Half-Butterfly Guard: It takes many hours of study and practice to become proficient as a full-guard in Jiu-Jitsu. Your guard should be as resilient as the foundation of a house, able to withstand blows from all sides and hold its ground when pressured. The good news is that you may design a guard game that complements your age, appearance, and even your disposition. You may choose from a wide range of guards, so you can create a look that suits you.
A prime illustration would be the half-butterfly guard. It’s a challenging but useful position where you can defend yourself with your hooks and frames and launch your strikes from there. Let’s examine the half-butterfly guard’s basic principles.
The Guard’s Significance in Jiu-Jitsu
A guard is a position in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu where you utilise a mix of grips, frames, and hooks. By controlling a portion of the opponent’s body, the guard reduces the number of possible assault angles. Legs must be used to produce powerful frames and hooks when playing guard. Although the guard position is mostly defensive, numerous assaults originate from it as well.
Taking off the frames, grips, and hooks will allow the guard passer to easily manoeuvre around the legs and pin the guard player in a dominant stance. The guards and elite players in BJJ must always strive to go up in the rankings. This implies that while the top player tries to open the guard with the intention of passing, the guard player must maintain their guard and try sweeps.
One skill any BJJ student should have is the ability to stay somewhat secure off their back. The guard player can actively utilise their limbs to entangle the opponent, giving them control and management of the distance, even if the guard passer has the benefit of gravity.
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What is the Half-Butterfly Guard?
This guard blends parts of two solid guard varieties: the butterfly guard and the half guard. It is similar to the half guard in that you have to keep your side alignment while hooking your leg into your opponent’s. You can control their stance and lessen the possibility of guard passes and submissions by using the same techniques that work for frames, underhooks, and overhooks.
Because you have to enter a butterfly hook in order to elevate and sweep opponents over, it is akin to the butterfly guard as well. With a lot of sweeping potential, the butterfly guard is an extremely strong guard.
When these two guards are combined, you get a hybrid guard that fills an intermediate role. With the half-butterfly guard, there are undoubtedly several attacking options available to you.
Ideas And Utilisation
Lying on a hip, lock an opponent’s leg with your own to get into the half guard. Place your butterfly hook next to your own calf and insert it on the same side as the leg that is caught. Here’s a great tip: maintain your butterfly hook in motion to quickly imbalance your opponent.
It’s equally important to frame against the far arm and the neck to keep distance and stop your opponent from trying basic counters like the underhook and crossface. By only blocking the neck with your forearm, you may frame against the neck. As an alternative, you can flare your elbows towards the throat and take a gi hold close to the opponent’s collarbone.
The half butterfly is a great posture since it makes use of the half and butterfly guard techniques. By using the hooked foot as a door stopper to keep your opponent from backing out, you may utilise your half-guard to control them as they retreat.
When your opponent chooses to apply pressure, you may quickly create distance by extending with your butterfly hook. Utilise these techniques to continuously produce kuzushi when your adversary is within your defence. They will undoubtedly remain defensive while you switch to your attacking strategies because of this.
Taking Aim With The Half Butterfly Guard Attack Options
Let’s now discuss some fundamental half-butterfly guard attacks. Three easy kimura variants that you can incorporate into your game right away are demonstrated by Aaron Benzrihem. Since the kimura is so simple to execute and doesn’t call for any special skills, it’s possible that it’s the best submission to learn from the half-butterfly posture.
After taking out the frame over your opponent’s neck, place the kimura hold over their far arm. The kimura from half guard and this setup are nearly identical. From here, Aaron deconstructs his strategy for completing the submission, starting with basic countermoves like rolling the counter, tucking the arm in close to the hamstring, and snatching the belt, among many more.
Your half-butterfly guard will undoubtedly become much more offensive with this kimura sequence, moving from a strictly defensive stance. If you are new to the half butterfly guard, it would be a good idea to concentrate on a few techniques, at least in the beginning, to help you rapidly become proficient with the basic movements.
In summary
We strongly advise moving to the half version if you already use the butterfly guard or half in your game. The inherent upsides of the half butterfly improve your bottom game and complement the previously discussed guards.
The half butterfly is what we advise utilising, and it’s what many top athletes utilise. Try the half butterfly guard and let us know how it performs.
