There's just something about jiu-jitsu that leads to a proliferation of styles of guard. From Z Guard to X Guard and from Spider Guard to Half Butterfly there are many, many different forms of closed, open and half guard, and new variations pop up all the time. How do you know which type of guard to use when? The Concept of Range in the Guard There's an organising principle that brings order … [Read more...]
Reverse de la Riva guard
Arm Drag from Reverse de la Riva Guard (Simple and Effective)
The Reverse de la Riva Guard is a variation of the regular de la Riva Guard, but with your inside leg entangling your opponent's lead leg instead of your outside leg. This picture should make it a little clearer what the difference is... Why Use the Reverse de la Riva? Most of the time players use both the regular and the reverse de la Riva positions, because they complement each … [Read more...]
Your Open Guard Options vs. Standing Opponents
If you end up on the bottom with your opponent standing up and detached from you then be prepared for a very frantic and dangerous scramble. Unhindered by your grips and hooks he can deploy his favourite Open Guard passes on you without having to feel endangered by your own attacks. Now of course one option is to use the separation and stand back up to your own feet using the technical … [Read more...]
What are the Collar-Sleeve, Collar-Spider and Reverse de la Riva Positions?
Today we're going to talk about the fourth brand new instructional app in the Spider Guard Masterclass series, and cover a few new positions in the process. And in the process we're going to talk about some very powerful open guard positions... The app is called Spider Guard Masterclass Volume 4: Next Level Spider Guard, Part 2, and it focuses on three powerful variations of Spider Guard: … [Read more...]
Spider Guard Masterclass is Now Live
After almost 6 months of planning, filming and editing Spider Guard Masterclass is now ready for release! I'm biased of course, but I think that this is an absolutely amazing project. It's an A to Z reference guide for the Spider Guard, which is arguably the most dominant form of open guard in modern BJJ. Checking out this instructional is also risk free: if you don't absolutely love it, … [Read more...]
Countering and Passing Reverse de la Riva Guard
Regardless of whether you want to add this modern BJJ inverted spinning stuff to your own personal repertoire or not, you should still know how to counter this position. But even if you don't use the Reverse de la Riva Guard yourself, the chances are still good that you'll eventually run into someone who does. And when that happens hopefully you have an answer that allows you to counter the … [Read more...]
The 3 Steps of Berimbolo
Sometimes the best way to really understand something is to teach it. When it comes to jiu-jitsu, breaking a technique down into steps (not too many, not too few) and finding the best way to convey the underlying principles often helps clarify things in your mind. I've been doing a lot of this with the berimbolo sweep recently. For example, yesterday I was training with my friend Chad. He's … [Read more...]
A Reverse de la Riva Guard Tutorial
The de la Riva guard is an open guard position in which you entangle one of your opponent's legs with your own leg. It was popularised years ago by Ricardo de la Riva, and has since become a staple of gi and no gi jiu-jitsu. But a related position, the Reverse de la Riva guard, is still a mystery to many grapplers... … [Read more...]