Half Guard Sweeps

3/12 - Valley

It occurred to me that I should be referring to these as half guard "sweeps" instead of "escapes". Clearly I'm not very comfortable in half guard since I see myself as needing to escape instead of taking the initiative and sweeping. You can tell a lot about a person's game by the language they use...

Just Gary and I and we worked exclusively on half guard sweeps with a N/S escape as a bonus. Turns out I could have lived without this particular bonus...

1. Half Guard to Mount: Assume you are in half guard on opponent's R side with a cross-grip. With your L hand, get a thumb in grip in their collar on their L side. Drive your R knee up and then down to the mat next to their L hip. To free it, lasso your L hand around the back of their head (maintaining the collar grip) and pushing their L cheek to the R. They will let your leg go free and you can proceed to mount. The lasso does NOT feel good. As bad (if not worse) than airplaning.

2. Half Guard to Cross-Body: Assume you are in half guard on opponent's R side. Switch to your L hip, nudge your R knee up. Use your R elbow to shove their L leg off if it's over your knee. Back step to cross body.

3. Half Guard to Cross-Body Holding Belt: You are in bottom half and opponent is on your R side. Hook under the outside of their R leg with your L foot. Put your R foot over their R leg so they can't pull it up and out to free it. L hand is on their R shoulder lapel. R arm goes under the inside of their L knee (between their knee and your body). Use the leg that you have trapped to conveyor them up your body so that your L arm can reach their belt just to the rear of their L hip. Once you have the belt, pull your R hand toward the ground as your L hand that's on their shoulder pushes up and your legs arc their R leg over. The trick is to pull their belt toward the ground instead of trying to initiate the movement with the legs. Gary and I had to mess with this a fair amount before we got any reps that felt good.

4. Half Guard to Half Mount Pulling Foot: You are in bottom half guard and opponent is to your R in a reverse kesa gatame and has their R foot within reach. Reach over or under their foot and hold it as you hip up and over to the R.

5. Half Guard to Half Mount Leg Straight: You are in bottom half guard and opponent is to your R and has their free leg (L) straight behind them. Put your R foot on the outside of their L leg and then pinch your legs together. This traps their outside leg from sprawling/basing out and the inside leg as well. Hip up and to the R.

So after the half guard work, we decided to tackle a fairly complex N/S escape, which is where I ran into a slight problem. The escape was create space, put your knees in their armpits, extend, get sleeve grips, then replace your knees with your feet, going into a kindof inverted spider guard. Extend them up toward the ceiling, then bring them down over you and finally extend horizontally.

This was all well and good until I neglected to tuck my chin (I think) and landed squarely on the side of my head. Don't think I was concussed, but whatever the condition is that falls just below concussed is probably what happened. Took a few to clear my head and then decided to call it a day. Time was almost up anyway, so it worked out ok. NOT a fan of this particular escape b/c the idea is to hold on to BOTH of your opponent's sleeves as you roll/toss them which gives them nothing to use for breakfalls. Not cool.