. They also note the moments your partner stepped toward you, when a sweep was there to take. Upload a round from your phone or by YouTube link, and a verified black belt timestamps each of those moments in a roll review.