BJJ black belt Anderson Silva has been training with Ricardo de La Riva for the past few years. De la Riva is the master of Rodrigo Minotauro (Anderson’s BJJ master).

During a recent press conference in Brazil, he appeared with a new Jiu-Jitsu coach by his side: the legendary Ricardo De La Riva, the inventor of the De La Riva guard.

“Ricardo De La Riva is the best in Jiu-Jitsu when it comes to the guard, in addition to being the master of my teachers. (Rodrigo Minotauro and Rogério Nogueira). Sometimes when working on the ground, and work my guard I ask for help from Master De La Riva to sharpen my guard game “said the Spider.

De la Riva told GRACIEMAG how the partnership with Anderson came about:

“We started training together on the 14th of September. Anderson has arrived with all the stuff that Nick Diaz does and going forward we will map out his style. Anderson is great on the ground,. We’ve been training hard. He has all his weapons now and he even has a good triangle with the injured leg. We will not change anything in his training, just adjust a few things, like sweeps and the use of hook guard “said the teacher.

Anderson has in the past used some De la Riva guard, notably in his second fight with Weidman.

In the below picture, Silva is beginning to thread his right leg around Weidman’s left leg. This is the beginnings of a de la Riva hook. In jiu-jitsu, a de la Riva guard is a powerful position for off-balancing your opponent that is primarily used for sweeps, but the position can also lead to submissions and back-takes.

Check out the video of Anderson rolling with De La Riva:

 

Muitas vezes Deus se cala… Mas o silêncio de Deus não significa que Ele desistiu de você Grande Mestre Delariva pic.twitter.com/fH0FgTaWMO

— Anderson Silva (@SpiderAnderson) April 3, 2015