R-guard
An open guard against a standing opponent, a hybrid of De La Riva and reverse De La Riva: you lie on your outside hip with a low grip on their ankle and your legs locked deep around their leg. Your shin pushes their knee out until they post, then you sweep, wrestle up or pummel into the leg entanglements.
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Essentials
You’re under a standing opponent, on your outside hip, with a low ankle grip and your legs locked deep around one of their legs. Your shin pushes their knee outward, which makes them post a hand. Then you pummel your feet inside into the leg entanglements, sweep, or come up on the leg.
- Low grip on their ankle and keep pulling it to you
- Legs locked deep, below their shin
- Off-balance them until they post, then pummel inside
- Free the leg and step around to pass
- Sit back or drop their weight to flatten you
- Outside hip, not flat
- Their balance first, then the legs
- Lying flat on your back with your knees up
- Gripping high on the leg instead of the ankle
Where it leads
If this happens…
- they post a hand on the mat to stay upPummel both feet inside and enter single leg X or ashi garami
- they step back to pull the leg outKeep the ankle grip, follow and wrestle up on the leg
Advanced detailsTransitions, threats, reactions, troubleshooting and a sparring drill
1. Overview
An open guard against a standing opponent, a hybrid of De La Riva and reverse De La Riva: you lie on your outside hip with a low grip on their ankle and your legs locked deep around their leg. Your shin pushes their knee out until they post, then you sweep, wrestle up or pummel into the leg entanglements.
Key controls
- Grip their ankle as low as you can
- Legs locked deep around their leg, below the shin
- On your outside hip, never flat on your back
In this position
6 transitions · 0 sweeps · 0 submissions · 3 reactions · 2 troubleshooting fixes · 1 sparring exercise · 3 techniques