BJJ Position: De La Riva Guard

The De La Riva guard is a dynamic and effective open guard position that emphasizes the use of a deep hook around your opponent’s lead leg, controlling their posture and balance to create opportunities for sweeps, submissions, and transitions.

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The Perfect Way To Use The De La Riva Guard No Gi: Berimbolo Entry

The key aspects of the De La Riva guard position

  1. Control: In the De La Riva guard, control is established by placing one of your feet on your opponent’s hip or thigh while your other leg wraps around their lead leg, with your foot hooking behind their knee or thigh. This configuration allows you to control their movement and off-balance them effectively. Use your arms to maintain additional control by securing grips on your opponent’s sleeves, collar, ankles, or pants. It’s essential to stay active with your hips and legs, constantly adjusting your position to prevent your opponent from establishing a strong base or passing your guard.
  2. Offense: The De La Riva guard offers several offensive options, including sweeps, submissions, and transitions to other positions. Some common sweeps from the De La Riva guard include the tripod sweep, the balloon sweep, and the berimbolo. The choice of attack will depend on your opponent’s reactions, posture, and the specific grips you have established. In addition to sweeps, the De La Riva guard can create openings for submissions like the triangle choke, omoplata, and collar chokes.
  3. Defense: The De La Riva guard serves as a strong defensive position due to the control it provides over your opponent’s movement and the ability to off-balance them. By maintaining an active De La Riva guard with effective hooks and grips, you can effectively neutralize your opponent’s attempts to pass your guard. It’s important to stay active in the position, adjusting your grips, hip angle, and leg position as needed to maintain control and prevent your opponent from establishing a dominant position.
  4. Transition: The De La Riva guard can be used as a starting point for transitioning to other guard positions or setups, depending on your opponent’s reactions and your own preferences. You might transition to more specific open guard variations, such as the reverse De La Riva guard, spider guard, or X-guard, or even move to closed guard or half guard positions. Developing the ability to transition smoothly between the De La Riva guard and other positions can make you a more dynamic and unpredictable grappler.

 

In summary, the De La Riva guard position is a powerful and versatile open guard variation that emphasizes control, off-balancing your opponent, and setting up sweeps and submissions. By focusing on these aspects, you can develop a strong De La Riva guard game that can be challenging for your opponents to deal with. Remember, the key to success in the De La Riva guard position is to stay active, constantly adjusting your grips, hip angle, and leg position to maintain control and create opportunities for offense while staying defensively aware.