De La Riva Guard Ballon Sweep Awesomeness With Bruno Malfacine

Check Out This Balloon Sweep Variation by Bruno Malfacine

If you have been around the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu scene you will have likely heard of Bruno Malfacine. Bruno Malfacine is a 10 time Black Belt World Champion. Bruno is the only competitor to ever win 10 titles in the same weight division and many people see him as the best pound for pound Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fighter ever. Malfacine started his career in Game Fight UGF‘s academy, but moved to the Alliance camp where he became one of the star figures of the team. The list of Bruno Malfacine’s accolades is long. He has achievements from some of the biggest tournaments in the world, including IBJJF World Champion, IBJJF Pan American Champion, IBJJF European Open Champion, IBJJF Rio International Open Champion, CBJJ Brazilian Champion, CBJJ Brazilian No Gi Champion, IBJJF Pan American Championship 2nd Place and IBJJF European Open 2nd Place.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a discipline made for the smaller man to be able to beat the bigger man. It doesn’t matter if you are smaller, slower, or older, if you know more about applying leverage and technique then you can still sweep and submit anyone. As a career roosterweight, no one knows this better than Bruno Malfacine

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Today Bruno is here to demonstrate a ballon sweep variation that he has used successfully many times in competition. Watch the video below and then we will break down the technique. Check it out now!

Bruno Malfacine starts this technique from the De La Riva guard. He starts with a collar grip while he brings his leg around behind his opponent’s knee, wrapping it around and getting a hook on his training partner’s inner thigh. The most common mistake people make it to focus too much on the hook, leaving a gap between the legs that your training partner can exploit to clear your leg. The key is to make sure your knee is connected to your opponent’s knee. Notice that when Bruno does this is causes his training partner’s leg to turn inwards. This is the movement you are looking for. Now if your opponent tries to extend their leg they cannot. Bruno prefers to have collar control and elbow control to set up this sweep. To hit the sweep push your opponent’s arm so that it is at the center line of your body. At the same time you do this also pull your training partner over using your legs. Finally, use the collar grip to pull his head to the mat, flipping him over and landing in mount position as you back roll.

This is a very impressive sweep which requires knowledge of the De La Riva guard. I would not recommend this one if you are a complete beginner, but even if you are there are some key concepts you can take away from this video. First, how you hook the leg in De La Riva guard is very important. If you do not have your knee at your opponent’s knee you open yourself up to an easy pass. Using your legs to break down your opponent’s posture is also a fundamental concept you will see used in many guards. Finally, the backward roll (or forward roll for the opponent), is a concept that is used everywhere in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. So, the next time you are playing De La Riva guard remember this awesome ballon sweep variation from Bruno Malfacine. If you hit this you are likely to leave your opponent surprised and your instructor impressed.

We’ve all been the unfortunate smaller fighter, every once in a while.... Getting stuck on bottom with no answers

No way to create space and control the fight is a horrible feeling! Training down in Brazil, Bruno had to deal with this all the time, and before long he was finding new ways to counter and move that let him take charge of his bigger and stronger partners. With his guard game refined down to just pure BJJ, he’s excited to bring his experience to the public across this instructional video set.

Bruno has never before released an instructional video series. Be the first to learn the secrets of the most successful Jiu Jitsu competitor in the world!!

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