If you are trying to make sense of the BJJ half guard position, looking at instructionals might just leave you more confused. There are more BJJ DVDs out there about the half guard than any other position. So, before you attempt to follow any of them, give the position a try for a few months, to see what you like to do from it.
Alternatively, you can look at an instructional such as the Efficiently Executing The Half Guard Giancarlo Bodoni DVD, which contains an overview of the most useful half guard variations. The key thing to remember is not to get lost with al the options available from half guard, so even with this DVD, you should pick one volume and stick to it for a long time!
Key Takeaways
- A 5-part No-Gi grappling DVD that lasts almost 4 hours.
- Contains an overview of common half guard variations, concepts, and plenty of techniques.
- More of a general instructional than a resource for building a half guard game.
- BJJ World Expert Rating: 8 out of 10.
HALF GUARD GIANCARLO BODONI DVD AVAILABLE HERE!!!
Everyone’s Favourite Guard
There’s really not much to say about the half guard except that everyone likes it, even when they claim otherwise. Moreover, everyone does it, and just about everyone messes it up as well. Whenever I see people playing half guard during rolling in my gym, I know I am either in for a threat or a cringe.
The half guard is a very comfortable spot to be in when you’re playing from the bottom, which is exactly what makes it very dangerous. For you. Getting complacent in the half guard means you won’t let people pass (for the most part) but you also won’t achieve much in terms of attacking.
If you truly want to unlock the maximal potential of the half guard, you’ll need to find the balance between defending passing with it and working a bit to achieve top position and then enjoy grappling more. It just so happens, that finding this balance is the most difficult aspect of playing half guard.
We’ll be looking today at the Efficiently Executing The Half Guard Giancarlo Bodoni DVD to see whether yet another half guard BJJ DVD can do to help you achieve this balance or will only leave you even more confused.
Giancarlo Bodoni – The Italian Stallion of Grappling
The 28-year-old Florida native who rose to grappling stardom by winning the 2022 ADCC -88 kg division is one the best, yet humble grapplers of today. Originally a Lucas Lepri black belt, Bodoni is part of the New Wave Jiu-Jitsu team led by Danaher. He is set to defend his title in this year’s edition of ADCC, attempting to improve on his 41-22-1 record.
Throughout his career, Bodoni has perfected his grappling skills by learning from names such as Lucas Lepri, Rilion Gracie, Gutemberg Perreira, and, of course, his current mentor, John Danaher. Giancarlo even moved to Brazil for a while in pursuit of BJJ excellence, joining the GF Team ranks in 2017.
Bodoni was a strong member of the Alliance team from 2018 until 2021, getting both his brown and black belts from Lepri. In 2019, still, as a brown belt, he went to teach at Bernardo Faria’s Alliance Academy in Bedford, meeting up with the then Danaher Death Squad in the process.
After joining the New Wave Jiu-Jitsu team when they set up base in Austin, Bodoni started claiming No-Gi accolades such as the 2022 ADCC gold and IBJJF Pans, to add to his already impressive Gi resume. He also has several high-level instructionals out, now adding the Efficiently Executing The Half Guard Giancarlo Bodoni DVD to the collection.
The Half Guard Giancarlo Bodoni DVD Detailed Review
Ginacarlo’s latest BJJ instructional effort addresses the half guard by exploring different commonly used variations, goal setting, grip fighting, and crucial concepts, and topping it all off with a number of different defensive and offensive techniques.
In this Half Guard Giancarlo Bodoni DVD you get nearly 4 hours of very methodical material, divided into 5 different volumes. The first volume covers general half guard concepts, while the rest each address a variation of the guard in detail.
Part 1 – The Half Guard Criteria
Bodoni is very methodical in organizing his instructionals, although much more to the point compared to some of his New Wave Jiu-Jitsu teammates. The Half Guard Giancarlo Bodoni DVD begins with an introduction to everything you’ll ever need to know about the half guard, delivered in just above an hour.
