Half Guard - Making Space

If you, like me, realise that part of your problem with the half guard is making the space to shift your hips out to one side then I found a couple of technique vids on YouTube that you may appreciate. I don't have a problem with guys of a lower weight than me, I find I can get the hips out just fine then, so that tells me that I am just using Strength/Power to get in to position rather than any proper technique.

Last Thursday I rolled with two guys from our SJJA club, 1 (Craig) was about the same weight as me but physically superior,  the other (Justin) was just a massive beast who outweighs me by about 2 and a half stone and is so much stronger than me it's not even funny. Now Craig has always been a bit of a master of top half guard control, being able to flatten you out and distract you with what he's doing with his arms to the point that you can't spare the time to attack from the bottom (flimsy excuse I know) so I actually looked forward to rolling with his this time, what with my current goals in mind. From the point our roll hit half guard I was once again smothered to the floor, occasionally managing to escape my hips for a few seconds before being pancaked back to the floor. In the end it was all I could do to go for the cheap option and recover full guard.

In my roll against Justin, a fairly inexperienced white belt, I jumped into half guard and he leaned his weight on me and then used his vastly superior strength of arm to try and grapple a submission out of me. To his credit he was trying for Americana's, Kimura's, a Straight Armbar and even a Head and Arm Triangle. I managed to evade all this (with effort) and realised that I was once again falling into a Half Guard bottom survival role. I should of been attack him and threatening sweeps or something but I was making myself too busy fending Big Justin off and not really considering what I should be doing to improve my position. I wasn't until right at the end that I got a nearside underhook , escaped the hips, trapped his base arm and turned him over into his guard but this is something that I should have been doing straight away.

To that end I've sat down and thought about where I was going wrong and it has become plainly obvious to me that the problem lies in me not getting the space I require to work in quick enough. I am allowing larger/stronger opponents to lay on me and where I'm used to using strength in that situation I am becoming stuck. My technique at this point is missing. To that end I dug up these two videos from YouTube, posted by TechniquePrevails, which were handily titled Creating Space from Half Guard. Even though these techniques are demonstrated in No Gi the principals can still be applied to Gi grappling.

I particularly like this easy option for making space. Framing your arms out to push the opponents head back seems so obvious and simple I can't believe I never thought of it before. The trick here will be to ensure that you can pummel your arms to the inside.

This second one I believe I have studied and drilled before and forgot due to my previous lack of focus on the Half Guard part of my game (idiot). Simple premise, just ensure your opponents leg is secured in your Half Guard and your arms are underneath his arms then lift his weight up and to the side.

I shall be training down Sweat FA again this Thursday and hope to see either Craig or Justin (or one of the other heavy guys there) to practice my Half Guard some more. I need to get better at Half Guard.

Laters. \m/