BJJ Guard Positions

The closed guard is the most fundamental guard position in BJJ. Your legs are wrapped around your op...

Body lock guard wraps both arms around the opponent's torso from closed guard with a gable grip. Thi...

High guard climbs your guard up to the opponent's upper back or shoulders, creating extreme posture ...

Koala guard clings to the opponent when they stand in your closed guard, keeping guard locked high o...

Overhook closed guard wraps one arm from closed guard to control the opponent. The overhook limits p...

Williams guard reaches under the opponent's arm to grab your own shin, creating overhook-like contro...

De La Riva guard is named after Ricardo De La Riva. You hook your leg around your opponent's lead le...

Reverse De La Riva hooks from the inside rather than outside. It's commonly used against knee cut pa...

Deep DLR threads the hook so the foot reaches past the opponent's far hip. This provides much more c...

RDLR hooks the lead leg from the inside between their legs rather than outside like standard DLR. Th...

Spider guard uses sleeve grips with your feet on their biceps to control distance and create angles....

Spider lasso combines a spider grip on one side with a lasso wrap on the other. Both arms are entang...

Half guard is when you have one of your opponent's legs trapped between yours. It's a versatile posi...

Deep half guard gets you underneath your opponent by threading deep under their hips. It's excellent...

Knee shield uses your knee as a frame in half guard to create space and prevent your opponent from c...

Z-guard is a knee shield variation where your shin creates a diagonal frame across their body, formi...

Quarter guard hooks just the opponent's ankle as they almost pass your guard. It is the last line of...

Turtle guard is an active defensive position on all fours where you protect your neck and arms while...

Butterfly half combines half guard leg entanglement with butterfly hook on the free leg. This hybrid...

Coyote half guard uses an overhook from half guard bottom to control the near arm and set up sweeps....

The lockdown double overhooks the trapped leg locking their foot between your legs. From the 10th Pl...

Tornado guard is an inverted half guard where you hook the opponent's leg while inverted underneath ...

Reverse half guard is played with the opponent's back facing you. Instead of traditional half guard ...

Octopus guard uses underhook and head position against the opponent's far side from half guard, wrap...

Lapel half guard feeds the opponent's lapel around their leg from half guard creating a binding that...

No-gi half guard focuses on underhooks, overhooks, and body lock grips. The underhook battle is even...

Bear trap guard uses a triangle lock on the opponent's thigh from half guard, clamping their thigh i...

The Knee Shield Re-Guard is a guards technique that helps you advance from Side Control to Half Guar...

X-guard is a powerful sweeping position where your legs form an X underneath your standing opponent....

Single leg X (Ashi Garami) is a leg entanglement position fundamental to the modern leg lock game. Y...

DLR X-guard hybrid combines a DLR hook on one leg with an X-guard hook under the other, creating dua...

Lasso guard wraps your leg around your opponent's arm while gripping the sleeve. It creates powerful...

Collar sleeve guard controls one collar and one sleeve while using feet on hips or biceps. It provid...

Seated guard is an upright position facing the opponent with feet and hands ready to attack or defen...

Squid guard feeds the lapel around the opponent's leg and back to your hand, creating a binding simi...

K guard threads one leg between the opponent's legs while the other hooks outside, forming a K shape...

Matrix guard uses an inverted position hooking the opponent's leg while upside down, creating unique...

Shin guard places your shin across the front of the opponent's lead shin, creating a connection for ...

Mantis guard grips the opponent's ankle while placing foot on their hip, creating long-range control...

Shallow lasso wraps the leg over the arm without going as deep as full lasso. It gives quicker trans...

Collar guard uses a deep cross-collar grip as the primary control from open guard. The collar grip p...

Inverted guard is played on your shoulders with hips and legs elevated toward the opponent. It is a ...

Shin on shin places your shin directly against the opponent's shin as primary contact. This connecti...

Sit-up guard is an aggressive open guard played upright actively engaging with grips and foot placem...

Donkey guard is an unorthodox inverted guard played from headstand or handstand facing away from the...

50/50 is a symmetrical leg entanglement where both players have equal position. It's commonly used f...

No-gi butterfly relies on underhooks, collar ties, and wrist control instead of gi grips. It is the ...

Half butterfly combines half guard with a single butterfly hook. This hybrid offers offensive option...

Gi butterfly uses collar and sleeve grips instead of underhooks. The gi grips provide more control i...