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The first black belt to ever teach me jiu-jitsu is a student of Ricardo De La Riva and even three years later I’m still finding bits of wisdom in what I was taught that day. To say that I feel close to the DLR school of BJJ would be an understatement as I consider my closed guard and DLR guard corner stones of my game, so you can imagine how much I was looking forward to the seminar with the real Ricardo De La Riva.
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Remember the Keenan Cornelius seminar? Joao’s kinda the same caliber so one could expect the same kind of experience, right? Nope, not at all.
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Some overall thoughts about the camp, what I liked, didn't like and learned.
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A tale of a competition in which our hero picks the wrong fight and faces the consequences. Also, rolling with blackbelts. Lots of black belts.
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Passing the guard in under a second: now possible, with some jedi mind tricks. Luiz Lyra demonstrates an attack sequence from the closed guard and Oli Geddes shows the infamous dogbar.
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Pressure passing through the half guard by Daniel Bertina, a turtle defense by Daniel Marques. A primer on leglocks by David George in the afternoon, and the Keenan Cornelius seminar!
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A new closed guard attacking system by Daniel Bertina in the morning, then triangle defenses from Christian. David George kicks off the afternoon with DLR attacks against combat base and Oli ends the day with a primer on x-guard.
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Daniel Bertina shows some easy improvements to very common situations. Christian Graugart demonstrates a no-go position and Inghtor Vladimarsson explains how to retain the mount. The day ends with Oli Geddes presenting a tripod passing system and Kari Gunnarsson a sprawl/pass.
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Entries to the DLR guard by David George and a kimura-grip based system by Oli Geddes.
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I went to Hamburg for the week-end recently and used the opportunity to train there. I found a BJJ Globetrotter there who trains at Gracie Barra Hamburg, so that’s where I went.
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I attended another seminar at my old academy two weeks ago, but I have to say this one lacked the systemic approach that David Pierre-Louis usually has when teaching (even though he was the one teaching this time too). We went through a couple of different positions but there was no clear progression this time. There are a couple of usefull tips that I was able to take away but there was no eye-opening moment.
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This week-end I went to my old academy in Troyes to attend a seminar. It was taught by the David Pierre-Louis, the professor they are affiliated to. He’s a black belt under DeLaRiva, one of the most successfull french grapplers but above all a great teacher. I remember all of his lessons very well and he might be the reason why I feel so comfortable in the DeLaRiva guard.