Bodoni begins by setting up the key criteria for playing half guard, before addressing body positioning in terms of lower and upper body placement and motion, and how purposeful grip fighting makes everything come together.
He also covers some key concepts on guard recovery, placing an emphasis on its importance in successfully playing any half guard variation. In this part of the instructional he also addressed the most common problems you’ll face as a half guard player and how to mitigate and/or completely resolve them.
Part 2 – Knee Shield Half Guard
As the second volume of the Efficiently Executing The Half Guard Giancarlo Bodoni DVD instructional rolls through, Giancarlo dedicates an hour to one of the most useful half guard variations in the history of BJJ – the knee shield. Building on the principles from the first volume he discusses positioning, defensive tactics, sweep setups, and submission dilemmas.
Among the more entertaining and useful chapters in this part of the DVD, I’d single out the ones on how to clamp from the knee shield, the triangle setup, and the scoop grip sweeps mini system. his take on dealing with people sprawling from the top, especially heavy opponents is also quite insightful.
Part 3 – The Half Butterfly
Every lazy guard player and leg locker’s favorite half guard variation, the half butterfly also gets a lot of attention in this Giancarlo Bodoni DVD. The majority of the setups in the volume revolve around the arm drag, which is effective given the tilted positioning of the half butterfly guard.
Of course, the New Wave’s favorite overhead sweeping system makes an appearance, tied in with straight and cross Ashi Garami entries and finishes. I particularly enjoyed the parts covering how to capitalize on an opponent trying to flee these leg lock setups by utilizing the X guard as a follow-up.
Part 4 – Underhook Half Guard Game
Somewhat lost in the modern tsunami of wrestling techniques in BJJ, the underhook half guard also gets some time in the sun in the Efficiently Executing The Half Guard Giancarlo Bodoni DVD. While I am still skeptical about its use, Giancarlo has some good points in this volume.
Namely, in the half an hour dedicated to this variation, he offers a few interesting arm positioning details, paired with several roll-through counters to deal with the danger of overhooks and front headlock attacks. The attacking trilemma he sets up from the position is also highly effective at directing the top person’s attention away from your underhook.
Part 5 – The Deep Half
The final chapter of the Half Guard Giancarlo Bodoni DVD is dedicated to the deep half guard, a.k.a. the old guy’s guard. This is a short volume, barely exceeding 10 minutes, and features a couple of sweeps including a No-Gi waiter sweep variation and a quick X-Guard transition.
The Value of Tactical Efficiency
Whoever says that stalling in BJJ is a despicable move has probably never grappled people who have any real experience on the mats. Stalling, while often abused, especially in Gi BJJ, is a valid strategy to help you set up the execution of your game against a more skilled opponent.
The thing to remember here is that you need to set up your game using stalling, not just try to survive by preventing a person from passing and going further up the positional hierarchy.
When we talk about stalling from the bottom, the half guard is the absolute best position for such a tactical approach. The reasoning behind it is simple – you contain your opponent to only play one position from the top, as opposed to having the ability to move and pass in every possible direction.
This is a double-edged sword though, as the same happens to you – you can only play half guard if you decide to force it. If you are good at half guard, then it will make a lot of sense to employ such tactics. That is where you can benefit from the material in the Efficiently Executing The Half Guard Giancarlo Bodoni DVD.
GIANCARLO BODONI HALF GUARD DVD DOWNLOAD
Shield Up!
With all said and done on the subject of half guard, and how the Efficiently Executing The Half Guard Giancarlo Bodoni DVD can help your game, al that is left is for you to become a tactical stalling machine with a dangerous submission finishing rate.
Yes, even though it sounds counterproductive, such a thing is possible to achieve as a means of playing guard, and I’ll go even as far as saying it is the best way to play guard against opponents who are better than you.
While you could figure it all out yourself by putting yourself in half guard, why not use the shortcut that this Giancarlo Bodoni Half Guard DVD offers?
