Bottom Half Guard Kuzushi

[the Lich Samurai]

In bottom Half Guard sometimes even i get the perfect double underhooks, just Because their posture is straight up like 90 degree I can’t manipulate their balance. Think same with close guard.in close guard it is simple as lifting your body up, grabbing the head down but in half guard our back looks to sideways and even we can pull them grabbing the head is a bad idea because it means we loose the underhook.

in judo every takedown or sweep starts with a kuzushi. I don’t know one english but basically means “breaking the central balance of posturing”. So it looks like in half guard we must make them lie on us horizontally.
how can I do that? I win underhook battle most of the time and if I can win the balance battles too it would be amazing! Please help me!

[Jon Watkins]

If you get underhooks and the guy stays postures the way you are describing, it sounds like you should transition to the dogfight and run your options there.

[the Lich Samurai]

DogFight is effective I play it too. But either for dogfight or for a sweep he should lie down. If he postures upright it needs a lot of muscling to bring his balance down. My question is simply how can I break his posture down before doing something?

[Jon Watkins]

If he is postured up, he is basically giving you the opportunity to half and half. I have had some Gracie Jiu Jitsu guys do this with me and they get swept by the half and half about every time. If he posts his hand down to stop the sweep, you have broken his posture and you still have that option or others. I guess I would have to see how or if this sweep isn't working for you to be of any further help.

[Jon Watkins]

You may also get a bit of a kuzushi effect by swinging the lockdown leg to the outside of your opponent's body if you have the lockdown in this situation you are describing, but in my experience it is wise to take what is given to you. When the the guy is posturing on me in half guard when I have an underhook or double underhooks, I think it is either time to play my dogfight options starting with the half and half or pummel my butterfly hook and start running my butterfly options. Kuzushi definitely comes more into play with butterfly guard.

[Eddie Bravo]

The clinch game is a dogfight in itself. Practice on smaller lower ranked team mates and slowly work your way up

[Eddie Bravo]

The mookie is Gold when stopped at dogfight, I will teach that in mts soon

[Jarrell Garcia]

The clinch game is a dogfight in itself. Practice on smaller lower ranked team mates and slowly work your way up

You should look into the John Wayne sweep. From there you will open up underhooks, over hooks, break the posture, and so much more. I'll try and find video from a seminar I did.

Either way, Eddie is right in regards to working it on lower belts and lighter people. Best advice I got from Eddie and why my twister is pretty legit now: "There are moves I can only hit on like 8 year olds. And, then I can hit it on maybe a bad blue belt. And, then purple, brown, and then black belts."

I drill moves, spam them, and then they are solid.

[Jon Watkins]

I looked into that John Wayne sweep and it looks like a mechanic sweep with the bottom half of what I would call a strong knee shield half guard. It actually looks alot like my 3rd option after old school and half and half fail. Don't sleep on the Mookie either though. That was my go to all day everyday as a blue belt.

[the Lich Samurai]

After your helps I have a much better halfguard game now. Swept 2 times my blue belt friends today. Osu )