Half Guard Wednesday

I took the wednesday PCYC class this week as Pete was unable to make it, I decided to run some half guard bottom escapes and reversals for the class. I started by emphasising 2 fundamentals for half guard bottom, first is to get out to the same side as the leg you are holding and be up on your side (not "four on the floor"). Second point is you need an underhook on the side you are sitting out to. With this in mind we started off with a simple method of getting that underhook. If your opponent has the underhook wrap the opponents calf with our inside leg and post on our outside foot.We then reach our hand as far as we can accross the face of the opponent, this creates space and gets us on our side rather than flat on our back. From there we suck our hand in close to get the under hook.

Note: When doing the above, it is important to use your lower arm to trap the opponents opposite arm so that when you are extending your arm away from your body it is safe from being attacked with a Figure 4 or similar.

Once we were able to get the underhook we got started on our techniques, we did 3 defensive combinations as detailed below.

1. Foot hold, bridge and roll - In all of the following techniques we "climb" down the opponents body to take hold of the opponents opposite foot, in all cases we hold around the toes rather than the ankle as this reduces the opponents ability to kick the foot out of our grip. In this technique we climb down and take the opponents foot in both hands (our inside hand between the legs and outside arm around legs). Place our outside foot inside opponents leg and the bridge and roll opponent over you. Move to side control.
2. Inside hand, Foot hold shoot takedown - Climb down and take foot with inside hand and brab belt with outside hand. Step outside foot over opponents leg and lift opponents foot with it, slide inside leg out from under the opponents leg and go to our knees. Drive in for a shoot takedown, pass gurad and get side control.
3. Outside hand, Foot hold shoot takedown - Take foot with both hands and then let inside hand go, retract inside arm and post on elbow. Use outside leg to lift foot and escape your inside leg out to your knees, block opponents far knee with your free hand and shoot takedown, pass to side control.

Extra techniques - Low half guard counters
When opponent is going for a low halfguard sweep, first step is take your outside leg out of reach of their grip. Flip outside leg to the otherside of the opponents body, your technique depends on your opponents reaction, if they let their hand grip go we do the pass and if they maintain the grip we do the arm bar. Below descriptions will be from the point of having flipped over the opponent.

1. Cross body guard pass - Get a cross face on opponent and use your free hand to hold pressure on the opponents far knee, use your free foot to push downward pressure on the opponents near knee to force legs apart, escape leg from half guard, control opponents hip hand that was on the knee and switch to side control.
2. Arm Bar - When opponents hands are still joined flip over and place your knee under the opponents elbow slide hand in between opponents arms to break grip, put free leg over the opponents body and finish arm bar. Remember to arm towards the opponents pinky as this is the angle that locks the elbow and forces the submission.