The seminar was held at Rick’s Spain’s Red Boat Wing Chun Academy in Redfern.
Congratulations to March D’altilia for his promotion to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt today. The belt presented to March by John himself.
Why de la Riva guard?
In a nutshell – as a counter to a knee cut pass.
You are sitting or lying on the mat. The guy is standing, approaching you with the intention to pass, and steps his R foot between your legs starting to set up a knee cut pass, wanting to drive his R knee across your R thigh.
A great way to stop this is to block his L knee with your R foot to preemptively stop him coming forward, and he will be unable to complete the knee slice. We now grab his R ankle with our L hand, and move our hips up right next to, or sitting on, his foot. This prevents him from just backing away and restarting his pass.
We wrap our L leg over and behind his to form an outside / de la Riva hook. Pressure inward with our L leg on his R is more important than the actual hook with the foot, but the kicking/pushing pressure with the R foot on his L knee is by far the most important. We keep pushing and driving his L knee away. He should feel and look uncomfortable. If he is well balanced and smiling, you are not pressuring him properly here.
(Anthony Lange likes to sit on the outside blade of his opponent’s foot, which makes it very hard for the opponent to turn his knee to the outside, which is one way of dislodging the de la Riva hook. Though the other leg should be the more bothersome one for him.)
Getting an angle is important – we should be pretty much at ninety degrees to him, facing his R side, ideally with both his feet on a line drawn from the crown of our head through the base of our spine.
The de la Riva guard may also be a natural transition from half guard when your opponent stands up. The same is true of the reverse de la Riva, especially out of Z guard.
Where you go from here depends on what grips you are able to get. You can, of course, get the grips you want first and then move from wherever you were, e.g closed guard, to the de la Riva guard. But for now we are selecting grips and the follow-up sweeps based on the opponent’s reactions.
Get the far sleeve, Tilt Sweep
Your opponent realises he is in some trouble and may elect to try to remove the biggest problem he has, which is your R foot pushingon his L knee, by grabbing your R pants leg, probably at the knee, with his L hand, to take your R foot off his knee. Bring your R knee towards you and grab his L sleeve with your R hand. Bring the sleeve towards your hand using your knee, don’t reach out with your hand.
Hold his L sleeve in place with your R hand, and kick your R leg straight out and slightly to the right to break his grip on your pants. Keep his L hand under control as you replace your R foot on his L knee.
Kick his L leg away, directly back, with your R foot. Use the momentum of the kick and counterbalance of the extended right leg to situp. Take the left hook out, and replace it with our L arm wrapping around the back of his R leg, elbow deep, like for a high single leg. We trade the DLR hook for a single leg with the arm.
IMPORTANT: do not take the R foot off his L knee! Keep pressure on his knee with the foot!
Pass his L sleeve from you R hand to the L hand, with that arm wrapped around his leg. Reach up quickly with your R hand and grab his collar – his L collar (parallel, not cross) is better for (his) safety. Quickly, because we do not want to give him an opportunity to posture up.
Keeping both grips, push his L knee away with your R foot, as you pull his collar to the mat with your R hand, turning onto your R side. When he lands, drive your L knee over the top of his R thigh and get side control on his L.
This sweep, slightly modified, also works well against an opponent in combat base (kneeling but with his R knee up, posting on the sole of his R foot) who is looking to do the same knee cut pass from a low position. In this case, we push his L knee away and out with our R foot to make space and imped a pass attempt, grab his R heel with our L hand and thread our LDLR hook around his R shin. Grab that L sleeve with your R hand, his L collar with your L hand, kick at his L knee with your R foot and sweep him the same way. (See the video below featuring Gustavo Gasperin).
You should practice this sweep carefully – if you dump him hard right on the point of his shoulder, an A/C joint separation or dislocated shoulder is a distinct possibility. Using his L collar (parallel) to grip, and trying to pull his shoulder underneath you, rather than spearing him directly down, will help. The parallel collar grip, which John calls the “friendly side”, is safer for this than grabbing the cross collar. You partner is vulnerable here, so be kind and do not betray the trust they are placing in you.
I was injured about ten years ago this way – in my case, not with a DLR sweep but with a foot in bicep sweep. I was out for about six weeks ( I maybe could have gone back a week or two earlier in hindsight, but don’t regret the extra convalescence and rehab). My shoulder is pain-free and pretty strong, but my collar bone sticks up at a funny angle. Something you should avoid.
He postures up or breaks the collar grip, Technical Standup
Sometimes called the “Tallywacker Sweep”, in homage to the movie “Porky’s”.
