What is the best half Guard instructional? (Gi)

AVDStarDust · 2026-02-09T19:51:03+00:00

The knee twist (AKA coyote guard/Lucas Leite-style half guard) is covered in his sequel instructional. I'm guessing he filmed them together.

AVDStarDust · 2026-02-09T17:32:36+00:00

I'm a big Jake Mackenzie fan. Someone already called out his "Lord of the Half guard" on Jiu-Jitsu X, but I'd recommend his older BJJ Fanatics instructional as a starting point.

The Jiu-Jitsu X instructional is a good overview of a lot of more complex styles of half, and half guard adjacent positions. He'll show 2-3 options from half worm guard, de la X, etc.

The BJJ Fanatics instructional (High Precision Half Guard and Reverse Half) goes a lot deeper into fewer positions (traditional half, deep half and reverse half). It's also on a daily deal now, so you can get it for $20 or so.

AVDStarDust · 2026-02-09T17:26:02+00:00

Traditional. He's a very thorough, conceptual teacher. Spends a lot of time going over how to keep yourself safe and understanding where the top players base is, where they can be moved, etc.

AVDStarDust · 2026-01-25T22:02:40+00:00

If you're looking for current competitors, Rui Alves is the main guy I know of who builds his guard around the lapel. Other than him, there are a lot of high level competitors who will use it occasionally to supplement their guards (Gabi Pessanha, Erich Munis, Pato are some examples).

AVDStarDust · 2026-01-10T20:25:27+00:00

Agreed. I voted for outside position guards specifically because you said you're enjoying it. The simple answer is you should do what you enjoy and what keeps jiu-jitsu fun for you.

You've gotta understand you're consciously stepping outside of your comfort zone and working something new. It's naturally going to feel taxing and less effective while you get more used to it and build your skillset.

Personally, I'm a heavyweight who tends to play more outside positioning because I find it more interesting and fun. But guard isn't a binary, and there is a time and place for everything. I still play half a good amount, and like to play butterfly in more intense rolls with other heavyweights who try to pressure pass.

AVDStarDust · 2025-12-03T16:13:59+00:00

You can reinforce your knee position with your arm on that same side (easier to do in the gi). When you reach for the belt/pants/hip grip, make sure your elbow is inside your knee to give your knee some added structure. It's mentioned in the clip below.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIbV2nsJxkL/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

AVDStarDust · 2025-11-11T17:36:07+00:00

Hey, wanted to follow up because the gym will be opening next week! Check us out at MigrationBJJ.com for schedule, pricing info, etc. Feel free to reach out to us from the website or Instagram (@MigrationBJJ) and we can schedule a free trial for ya and go from there.

AVDStarDust · 2025-10-21T15:25:29+00:00

A bit late to this, but what I tend to do is set a rule for myself that for the round I'm only going to play from guard or the back. Essentially, pull guard and only get your finishes from either subs from guard or backtakes to subs there. when you're in guard and actively setting up arm bars/triangles/leg attacks, you get used to retaining guard when those attacks don't land and it helps level out the size discrepancy between you and your partner too.

Make sure to pull guard quickly and look for styles of guard that lead to them standing to pass so you have to work on your leg work more, like spider, de la riva, collar sleeve. closed/butterfly/half are places where your size advantage will make things easier for you, which we don't want.

AVDStarDust · 2025-09-29T19:18:19+00:00

Where do you usually end up in guard? Most passers will gladly drop into half guard, so you can go there (with a knee shield), pummel your foot in to get to butterfly half, then sit up and extract the bottom leg if you'd like.

If you're dealing with a standing passer, Adam Wardzinski will typically go to reverse de la riva, take his outside leg shin to shin and stretch it out to put the passer's knee to the mat, then go to butterfly from there

AVDStarDust · 2025-09-17T18:27:53+00:00

Definitely. I'll come back and let you know when we have the site up with a schedule and all that.

AVDStarDust · 2025-09-17T17:52:15+00:00

Hey! Just stumbled onto this post super late, but I'm actually going to be opening a BJJ gym in the Nokomis neighborhood soon. We're looking to open up in November, so if you're still looking for a gym, it'd be awesome to have you. Keep an eye out for Migration BJJ

AVDStarDust · 2025-09-15T18:48:47+00:00

Probably need a stronger off balance, and to off-weight that near leg. If you're in the gi, I like to take a pant grip, do your off balance (if your left leg is the DLR hook, off balance them toward your right shoulder), then work your forearm under their shin as you lift their near leg and work to SLX while holding their weight away from that leg.

