What the De La Riva Guard is, is an open guard. Usually it’s utilized when someone is doing standing passes. The reach makes De La Riva ideal for this type of situation. Other option for standing passes that’s equally viable is spider guard, according to Stephan Kesting and Brandon Mullins.

Controlling the ankle or the pants of the leg closer to your hip is one of the basic points of control. Heel is more secure but you need to use your own experience to determine what’s best in  a situation.

Foot placement can be different but typically one would wrap around a thigh of the leg we’re holding by the heel and the other would be on the front of the opponents other leg. Ideally you’d also want to latch on to an opponents sleeve.

The De la Riva guard is often used to set up the very popular Berimbolo. In this video, fourth degree black belt Augusto Frota shows a very effective guard pass that works great against a De la Riva guard.

Augusto Frota is one of the most interesting and influential personalities in BJJ/MMA with a varied background in martial arts as well as in business and with a vast network in the industry. Frota knows the who’s who’s of BJJ/MMA and uses his contacts to bring in different world class instructors from various affiliations to teach class as his academy every week. They’ve recently had teaching class and conducting seminars: Braulio Estima, Gezary Matuda, Davi Ramos, Leandro Lo, Rodolfo Vieira, Marcus Buchecha…The list goes on and on.

Frota is also the man behind the luxury BJJ camp held in Ibiza, Spain which featured Leandro Lo, Rodolfo Vieira, Bucheha, and Braulio Estima. There will be another edition in 2016.

Frota himself is known as a top MMA and BJJ fighter and a successful coach from Frota Team Nogueira in Switzerland. Augusto, who is originally from Fortaleza, moved to Brasilia, Brazil, where he began his training in 1997 under Admilson Brites, a black belt under Royler Gracie. At that time Augusto competed in and won several national and state tournaments. He moved back to Fortaleza and began training with Marcus Aurelio (Pride/UFC-Veteran).

Due to academic commitments Augusto left for the United States and attended school in Fort Lauderdale. He completed his BIB (Bachelors in International Business) in Florida where he met the man who would change his competitive life and set him on the road to becoming an international fighter. That man was the legendary Minotauro Nogueira (Ex-Pride & UFC-HW-World Champion and founder of the famous Team Nogueira with world champions like Anderson Silva and Junior Cigano.

After he completed his studies Augusto moved to Switzerland and started to work for UBS (Union of the Swiss Banks) and he now resides in Zurich. Continuing to train under Nogueira, he established his own academy and soon earned his black belt in September 2005. He is now one of Europe’s top instructors.

Augusto is a consummate professional and likes to help everyone improve; he is also very open to new techniques and training routines which he is happy to incorporate into his ever improving skill set.

Since 2004 Augusto represents:
– Shooto Europe (Legendary MMA federation from Japan)
– ADCC World Grappling Federation (BJJ-competition of the highest level)
– BJJSC President and IBJJF representative in Switzerland.