Alias · Guard

Meathook guard

Also known as High Guard / Meathook — the canonical term used on this site.

Training background: emphasising the arm control component

Colloquial — high guard with hooking leg-grip

Meathook guard is the colloquial name for a high-guard variant in which the bottom player’s legs hook over the opponent’s shoulders or upper arms — the “meathook” metaphor evoking the hooking-and-pulling mechanic that breaks the opponent’s posture downward.

Etymology. “Meathook” is informal coaching vocabulary for any hooking-pull mechanism in grappling; applied to the high guard, the meathook references the leg-over-shoulder hooking grip. The label is rarely used in published instructional material.

Mechanics. The leg-over-shoulder hook compresses the opponent’s posture downward — the bottom player can pull the opponent into submission attacks from the broken posture.

Cross-reference. “High closed guard” and “shoulder guard” are alternate names. Full mechanical coverage on High Guard.