Sometimes it’s just not working and you need to try something else. The most straightforward options are to elbow escape into full guard, or put hooks in to switch to a butterfly guard. Changing guard changes the value of upper body positions. The under hook and cross face utilized by a top half guard player become weaknesses when the top player ends up in butterfly or full guard.
I linked the same video below on the Escapes! page. The second elbow escape is performed from a half guard position and can be used whenever you want to add another .5 guards to your bottom position.
If you’re living that lockdown life in bottom half, the next video emphasizes the leg movements to abandon the lockdown half guard game to switch to butterfly.
The lifting movement shown in the next video appears to be pretty common in half guard instructional videos although it’s not a move I often use. The rest of the principles regarding framing are familiar and good though. I do really like that landing position. Before I fell in love with half guard, I was all about that over hook full guard. Parental discretion is advised for Kurt Osiander language.
I like the double elbow escape that Danaher demonstrations in his Half Guard Fundamentals instructional. I can’t find another example of that. After elbow escaping from half guard towards full guard, he elbow escapes a second time on the same side, this time to bring his knee above the top person’s shoulder. This results in a position with the top person pinched between the bottom player’s knees in a way that sets up easy triangles, omoplatas, kimuras, and arm bars.