Open Guard Intermediate · Gi and no-gi

The de la Riva back take

From the de la Riva hook, the back arrives when the hook steers the passer's hip forward and past you instead of tipping it over, and the inverted version of that route is what many call the berimbolo.

Position and problem

You have the hook behind their lead knee, the same-side hand on the ankle and your other foot on their far hip. You pull with the hook and push with the foot, they bend and post a hand, and the sweep you were building stops there. Their weight has gone forward over the hooked leg rather than back over the corner you fixed, and pushing harder against forward weight only straightens your own leg. The de la Riva sweep and the de la Riva back take begin from the same off-balance and end in opposite places, and which one is available is decided by where the passer puts their weight when they lose their balance. Back over the fixed corner, and they fall; forward over the hooked knee, and the hip you are attached to is travelling past you, with their back arriving behind it.

Objective

Use the hook and the ankle to steer the passer's hip forward and past your head, slide underneath the hooked leg as it goes, and come up behind them with your chest on their back.

Core concept

The hook steers the hip past you, and the back take is what happens when you let it. A de la Riva hook fixes one corner of a standing passer's base to your hips, and a fixed corner can be tipped or it can be turned around. When the passer's weight comes forward, the hooked knee is driven ahead of the foot, and the hand on the ankle keeps the foot where it is, so the hip has to rotate over a foot that cannot move. If your body is square underneath them at that moment, the hip rotates onto you and you are being passed. If instead you have turned onto the hook-side hip and slid your head and shoulders outside the line of the hooked leg, the same rotation carries their hip past your head and their back into your chest. The hook does not lift them or throw them anywhere; it holds the knee forward while you move underneath, which is why the back take is quiet and the sweep is loud. Many gyms teach the inverted version of this route under the name berimbolo, in which the guard player rolls under their own shoulder while holding the hook and the ankle and arrives behind the passer facing the other way. The inversion adds rules of its own about the neck and the free leg, and it belongs in its own lesson with a coach; what it shares with the upright route is that the hook steers and the body travels under the hip. Without cloth, the ankle is held at the heel rather than the trouser cuff, so the hand-off from ankle to hip has to happen sooner.

Key mechanics

Begin from an off-balance, not from stillness. Pull the hooked knee forward with the hook and push the far hip with the free foot so they bend and post; the back appears when their weight commits forward over the hooked leg.
Keep the ankle fixed with the same-side hand throughout. The foot staying on the mat is what forces the hip to rotate over it, and a foot that steps forward takes the back away with it.
Turn onto the hook-side hip and slide your head outside the line of the hooked leg. Your shoulders travel under the knee so their hip passes over you rather than onto you.
Draw the knee forward with the hook as you go under, so the leg is bent and carrying weight while you move. A straightened hooked leg is a leg they can kneel on you with.
Hand the ankle off to the far hip or the back of the near thigh as the hip passes your head. The connection changes from ankle to hip while both hands are still touching, never with a gap between them.
Come up with your chest on their back before you look for hooks. Chest connection behind the shoulder line is what makes the arrival a back take instead of a scramble beside them.
Recognise the fork early and stop pushing the sweep. Weight back over the fixed corner is the sweep; weight forward over the knee is the back; forcing one against the other is how the hook gets straightened and stripped.

Common errors

Pushing the sweep against forward weight, which straightens the hooking leg and turns the hook into something to step out of.
Releasing the ankle before the hip has passed, so the foot steps forward and the passer walks out of the turn.
Going under with the hips square, so the hip rotates onto your chest and the position is a pass rather than a back take.
Reaching for the back with the hands while the chest stays behind, which lets the passer turn back in and face you.
Holding the hook rigid as the hip passes, which fixes your own bent knee under their weight at the moment it is loaded.

Safety

Your knee on the hooking leg takes the load on the way under. As the passer's hip rotates forward and over the hook, your leg is bent, turned out and threaded around theirs, and if the hook stays locked while their weight lands on it the twist arrives at your knee from the side. Keep the hook light enough to release, let the knee straighten as their hip passes, and take the leg out the moment weight lands on it. The neck is the second exposure and belongs to the inverted version: rolling under your own shoulder with a passer's weight above you puts the load on the back of the neck if the roll is done on the head, so any inversion is done on the shoulders and only with a coach present. When you are the passer, free the hook before you drop your weight or spin out of the back take, and never yank your leg free while the guard player's knee is wrapped around it.

Training progression

Static: partner stands with a foot forward and holds still. Set the hook, the ankle and the far-hip foot, then turn onto the hook-side hip and slide your head outside the leg. Notice where their back is from there.
Cooperative: partner leans forward slowly and posts a hand. Steer the knee forward with the hook, keep the ankle, go under, and come up to their back with your chest before touching it with your hands.
Hand-off drill: partner walks slowly forward over the hook ten times. Each time, change the ankle grip to the far hip as the hip passes, without either hand leaving them.
Fork drill: partner chooses, without telling you, whether to lean back or forward on each off-balance. You finish the sweep on back weight and the back take on forward weight, and reset on every post.
Positional sparring: start in the position with full resistance. You score by getting chest to back or completing a sweep; the passer scores by clearing the hook and squaring up.
Live rounds against partners who pass standing, noting afterwards whether each lost back take went at the ankle, at the hand-off, or because your hips were square when the hip came through.