Butterfly Guard
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Butterfly guard is a seated guard where you place both hooks inside the opponent's thighs and use them to elevate and off-balance. It is one of the most reliable sweeping positions in BJJ and a staple of no-gi.
Elevation and angle
The hooks let you lift and tilt the opponent while your upper body wins an underhook or a two-on-one. The sweep comes from combining the hook with an angle change, so footwork and hand-fighting matter as much as the legs.
The butterfly sweep game
The hook sweep and the arm-drag to the back are the core threats, and they feed each other: defend the sweep and you give up the back, defend the back and you get swept. That two-way pressure makes butterfly a natural fit for a sweep-and-counter flowchart.
Community flows for Butterfly Guard
- Lachlan Giles Body Lock Pass, Vol 2: Setups & Entries — Every entry to Lachlan Giles' body lock: forcing them to sit up, grip breaks, and entries from butterfly, headquarters, Z-guard, reverse De La Riva. Includes a…
- Marcelo Garcia Complete Butterfly Guard: Full System Map — Map of Marcelo Garcia's four-volume Complete Butterfly Guard: one cover posture, branching by underhook, denied arms, stallers, head-and-arm, or standing. Vol…
- Marcelo Garcia Complete Butterfly Guard Vol 4: Head and Arm — Marcelo Garcia's head-and-arm butterfly attacks for a close opponent, and the standing toolkit: shin frame, double leg, ankle pick, and X-guard. Two…
- Marcelo Garcia Complete Butterfly Guard Vol 3: No-Gi — Marcelo Garcia's no-gi butterfly guard for stallers: grip hierarchy to the low hip grab, push-pattern disruption, and the cross two-on-one Abu Dhabi sweep…
- Marcelo Garcia Complete Butterfly Guard Vol 2: No Underhook — Marcelo Garcia's butterfly answers with no underhook: collar-tie and triceps sweeps, straight armbar, snap-and-pull guillotine, and double-overhook clamp…
- Marcelo Garcia Complete Butterfly Guard Vol 1: Classic Sweep — Marcelo Garcia's butterfly cover rules and classic sweep: underhook to the bicep, push the elbow in, scoop and rotate, plus the reshoot and two-on-one. The…
- Make'Em Float Like A Butterfly (sweep) — Taught by Zachary Miller @3/7/21 AZ Globetrotters camp. Tips and positions to improve butterfly sweeps in BJJ and armed scenarios ;) - Set up sweeps by…
- HALF BUTTERFLY GUARD — Half butterfly guard as a dynamic hub. Reading what they give you to create sweeps & submissions. Interconnected transitions w/ a roadmap from guard retention…
- Sumi Gaeshi Flow — Built around sumi gaeshi (sacrifice throws) from butterfly, shallow lasso, closed guard, and standing entries. Sweeps chained when your opponent counters.
- BUTTERFLY HALF GUARD RECOVERY — Recovery from tight half guard w/ top head & arm control. Getting the butterfly hook in, creating space, & working back to a better position or into a leg…
- Open Guard Transitions — From open guard to dominant positions & submissions! Exploiting standing opponents, pressure passes, & balance disruptions to access butterfly, X GUARD, &…
- Butterfly Guard Game — Butterfly guard for competition. High-percentage sweeps, submissions, and transitions built around scoring and turning defensive situations into offensive…
Frequently asked questions
What is butterfly guard?
A seated open guard with both shins hooked inside the opponent's thighs. You use the hooks to elevate and off-balance them for sweeps.
What is the best butterfly guard sweep?
The classic hook sweep with an underhook is the highest-percentage option. The arm-drag to the back is its main companion, since the two threats cover each other.
Is butterfly guard better for gi or no-gi?
It works in both but shines in no-gi, where the lack of grips makes a seated, hook-based guard easier to play than grip-dependent open guards.
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