Jorge’s Half Guard
From Leo Kirby:
Jorge Vidal is one of the instructors at our gym. He is a De La Riva black belt and a great competitor. He recently lost in the Pan Ams to my other instructor, Edson Diniz, who went on to lose in the finals to Marcelo Garcia. It was pretty impressive to me that two friends and training partners competed against each other when you hear all of the stories about guys from the same gym avoiding each other in competition. They had a great match. Jorge gave Edson fits for most of the match with his half guard game until Edson caught him in a bow and arrow choke from behind near the end of the match.
Jorge has the best half guard of anyone I have ever wrestled. When I roll with Jorge I feel like I am constantly surfing, trying to keep my balance and avoid being swept. Jorge will roll you, sweep you, or take your back from half guard all of the time.
He was nice enough to let me film a couple of clips. The first clip shows how Jorge elevates your hips, keeps them elevated and then plays his game. I think this is the most important part of his half guard game: keeping the opponent’s hips elevated.
The second clip shows a back roll that Jorge gets all of the time. He will force your hand to the other side of his head, then do the back roll or come out to take your back. Once again, note how he elevates the opponent’s hips by gripping the pant leg and lifting it slightly before doing the roll.
June 6th, 2007 at 5:35 am
This might be a stupid question, but in clip # 2, which way do you fold your head? I tried this sweep a few months ago but gave up on it, but I can see now how this would solve one of my half guard problems. However, I have a bad neck and can’t do back rolls without putting an ear to my shoulder. It seems as if he leans his head to the right, thus rolling over his left shoulder when doing the sweep. Is this correct?
Great vids.
June 7th, 2007 at 6:48 am
Yes, he leans his head to the right. I want to get some more clips of Jorge playing his half guard game but he is back in Brazil for a month or two.
He has an entire game he plays once he shifts his hips to come out under them. He shows the hip movement in the first part of the second tape to take their back, but he does a lot of other sweeps from that position.
June 11th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
man, that is awesome, i would love to just see some footage of him rolling so i can just watch and try to suss out all the details of his half-guard game