You are able to kick his L leg away, sit up and get the single leg grip on his R leg. For whatever reason, you cannot get the sleeve or collar grips and he postures up.
This time, grab his belt, the skirt of his gi, or whatever material you can grab and pass it your L hand. Pull it tight for a strong attachment. Post out behind with your R hand and swing both your legs out to your L, in what John calls a “hula-hula” fashion. Take the L foot slightly behind.
Post on your R arm and L foot, and pull your R knee through back behind you on the line made by both his feet, as far as possible, to a kneeling position. Your head should be inside his thigh. He should be just about doing the splits and with your knees pressing and head pushing the inside of his thigh and hip he should fall onto his butt and back. You have effectively performed a single leg takedown.
If he has excellent balance and does not fall, you may need to actually stand up and go to a proper high single leg, of which there are many variations.
John didn’t mention this in class, but on a video on his channel (below) he shows that this will work equally well if you are able to keep the sleeve grip and successfully pass it from the R to the L hand, as before. He then postures up too quickly for you to grab his collar. In this case, you already have a good attachment with the sleeve grip, there is no need to change it to a belt or skirt grip. The technical standup and sweep will work equally well.
The video below shows John demonstrating both sweeps, and further progressions along this theme to two more sweeps. Plus some bonus Reverse de la Riva guard material as well. The rest of this channel has some other first-rate seminar material.
He grabs your collar, grab his collar back, spin, and back sweep
To keep his balance, he grabs your collar with his R hand. Grab his R collar back with your R hand. Let go his foot with your L hand and take it over your head, use the collar grip to pull your shoulders off the mat so you can spin, throw your R leg out to the R, L arm down toward your L hip, and spin on the small of your back to your L. The outside hook stays connected, you end up facing the same way as him, looking at his butt. Your L shoelaces should be on his bikini line on his R, your toes touching his stomach. As long as your L leg stays bent and you pull on the collar, there is little danger of getting legbarred. Your L arm goes around his L ankle and your L hand grabs the inside of your L thigh.
John tells wrestlers to treat the left hand grip for the Tilt Sweep like a high single leg, for this one like a low single leg.
Sweep him backwards, not by pushing with your L hook, but by posting on the mat with your R foot and using it to lift your hips. He should fall pretty much flat on his back.
To half guard
Pretty trivial. Turn toward him to get mount. If he has any skill whatsoever, he will get you in half guard.
What will be tragic is if you go to all the effort of training and performing the work involved with the more complex techniques below, but mess them up and STILL end up in half guard. Your technique will need to be on point!
To Knee Slide Pass
Keep the collar grip with your R hand. Turn toward him, but build the “Trump wall” by bringing your R knee and elbow together, leaving no space for him to pull half guard. Slide your R knee and shin over his R thigh and into side control.
To Mermaid Mount
Use the attachment with your L leg, and the R collar grip, to invert over your L shoulder. Put your L shin across his torso as if setting up kneeride. Your R leg goes under both of his, grab his L pants cuff with your L hand.
Use your core to shoot your legs over him, rolling over your R shoulder to end up on your knees. If necessary, let go with your L hand and use that to assist, but try to avoid having to do this by keeping a strong core. He should end up on his L side, with both his thighs pinched right between your thighs. This is the Mermaid Mount, thus called because his legs are pinched tightly together like a single unit … as if he were a mermaid.
Moving from Mermaid Mount to Full Mount
You have achieved the Mermaid Mount. He is on his L side. Your major problem here is that he will use his L elbow on your R knee to start an elbow escape.
Crossface him with your R arm as you take your head over to the left of his body and post on your head. Lift both his legs by lifting them with your L leg. Drive your R knee forward past his hip, then your L knee to end up in full mount. He should have no opportunity to free his knee line.
The Khabib / Leg Clamp Mount
This is a position similar to the Mermaid Mount, made famous by UFC fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov.
It isn’t easily achievable from DLR guard, but John brought it up due to its similarity to the Mermaid Mount.
You have got a tight grip around both his knees with your arms while attempting to pass his guard. This is a position Dave Camarillo calls the Tackle Pass, which he described in a seminar I was fortunate enough to attend. A position readily achievable from a double leg takedown.
Fall on your L shoulder, taking him onto his R side, put your L ear on his L hip. Move your hips and drag his knees up toward his head, lifting them off the mat enough to allow you to slide your L leg under both of his. Step over both his legs with your R leg and put the sole of that foot on the floor behind the crook of your L knee. Triangle your legs and come to your knees. This is the Khabib Mount.
