Indrek Reiland is the instructor of Aliveness Gym Estonia (Straight Blast Gym) and an e-buddy of mine. Just to try his hand at it and see what it was like to create an instructional, he produced one called Functional Half Guard. Despite the guerilla filming, I have to admit that it is one of my favorite half guard instructionals.

I’ve seen ones by Gordo, Gustavo Machado, Saulo, Bob Bass, Ze Mario and others. While those are all good, Indrek’s was the first I’d seen break down the half guard into truly basic basics like hip, head and hand position, posture, defending the cross face, defending the underhook. The overall quality is surprisingly good considering the it was filmed in the corner of a karate club with one training partner, Jorgen Matsi, as his dummy.

What I felt really made the video worth watching was the quality of the material. Most of it is simple, solid and safe, making it some of the most useful techniques and positions for half guard. The paw and double paw are staples of my half guard now, and the safety position is invaluable when passing. Watch those if nothing else.

I also found it interesting how he approached it like he was teaching the viewer how to better coach their own students, and the use of the isolated drilling and sparring to focus on specific skills or add them to the game.

I asked Indrek for permission it put his video online, and he was happy to share all it for free. So I present the Functional Half Guard by Indrek Reiland and Jorgen Matsi:

Contents

00: Introduction

00: Basic Positioning 01: Stay on your side 02: Paw and underhook 04: Crossface and flatten (top guy) 06: Isolation: paw vs crossface 07: Triangling the legs 08: Returning to closed guard 10: Isolation: adding the guard return 11: Double paw 13: Defending the brabo choke 14: Isolation: adding the double paw 16: Wedge 18: Isolation: adding the wedge 19: Behind the back arm trapping + sweep 22: Isolation: adding the arm trapping 23: On teaching basic positions and isolated drilling 24: Basic Techniques 24: Two ways of taking the back + 25: 1. Stretch the underhook + 27: 2. Exploding crunch 28: Toe grab sweep 32: Isolation: adding toe grab sweep 33: Sweeps off the wedge + 33: Going out the backdoor + 36: Grab pants sweep 38: When to teach half guard, the more advanced games and the basics 39: Half Guard Top 39: Basic goal – crossface and turning out 41: Safety position 1 + 42: Down by hips to negate the underhook + 42: Pinching knees to prevent the guard return + 43: Cupping elbow to negate the paw + 43: Head in landing pad to flatten them out + 45: Isolation: safety position + 46: Importance of head position 48: Brabo choke 51: Safety position 2 53: Whizzer 55: Why not to kill the paw with a knee 57: Isolation: safety positions and whizzer 58: Basic goal in detail + 58: Crossface + 59: Turning out + 60: Hand on hip 61: Gi grips + 61: Shoulder lockdown + 62: Face covering 63: Passing off their bridge 66: Wristlock 68: Passing to mount 71: Passing to side control 73: Passing to side control or mount 75: Isolation: passes 77: Hip switch pass 79: Isolation: Review of passing drills 82: Putting the whole passing game together 83: Closing and Thanks