15/07/2019 - Teaching | Quarter Guard | Dogfight to the back

Teaching #888
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 15/07/2019



As they either start to free themselves from your half guard, or possibly they are just going for a knee cut and are most of the way through, hook the bottom of their leg. You can get this tighter by bringing your top leg under theirs. In other words, your outside leg goes over, then you hook underneath their leg, your knee to the ground. If you can, try for a 'mini lockdown' by also hooking your other leg under their foot, but this isn't always viable (depends on your leg length relative to theirs).

You are now in what's called quarter guard, as you've basically got half of half guard (the bottom part of their leg, as opposed to above the knee, which is much more secure). Heather Raftery taught an excellent lesson on this at the 2018 Heidelcamp (you'll see me pop up behind her during the teaching ;D), which I've been drawing on for when I teach quarter guard.



You must get the underhook, or you will get passed. Swivel to your knees, into the dogfight position (essentially, side by side turtle with a leg hooked). The simple option is to shuck their arm forward, popping out to attack their turtle. To fully take their back, you can move your knee forward, chop it into their knee and roll.

You've got a few other options too, which I'll to cover in future classes: e.g., driving them down by grabbing the knee, or you can also roll under (like you do against a whizzer). If their whizzer is weak, you may be able to 'limp arm' it free: in other words, fully relax your arm and then whip it free. With a proper whizzer, particularly in the gi, the friction will make that difficult.


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Teaching Notes: The main part people got confused on was leg position. I'll keep emphasising that, go through it a few more times. Hooking over and under, ideally mini lockdown if leg length allows. Also, it might be worth talking a moment about what a whizzer is, as the uke doesn't always immediately recognise it when I say.

Somebody on instagram was also asking about headlocks when you're coming up to the dogfight from quarter guard, so that might be worth considering. Hasn't cropped up in sparring yet, but I'll keep an eye out. I guess you'd want to stay on your side, posting solidly with an elbow/hand, plus making sure your head is in tight to their body.