My friend, Lange’s black belt, and multiple MMA titleholder, Sonny Brown, put together a very nice video analysis of how Khabib uses this position on MMA.
Mermaid Sweep
Once again, off the track but related. You have him in your closed guard, he stands up with his feet close together. Control his sleeves. Loosen your legs enough to slide down his thighs, but re-clamp your legs again tight around his knees. Straighten both your legs more to tighten the clamp. Use your legs and hands to pull him overhead, releasing his sleeves so he can post, and so you can hug his thighs to your chest with your arms – you MUST hug his thighs tight, otherwise he will get the mount. Now, open your guard, and bridge and roll him, to end up in the Mermaid Mount on his legs. If he manages to post out wide with both hands to stop your bridge and roll, just reverse direction, come out from under and take his back.
Carlos Machado taught a seminar at Lange’s where he showed a similar sweep, which he called the “Pliers Sweep”. Same sort of idea, using your legs as pliers to bring his knees together.
A couple of videos on the Mermaid Sweep below. If you want more, Leandro Lo is a highly competent exponent of this sweep.
Note that some of these sweeps run the risk of dumping your training partner hard on their shoulder, like the Tilt Sweep above. Be equally careful if you decide to explore these.
To Berimbolo
The Berimbolo is a technique which, in its canonical form, involves sweeping the opponent from de la Riva guard onto his back and inverting, but instead of going to the Mermaid Mount as described above, we weave our legs in with his a little differently and instead end up taking his back.
We were not taught the Berimbolo in this seminar. I was fortunate to study it with one of the best exponents thereof in a seminar at Lange’s with Gui Mendes.
The link to the seminar contains Gui’s approach to sweeping the guy from de la Riva, and a video showing Gui’s equally competent brother Rafa demonstrating their approach to the Berimbolo.
Return on Investment
John spent a while talking about technique choices and a rationale for them.
Arguably the DLR back sweep to knee slide pass is a pretty high percentage technique with comparatively little risk.
It will give you five points in IBJJF rules-based competitions – two for the sweep, three for the subsequent guard pass. (Note that a guard pass requires the opponent must present some sort of guard for a pass to be scored, and I can foresee situations where this might not happen or is overlooked, and the referee might only give you two).
Going from the DLR back sweep to a more complex inversion and then either the Mermaid Mount (six points, two for the sweep, four for the mount) or the Berimbolo (also six points, two for the sweep, four for the back) will earn you an extra point) is a much riskier proposition, which would require many more repetitions and more experimentation to overcome potential problems to become a useful part of your game.
A point in high-level international competition can make the difference between gold and silver. Many high level matches are decided on advantages, with either points being equal, or no points scored.
If you are young, aspire to high-level competition, and have few responsibilities and the opportunity and capability to train multiple times a day six or seven days a week, the long investment of time it will take to make that risky but high scoring move may not be a problem for you.
If you are largely a recreational player who has little time or desire to put in the large number of repetitions it takes to become competent at these more complex techniques, it probably isn’t worth your while to pursue the inversion techniques in the pursuit of competitive victory. Though pursuing them out of interest’s sake, or the desire to widen one’s technical horizons, might bring you happiness, especially if competition is not a priority for you.
If you want to go down the complex, inverted path, in general heavyweights will like to end in the mount, lightweights are all about taking the back. Though this is only a guideline, and there are plenty of big guys who like Berimbolos, and little guys who will seek the mount.
“What a drag it is getting old” – Rolling Stones
Unfortunately, John was on a very tight schedule which left him no time to answer questions after the seminar. Had I had the opportunity, I would have asked him how useful he felt the de la Riva guard was in no gi grappling, and what changes he would make, were it worth pursuing. I intend to ask him this question soon on one of his Sunday morning Facebook live chats (which has been doing most Sundays when he isn’t busy with seminars, travelling, etc.)
My experience (and Anthony Lange’s advice, upon which my opinion is heavily based) tells me the uses of the DLR guard in no gi are limited due to the lack of available strong grips. On the other hand, the reverse de la Riva guard will work very well in no gi and will also work well to stop the knee cut pass.
UPDATE 29 Oct 2019 – No Gi de la Riva
I asked John about no gi de la Riva on his live feed from Facebook the Sunday after the seminar. He agreed that the seminar he taught was very gi oriented and dependent on those available grips.
His advice was that in no gi, your use of the de la Riva guard will almost certainly require a grip change, to where you underhook the near leg. A strategy used to good effect recently by Lachlan Giles. Still digesting this, but here are a few videos which seem useful: