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Surprise Submission From De La Riva

Posted by Ismail Safi on

The de la riva guard is one of the most effective guard positions used in Jiu Jitsu, especially in the gi. The reason this guard works so well is because it enables the guard player to use all four limbs, both hands and both feet, to work simultaneously to destabilize our opponents, ultimately ending in a sweep, submission, or back take.

Pritt Mihkelson describes his training as “functionalistic minimalism” – based on fundamental postures and movements that ever grappler needs to know.

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There aren’t a lot of submissions that are popular from de la riva guard because the defender is usually too far too attack a single limb. Most submission attacks from de la riva guard require the bottom player to break down their opponent’s posture so that the head and arms can be close enough to attack. Unfortunately, this can be a difficult task on its own.

Another way of setting up submissions from de la riva guard is to take advantage of the guard passer’s movements, specifically which passes they attempt. One pass de la riva guard defenders will attempt is sitting to their hip on the defender’s weak side. In order to do this, they need to momentarily place their hand on the ground to base. This is a great opportunity to attack that arm.

Because of the way the defender places their arm, they are exposing themselves to an old school shoulder lock, the kimura. In the following video, Black Belt Seth Daniels illustrates how to set up and finish this surprise submission.

After establishing the appropriate kimura grip, two things can happen, based on what you want to do and how wary the top player is of this attack. The first one is the defender will pass your guard. To respond to this, slide your hips close to your opponents and use the kimura to sweep your opponent over you. Although this generally, works, it could be dangerous and expose you. The other thing that could happen, which you should aim for, is after grabbing the kimura, immediately shift your hips the other direction and attack the kimura there like you would from half guard.

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