Reverse De la Riva

What it is

Reverse De la Riva is an open guard where your shin goes between the opponent's legs, knee pointing up, and your foot hooks the outside of their lead thigh from the inside. It is the guard you switch to when they turn their knee in to flatten your De la Riva hook. Their defence becomes your lever, and it shuts down knee cut passes that would beat the outside hook.

What you want from here

• They turn the lead knee in and drop it toward the mat to kill your De la Riva hook.
• They start a knee cut or a pressure pass and you need to block the knee from the inside.
• You want a knee push sweep: lift the hooked leg while pushing the far knee.
• On top: you need to turn the knee back out, clear the inside hook and pass around the legs.

Key details

• Shin between their legs, knee pointing at their chest, foot hooking the outside of the thigh.
• Hold a sleeve, wrist or their far collar so they cannot post or reach your legs.
• The free foot works their far knee or hip. Lift with the hook and push with the free foot, and two legs go opposite ways.
• Stay on your side toward the hooked leg so your hips can turn under them.

Common mistakes

• Mistake: letting the inside hook sit passively on the thigh. They turn the knee out, clear the hook and step around.
• Mistake: no upper body grip. They post a hand on your hip or chest and the sweep has no off-balance.
• Mistake: staying in reverse De la Riva when the knee turns back out. That is the moment to switch back to the outside hook.

How it is escaped or passed

• Turning the knee out to clear the inside hook, then stepping around the legs.
• Backstepping toward the hooked side to pass the legs.
• Dropping the hips low and smashing the hooking leg to the mat.

Gi and no-gi

Without the gi the sleeve and collar grips become wrist control and grips behind the knee. The inside hook is used the same way, often as an entry under the legs.