De la Riva guard

[bigkick]

Newish blue belt here. We have been drilling different sweeps and subs from DLR for the past month or so. I feel like I understand what's being taught and enjoy drilling the moves. When we spar, however, I'm unable to do anything more than get my hook on one leg and my other foot on the other hip. After that my opponents somehow manage to free the hook or just seem able to disregard my set up. I have no opportunity to think about an offensive move because I'm never really able to set up guard effectively.

Anyone have any tips? I know to stretch opponents out by pulling the sleeves and pushing on the hip. I know to use my hook to control the close leg. None of this seems to help. I'm going to ask my coach tonight, but am interested to hear what others have to say too.

 

[Allan san]

It takes time to figure out the small details that you are overlooking.

-Are you using your hook tight against the leg to turn their knee inward?
-Is your free leg on the inner thigh of the far leg or the actual hip? This matters when taking into account your body type.
-Are you focusing on the push/pull advantage of DLR? There are also back take and berimbolo threats you can add into your chain...assuming you are chaining your techniques (you are a new blue, so no worries if you aren't comfortable with it yet).

You didn't earn your blue belt in a month, so don't expect to make major progress on a new guard in a month. Trial and error over and over again.

 

[Uchi Mata]

Open guard tend to be very double edged. You're often pretty close to either getting passed or sweeping. What makes them double edged is that the position is unstable, so the battle tends to be back and forth for a series of small advantages like who grips whose pants, posture vs. breaking posture, sleeve grips, etc. It's all that little stuff that leads to your attacks actually working, and it just takes a long time to learn. By all means ask your coach, but you will get stuffed repeatedly by people more versed in the intricacies of the position for some time. It's no small thing to learn all the small details that let you actually maintain open guards and setup and execute sweeps.

 

[goatfury]

You might try deepp De La Riva just to broaden your options:

http://hubpages.com/sports/Basic-Deep-De-La-Riva-Guard-a-BJJ-Sweeps-Tutorial

I am clearly a fan of promoting myself here, but it's something a little different than what it sounds like you're shooting for, but very compatible, and you'd probably avoid some of the issues you're experiencing.

 

[berimBOWLoh]

the thing that helped me buy more time so i could learn DLR better was not putting my non DLR leg on their knee or hip but on their shoulder/arm/spider type positioning. I do push off the hip or knee but i dont keep my leg there unless i have the outside sleeve to stop him from stuffing to headquarters which is what a ton of ppl look to do.

also the angle is big. dont be square up front. be as much an angle as opponent allows you to angle towards his back.

 

[bigkick]

Thanks for the replies, guys. Spoke to my coach after class and, like you, he gave me some suggestions but said it just takes time and practice to get to a point where it all comes together and works. Yep, sounds like jiu jitsu...

 

[BJJArsenal]

From the DLR it's so important to attack your sweep straight away. You should be doing that anyway, but in the closed guard, half-guard etc you can hang out there, but against good passers they will be working to free your hook and pressure you immediately, so you have to be attacking immediately. You can't chill in the DLR.

 

[BajaMaliKnindza]

Guy above said it really well, in terms of controlling there far arm is really a great option as it prevents them stuffing your leg to HQ position, try playing the Lo Guard from there, or kicking there hip, sitting up and feeding there sleeve to your other arm, then grab there collar and take them down easy..

As for my personal strategy, i control the pants and cross collar grip, i anticipate them stuffing me into HQ, so i time it, and when they stuff my non dlr leg in between theres i use it as a rdlr hook and throw therm forward using it + collar drag, from there i either go to SLX, or go underneath to a Waiter sweep type position

 

[Big_Chief_Stove]

Newish blue belt here. We have been drilling different sweeps and subs from DLR for the past month or so. I feel like I understand what's being taught and enjoy drilling the moves. When we spar, however, I'm unable to do anything more than get my hook on one leg and my other foot on the other hip. After that my opponents somehow manage to free the hook or just seem able to disregard my set up. I have no opportunity to think about an offensive move because I'm never really able to set up guard effectively.

Anyone have any tips? I know to stretch opponents out by pulling the sleeves and pushing on the hip. I know to use my hook to control the close leg. None of this seems to help. I'm going to ask my coach tonight, but am interested to hear what others have to say too.

If you are able to get your hook and your foot to the far hip, you can just kick your leg straight, "Eskrima" with your non del la riva'ing leg and take you opponents back. same side sleeve and belt control helps with the back take.

Also if your training partners are focused on neutralizing your DLR hook, bail on the DLR and attack the Omoplata on the same side as your DLR hook, the same side you should have sleeve control on also. Triangle options there also.

 

[dimmyfinster]

the thing that helped me buy more time so i could learn DLR better was not putting my non DLR leg o

n their knee or hip but on their shoulder/arm/spider type positioning. I do push off the hip or knee but i dont keep my leg there unless i have the outside sleeve to stop him from stuffing to headquarters which is what a ton of ppl look to do.

also the angle is big. dont be square up front. be as much an angle as opponent allows you to angle towards his back.

-



Rafa teaches it this way - off leg on the bicep rather than the hip. Says it's too easy to push the leg off if it's on the hip.

Other tips from Gui and Rafa (mendesbrosonline)

- When they push down the DLR hook, you can step on the mat with your off-leg, get the side angle, regain the DLR hook
- Alternatively, you can take out t-he DLR hook, step on this bicep with DLR leg and kick away, then regain the DLR hook,
- If you have the collar grip, you can kick hard on the far leg withyour off-leg, which fill force a post of the hands Then regain the DLR hook
- If they do succeed in putting your off-leg between their legs, pull with arm and kick leg (RDLR hook) backwards. This will off balance
them and you can regain the DLR hook.
- The DLR hook itself needs to be strong and tight. With the tomoe nagae/berimbolo style of DLR, you need the strong hook to lift him.


There's a video of Gui maintaining the DLR against one of his brown belts without attacking at all for a minute.
It is Gui, but it can be done.

The main thing I learned from all of the videos on mendesbros is that it's a fight, just like grip fighting in closed guard.
They're not going to stand there and let you have the DLR guard, you have to fight for it and fight to keep it.