DLR Tomoe Nage

We are nearing the end of my current repertoire of DLR techniques that I actually hit (although there's about 100 more that I want to learn). The DLR tomoe-nage is a criminally underrated move. I also decided to learn this one after speaking with JT Torres, who said it's a critical component of his game. Obviously, no one is studying tape on me like they do with him, but being good at flipping your opponent cuts down on potential pass set-ups and even elevating them a little bit (but failing to complete the sweep) or dropping them off to the side but being unable to come on top will make them wary.

3 videos in this entry.

DLR Pass Defense: 3 sweep

Storytime: I’m starting this new blog off with a series of de la Riva moves for one obvious reason—de la Riva is pretty much my entire guard game. JT Torres often trains up at my school in New York, especially during the winter. On one fateful day, there was a massive snowstorm and only 3 people showed up for daytime training—myself, a purple belt, and JT Torres. JT had us do 7-10 minute round for an entire training session, all starting from the feet, all high intensity. This proved to be a pretty pivotal moment in my jiu jitsu career, as I was 100% a top game player prior to that day. After having my pathetic guard sliced through and realizing that I didn’t know jack shit about stand-up, I resolved to become a guard player and asked JT to teach me one DLR sweep to get started. That became the timber sweep (although he didn’t have a name for it at the time) and my open guard game was born. I’ve spent the last ~7 months focusing on open guard, and while I technically feel like I know very little outside of DLR, my pass prevention/guard retention has skyrocketed and I feel totally comfortable there. I know my guard is hard to pass and my movement off my back is good, I just need to add moves to the repertoire.

That starts here with some defenses off of DLR passes that I've recently learned or am not comfortable with. I'm systematically building my guard game one piece at a time, linking moves and counters. Here, the Bruno Frazatto sweep feeds into reverse DLR guard and the stuff pass sweeps lead well into deep half or x-guard. All will be important additions to my game, as it is important to get offensive minded with your defense.

DLR: 3 sweeps against opponent in combat base

Two of these sweeps are nearly identical, and one is very similar to option B here. I've been trying not to play DLR against an opponent in combat base (that's sort of a lie) but if they leave it open or drop down into it, their passing options are severely limited so you are free to try this out without too much fear of getting passed-they aren't going to be really able to drag your leg across your body or easily stuff pass, so they are effectively limiting themselves until they remove your hook and can work for double unders.

A. Sit-Up/Single leg style sweep

DLR: Timber and Axe Sweep

The "Timber" sweep, created, named, and taught to me by JT Torres (although nothing is actually new in jiu jitsu) is my best DLR sweep. Deceptively simple and easy to set up, I've actually tried to stop sweeping this way because I'm too successful with it against white-purple belts who let me get a DLR hook and double sleeve control and only sweeping one way is limiting my game. With that said, it's awesome and I just learned the axe sweep to compliment it. If you aren't experienced with DLR, I highly recommend starting with the first sweep.

A. Timber Sweep

De la Riva Sit-Up Sweep Sequence

Taken from a JT Torres seminar I attended a few days ago. All moves written with left foot hooking.

General DLR Notes:
-far leg on thigh is the most important part of DLR
-to get a deep hook, bridge hips and look over left shoulder and drive the hook deep, then recenter and buckle his knee inwards as you square up with a deep hook. It was incredible what a difference this made

A,. Sit-up sweep, double sleeve control

Resurrecting an old blog...

Throughout my jiu-jitsu journey, I've often wished I had kept some sort of moves log. Previously, I used this blog to document everything about my training sessions but did not find it particularly useful and quite frankly it took too much time. I resurrected the blog and wiped the slate clean and now this will mostly serve as a moves log and maybe some very brief training updates tracking how much I'm training. I'll have to play around with formatting and tagging and what exactly I want to put up here so if you manage to stumble to this page, things might come appear and disappear for a while.

For the few people who used to read this blog (and who might have it kicking around a reader or something), I received my blue belt over a year ago from Phil Migliarese. I now feel as an experienced blue that while I know very little technique, I am capable of doing everything. This is an exciting time.