DEEP HALF GUARD

Deep half guard is the half-guard variant in which the bottom player slides their hips deep underneath the opponent's body and hugs a single leg of the opponent with both arms, with the bottom player's head pressing against the opponent's thigh from below. The position converts what was a half-guard pinning configuration into a sweep-and-back-take base, with the bottom player using the opponent's own captured leg as the lever to off-balance them.

The position was developed by Roberto "Gordo" Correa in the early 1990s as a recovery from being half-passed, and was later refined by Bernardo Faria and Lucas Leite into a primary offensive system. Faria's IBJJF career was built substantially on deep half guard, with his deep-half-to-back-take chain producing five world titles between 2010 and 2015. The position is also a fixture of modern MMA grappling because it neutralizes the opponent's striking angle while preserving the bottom player's ability to sweep.

From deep half guard the primary attacks are the dogfight sweep (rolling the opponent over the captured leg to mount), the Gordo sweep (named for Roberto Gordo, lifting the opponent's hip with the head and shoulder), the back-take when the opponent attempts to escape by stepping over, and the kimura on the trapped arm when the opponent reaches down to defend. Defensively the position is countered by establishing a strong whizzer on the underhooked side, by sprawling the captured leg backward to flatten the bottom player, or by attacking a kimura on the bottom player's exposed arm.