Open Guard
Guards where the legs are unlocked and control is rebuilt continuously from grips, frames and angle.
Connection in open guard
Open guard works when the legs and hands are attached to the opponent in a way that transmits their movement back to you, and it collapses the moment that attachment becomes a series of separate pushes.
Foundational · No-gi firstThe de la Riva hook
The de la Riva guard starts with a leg wrapped around the outside of a standing passer's lead leg, attaching one corner of their base to you; everything else is built on that.
Intermediate · Gi and no-gi
Reading connected to this area
Journal
- De la Riva, and the guard that took his name
A hook behind one leg solved a specific problem in a specific room in Rio in the early 1980s, and the widely repeated account of when it happened does not agree with itself.
- Guard retention as a system
Retention is usually taught as a list of recoveries, which describes what a held guard looks like from outside without saying what is being held.
- Seated guard and supine guard are two different jobs
Sitting up and lying back are usually taught as preferences. Treat them as two different control problems with different failure modes and the choice between them stops being a matter of taste.