Half-guard knee shield position & grip fighting

• The position of my knee shield varies for gi and nogi. In the gi, a more upright knee position is beneficial. In nogi,  I prefer a lower knee shield, as it invites entering with a lower head position which gives more opportunities for attacks and sweeps. 
• Wrist control is crucial. Always control the wrist so your partner cannot lock their hands together or stuff the leg.
• It is important to maintain posture control in the grip fight. Use the meat of your forearm to keep your opponent's head down, hooking their head if they try to posture out. If your partner is able to posture, they can hand fight and win the inside position.

Attacking the arm-in guillotine

• To set up our attack, extend your partner away with your knee shield as you sit up to your elbow and secure their head. Make sure you connect your shoulder to the back of their neck, keeping their posture broken as you work to connect your hands.
• The arm-in guillotine allows you to remain connected to your partner and facilitates sweeps even if you cannot finish the choke.
• To finish the choke, close your elbow to your body and do a side crunch, falling to the side.  Falling straight backwards keeps your partner's neck in alignment, making it easier to pike up to defend. 

Using the grip to sweep

• Start looking to sweep if your partner pikes up and gets to both feet.  The choke is difficult to finish on a partner with their neck in alignment, however, there is a good opportunity to reverse a partner that is driving over you.
• Use your inside leg like a butterfly hook to extend your partner overhead. You'll want to ensure you keep a tight squeeze on their head throughout as this pressure prevents them from basing.
• Once you sweep to the top position, you can either finish the choke by sprawling your ribs into their head or release the head to attack.
• Once you've closed the distance, pull the sleeve up and over your head while also pulling down on the collar,  their leg becomes light and easy to pick up. It is difficult for your partner to sprawl with all of their weight on one leg.

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