Review: Ricardo De La Riva Ultimate Street Fighting DVD Set
Volume 6 - The Guard
Nov 26, 2004
Volume 6 - The Guard
After finishing this tape, I was most surprised that the two, perhaps, most basic submissions from the guard, the triangle and "standard" juji gatame, were not shown. This is certainly fine, but bad if you are a beginner, which leads me to say Sperry's set might be better for a beginner. De La Riva starts from his closed guard with Marcello on his knees with his hands on De La Riva's chest in a position to strike. He shows 2 ways to get his opponent down.
One ends with the uke's head under De La Riva's arm in position for a guillotine, and the other ends in the basic guard hold down as taught on Sperry or Pedro. De La Riva also shows what to do if the opponent puts his hand on your neck to strike; the move ends in an arm triangle. An alternative move would have the opponent end in a straight armbar. I liked this setup, shown later in the tape, and had never seen it before, or even saw it coming. At the end of this tape is about a 45 second "outake" section with some humorous moments.
One thing that impressed me was De La Riva's leg work. Ricardo uses his legs to hook, pull, block punches, etc. better than anyone I've seen. This tape had no sweeps, which are covered on the open guard tape. There is relatively little overlap on this and the tape and the Sperry guard tapes. As I said, the lack of a standard straight armbar or triangle is not good for a beginner, but fine for everyone else. Several of the excellent combinations on Sperry's second guard tape are not found here; this makes it difficult to recommend which guard tape I like better. The bottom line is that is an excellent series, with a price that cannot be beat.
This instructional DVD set is for sale in the Sherdog Shop for $79.99.
After finishing this tape, I was most surprised that the two, perhaps, most basic submissions from the guard, the triangle and "standard" juji gatame, were not shown. This is certainly fine, but bad if you are a beginner, which leads me to say Sperry's set might be better for a beginner. De La Riva starts from his closed guard with Marcello on his knees with his hands on De La Riva's chest in a position to strike. He shows 2 ways to get his opponent down.
One ends with the uke's head under De La Riva's arm in position for a guillotine, and the other ends in the basic guard hold down as taught on Sperry or Pedro. De La Riva also shows what to do if the opponent puts his hand on your neck to strike; the move ends in an arm triangle. An alternative move would have the opponent end in a straight armbar. I liked this setup, shown later in the tape, and had never seen it before, or even saw it coming. At the end of this tape is about a 45 second "outake" section with some humorous moments.
One thing that impressed me was De La Riva's leg work. Ricardo uses his legs to hook, pull, block punches, etc. better than anyone I've seen. This tape had no sweeps, which are covered on the open guard tape. There is relatively little overlap on this and the tape and the Sperry guard tapes. As I said, the lack of a standard straight armbar or triangle is not good for a beginner, but fine for everyone else. Several of the excellent combinations on Sperry's second guard tape are not found here; this makes it difficult to recommend which guard tape I like better. The bottom line is that is an excellent series, with a price that cannot be beat.
This instructional DVD set is for sale in the Sherdog Shop for $79.99.
