page_title: Brazilian jiu-jitsu
section_title: Guards
hierarchical_section_title: Brazilian jiu-jitsu / Primary ground positions / Guards
caption_attribution_description: English: Brazilian Jiu-jitsu tournament, practitioner in the blue gi holds his opponent in his closed guard.
context_page_description: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a self-defence martial art and combat sport based on grappling, ground fighting and submission holds. It focuses on the skill of controlling one's opponent, gaining a dominant position and using a number of techniques to force them in to submission via joint locks or chokeholds.
  Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was first developed and modified in the 1920s by Brazilian brothers Carlos, Oswaldo, Gastão Jr, George and Hélio Gracie after Carlos Gracie was taught traditional Kodokan Judo by a travelling Japanese judoka in 1917, later going on to develop their own self defence system named Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.
  BJJ eventually came to be its own defined combat sport through the innovations, practices, and adaptation of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and Judo, with governing bodies such as the IBJJF working worldwide, becoming an essential martial art for MMA.
  BJJ teaches that a smaller, weaker person can successfully defend themselves against a bigger, stronger, heavier opponent by using leverage and weight distribution to take the fight to the ground and then using submissions to defeat them. BJJ training can be used for sport grappling tournaments and in self-defence situations.
context_section_description: When in the "Guard" position, the practitioner is on their back controlling an opponent with his legs. The bottom practitioner pushes and pulls with the legs or feet to unbalance and limit the movements of his opponent. This position allows practitioners a wide variety of counter-attacks from the bottom position, including submissions and sweeps.
  The three most common types of guards include the Closed Guard, Half Guard, and Open Guard.
  In closed guard, the bottom grappler has his legs around the opponent's hips, with ankles closed together to control their opponent. The closed guard can be an effective position. This guard allows many setups for submissions such as jointlocks and chokes, as well as sweeps. In the open guard, the legs are not hooked together and the bottom grappler uses his legs or feet to push or pull their opponent.
  There are many variations of open guard with distinct names and positioning including the Butterfly Guard, De La Riva Guard, X-Guard, Rubber guard, Spider Guard, Octopus Guard, Lapel Guard, Worm Guard (made popular by Keenan Cornelius) and others. Butterfly guard is when the bottom grappler brings his legs up and feet together against the inner thighs of top opponent. The name is derived from the resulting butterfly wing shape. Butterfly guard increases both space to manoeuvre and the ability counter the opponent with the shins or arches of the feet against the competitor's inner thighs.
  In the half guard, one of the top grappler's legs is controlled by the bottom grappler's legs, preventing the top opponent from passing side control or full mount positions. There is also a variant of half guard called "50/50 guard", which consist of each opponent usually in sitting positions with one of their legs hooking the same leg of their opponent in a mirrored fashion. This position is called 50/50 because neither opponent has a distinct advantage, where both sides have the same possibilities of sweeps and attacks.
  Another variation of the half guard position is the "deep half guard", which involves the bottom grappler positioning themselves underneath their opponent, grabbing the top grappler's thigh. This gives the individual on the bottom the opportunity to sweep their opponent, and end up on a more dominant, top position. This position was popularized by American BJJ Black Belt, Jeff Glover.
caption: The Jiu-Jitsu practitioner in blue is demonstrating a type of closed guard
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