Three techniques to counter the under-over pass from the bad “half butterfly guard” position.

My instructor Eduardo emphasizes the first two guard returns because they develop skills he considers among the most important for a good open guard: creating space by shrimping, creating space extending your body, and circling the hooks back in. You’ll see him use these over and over again every time he fights.

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Extra Details

Shrimping hook return: You can grab your foot and pull it in front of their face if you need to. Keep your hand near your foot as you bring your butterfly hook in and it’ll give you a little safe path to get the underhook too.

Bridging hook return: You can see this movement—crunch then explode—in a lot of situations and from a lot of grips and guards. “Bridging” may be the wrong word to describe it though; you’re not just lifting your hips, but also extending your body to push them with your knees.

Shrimp to crucifix: I failed to mention that you don’t just want to push their head to the side but also down to the ground so they can’t posture up and turn towards you.

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