The previous lesson focused on deep half options for when the opponent has the head side knee elevated. Quickly, because I only had video and I know you all love gifs, here is a mini recap.
Hip side leg heavy
Option one. Take the back.
This works because we can get under the leg safely. If their head side hand is lurking around, we worry about our back take becoming their pass, like this.
When we don't like where their hands are, it makes more sense to do our technical stand up sweep.
There is no reason this couldn't be your first choice, it just scores less than taking the back.
Head side leg heavy.
Sometimes when we enter to deep half our opponents reaction will be to keep the head side leg heavy and pop up the other knee. This gives us a different set of threats and options. In terms of threats they are closer to be taking our back and using the rear triangle we looked at previously. They are also closer to Kimuras. More on those another day.
Waitor sweep
The first option we discussed to attack from this position is the Waiter sweep. Locking our half guard high on the thigh, close to the hip, we should be able to elevate our opponent a bit by bridging. Hopefully from here we can reach with our free hand to underhook their far ankle. It is the underhook here that gives this sweep its name. Bringing your hand up like a waiter holding a tray externally rotates their hip and makes them weak in that direction. To sweep, we bridge and press our hamstring into their knee. Our other foot should be sure to come to our butt so that we can rock up on our shin. If the leg stays straight, it is hard to finish the sweep. Once on top there are several options to pass depending on how they defend.
Actor sweep
Sometimes, if we cannot reach the foot or if we know our opponent has a significant weight advantage, it can be helpful to use a butterfly hook instead of our hamstring. I call this an Actor sweep, because it's really just a waiter sweep with delusions of grandeur. To transition, we use our backside foot to stomp on their foot, holding it in place while we circle the front side foot in as a hook. We can use our hand if needed. Everything else is the same as the waitor sweep but easier.
It should be noted that it is very possible, in my case much more common, to begin with this butterfly hook already in place. I most often enter deep half from full butterfly resulting in the deep half butterfly position which makes the Actor sweep possible.
Taking the back
The next option from this position we looked at was again taking the back. In order to do this, once we roll under we will switch both our grips to be on the light leg. Many people consider this to be the true deep half guard. Personally I'm not a huge fan, but many people are. Once we have both our grips on the back side of the light leg, we walk our feet forward, shrimping out the back again. The finish from here is essentially the same, find the crab ride hooks and see how they respond.
Cut back sweep
One of the downsides to the back take is that it is reasonably easy to feel coming and our opponents will drop their butt toward the mat to close the back door. When this happens, we answer with a hard turn back in to sweep them in that direction.
High man wins
The last option we spoke of is sort of a reverse technical stand up sweep. It is essentially a weaponized version of the high man wins drill. When in doubt elevate the post. Although not really depicted below, this can be useful if we try the cut back sweep and our opponent posts their hands on the mat crab walk style, blocking the sweep. We fish out a low butterfly hook on the ankle and quickly pass the foot off to our hand. Driving the foot in the air we will almost always win the ensuing wrestling match.