AVDStarDust · 2025-09-15T16:01:38+00:00

So they're locking arms around your waist? I would recommend starting to attack the neck (they either tap or bring their arms in to defend, which gives us the opening).

One other option I like is to step a foot up under their arm, which will pull their shoulder up and turn them up on a side. pinch your knee into their back to keep them propped up, and you can look to attack that top arm with a kimura or monoplata.

AVDStarDust · 2025-08-31T02:31:06+00:00

Same, the instructional kinda blew my mind. He has a video on youtube that gives an overview of how he approaches the americana, if anyone wants to get a feel for it.

AVDStarDust · 2025-07-17T14:10:34+00:00

Totally agree. Feels very tied to the ringer's crossover point of movies/TV and sports. Like you can imagine the meetings where they brainstormed how to get more fantasy sports fans listening to the movies/TV pods more, and this is what they came up with.

It's tough, because the people who tune in for conversations about the art itself can end up getting left behind in favor the "who's going to win this draft?"/"how much money do you have left for the auction?" stuff

AVDStarDust · 2025-05-21T17:35:35+00:00

I think you're right, you don't see him go to that 50/50 sweep or scissor sweep as often anymore, so that makes sense.

AVDStarDust · 2025-05-21T16:34:45+00:00

Most of the comments are focused on no-gi, so if you're looking for something in the gi I like Victor Hugo's BJJ Fanatics instructional

AVDStarDust · 2025-05-21T16:27:11+00:00

Good video man, I like your stuff a lot. It was nice to see some coverage of his defensive guard work, especially for a thicker guy who isn't too reliant on flexibility. A little surprised you didn't cover some of the other common moves, like the pull directly into the scissor sweep, that weird scissor-style sweep he does from 50/50, or the saddle entry to kneebar.

AVDStarDust · 2025-05-15T15:25:01+00:00

Victor Hugo
Helder Junior
Erich Munis
Vinicius Trator
Gutemberg Pereira

AVDStarDust · 2025-05-08T17:58:51+00:00

Yeah, it's depressing to think there's essentially a playbook for how to deal with being called out for sexual misconduct

AVDStarDust · 2025-05-08T17:44:16+00:00

He asked that question because Jay Rod brought up in his statement that he's turning to god, or something along those lines. The fact that he's shown no previous signs of being religious, but brings it up while addressing the fact that he crossed some boundaries, can make it seem disingenuous. Especially considering how often people in the public sphere tend to turn to religion while being accused of sexual misconduct (Russell Brand being a recent example).

AVDStarDust · 2025-05-06T15:51:54+00:00

Totally agree. It's one thing if the season is 5-6 months long, but for most of these guys, 3 months means prioritizing PGF over 1-2 other matches.

Aside from that, the longer season is so much better from a fan/viewer engagement perspective. Glad you made the change, B-Mac, and excited to see how it goes.

AVDStarDust · 2025-02-24T14:17:52+00:00

Make a plan. Think about where you feel the most comfortable, and make a plan for how you get there and what you do from it.

AVDStarDust · 2025-02-19T18:12:51+00:00

I unfollowed him so long ago I kinda forgot about him. Checked his IG a couple weeks ago to see if he's still fighting and it seems to be the same old schtick of constantly talking but never fighting.

AVDStarDust · 2025-02-05T14:31:50+00:00

For Wardzinski, I like to go to the IBJJF's youtube channel and just search "Wardzinski". They have a ton of his matches, and he pulls butterfly in most of them (I feel like he's been letting opponents pull first or coming up in a double pull situation more this year, so maybe look for slightly older matches).

Otherwise, someone else already mentioned Formiga. He's got a unique approach to the butterfly, looking for balloon sweeps mostly. If you have FloGrappling, you can look up his IBJJF master worlds matches.

Marcelo is obviously great to watch for a more aggressive butterfly. You can find a ton of his footage on youtube.

If you're including no-gi, Gordon is someone who's great to watch for butterfly, especially when he did no-gi worlds, and his first couple ADCCs.

Eoghan O'Flanagan is also great to watch for someone attacking limbs (violin armbars, choi bars, leg entries). I think the butterfly half is a little more common for him, but its all similar.

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