Brad Souders, of Extreme Sportsplex in Martinsburg, W. Va., sent me a link to this site, grapplearts.com, for an in-depth look at the de la Riva guard:
Ricardo de la Riva is a slight unassuming man with a gentle smile. Talking to him it is hard to imagine that this man is on the cutting edge of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Voted as one of the top five technical fighters of all times by his peers, every BJJ school on the planet is teaching his famous de la Riva guard.
Nobody could have imagined the impact this skinny 15 year old kid would have on the jiu-jitsu world, when he walked into one of Carlson Gracie’s affiliate schools in Copacabana and started training under the then brown belt Marcus Soares. When Marcus closed his gym, de la Riva started training at Carlson Gracie’s main academy; de la Riva had previously impressed Carlson by beating Carlson’s nephew in an inter-academy tournament.
To see more about de la Riva’s guard, click here.
