The de la Riva hook

Position and problem

You are on your back or your hip and the passer is standing with one foot forward. A standing passer is the hardest kind to stay connected to: their hips are out of reach, both their legs are free, and they can change direction faster than a supine guard can turn to follow. Feet on the hips hold distance and do nothing about direction. The de la Riva hook answers this by fastening you to the leg they have put in front, so that when they step, you come with them, and so that one of the two legs they are standing on is no longer entirely theirs.

Objective

Attach yourself to the passer's lead leg from the outside so that they cannot step around you freely, and hold a second and third point of contact that decide which way they fall out of balance.

Core concept

The hook is a claim on the passer's base, not a sweep. Your outside leg goes around the outside of their lead leg, behind the knee, and the foot threads through to the inside of their thigh. That fixes one corner of a two-legged structure to your hips. From there the passer has only a few ways to be off balance, and the rest of your body chooses among them: the hand on the ankle of the hooked leg stops that foot stepping back out, and the free foot on the far hip, the far knee or the near hip sets the distance and turns them. One hook alone is a leg wrapped around a leg, and a passer can kneel on it, turn the knee out of it or walk backwards out of it. The hook plus the ankle plus a working second foot is a guard. Without cloth, the hands lose the sleeve and collar grips that kept the passer bent forward, so the no-gi version leans harder on the ankle, on wrist control or a collar tie when they reach down, and on sitting up to the leg when they stand tall.

Key mechanics

1. 01Hook from your hip, not from a flat back. Turn onto the hip on the hook side so the hooking knee points outward and your hips are angled across the front of their leg rather than square underneath it.
2. 02Control the ankle of the hooked leg with the same-side hand. The hook stops the leg going sideways; the hand stops it going backwards. Lose the ankle and they simply step out.
3. 03Keep the second foot working on the far hip, the far knee or the near hip. It holds the distance the hook cannot hold, and it is the leg that actually pushes them over the corner you have fixed.
4. 04Keep the hook active by drawing their knee outward and forward over their toes. A bent, turned-out lead leg is carrying weight it cannot shift quickly; a straight one is ready to step away.
5. 05Stay closer than feels natural. The hook works while your hips are near their foot. When they push your hips away and straighten the leg, the hook slides down to the calf and becomes something to step out of.
6. 06Follow their turn. When they pivot or backstep, the hook side of your body has to travel with the leg. A hook that stays put while the leg rotates is no longer a hook, and it is where the knee gets hurt.
7. 07Let it go early. When they kneel the hooked leg down onto your hook or strip the ankle and square up, the position has changed, and the useful answers are another guard or a recovery, not a tighter hook.

Common errors

• ×Hooking from a flat back with the hips square, so the hook has reach and no leverage and the passer can stack straight over it.
• ×Setting the hook and leaving the ankle free, which lets the passer step the leg back out of the wrap.
• ×Letting the second foot go idle, which leaves one point of contact against a passer with two free hands.
• ×Clamping the hook as tightly as possible, which tires the leg, slows every adjustment and fixes the knee in place when the passer moves suddenly.
• ×Holding the hook after the passer has dropped their knee to the mat through it, when the leg is now pinned under their weight and no longer controlling anything.

Safety

The knee at risk here is your own, on the hooking leg. That leg is bent, turned outward and threaded around someone else's, and the passer's standard answers all move their leg while yours is still wrapped around it: driving the knee outward and down to pin the hook, sitting their weight back onto it, or backstepping with your foot still caught inside their thigh. Each of those puts a sideways, twisting load through a bent knee, and the outer side of the knee and the meniscus are the structures most often named when this guard hurts the person playing it. Keep the hook light enough to come out, do not lock the foot deep against a heavier partner who passes by driving through it, and take the leg out the moment weight lands on it or the leg you are hooking starts to rotate. When you are the passer, free the hook before you drop weight or spin, rather than using your bodyweight to break it.

Training progression

1. 01Static: partner stands with one foot forward and holds still. Set the hip angle, the hook, the ankle grip and the second foot, in that order, and have them try one slow step backwards to feel what the ankle grip is for.
2. 02Cooperative: partner steps slowly left, right and back. Do nothing but stay attached, moving your hips so the hook keeps its depth.
3. 03Off-balancing only: using the hook and the second foot, make your partner put a hand on the mat in each direction they can fall. No sweeps are finished; reset on every post.
4. 04Constrained sparring: the passer may only clear the hook, by turning the knee out, stripping the ankle or backstepping. You may only re-establish it or change to another guard. Reset when the hook has been clear for three seconds.
5. 05Positional sparring: start in the position with full resistance. The bottom player scores for a sweep or for getting up to the leg; the top player scores for clearing both legs.
6. 06Live rounds against partners who pass standing, noting whether the hook was lost at the ankle, at the second foot, or because your hips were left behind.

Related entries

• Connection in open guard
• Getting the hips back underneath
• Inside position