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Intro to the Berimbolo

For a move that — to me — is just another powerful sweep from De La Riva guard, the berimbolo sure has become a lightning rod. To some, it’s emblematic of creative jiu-jitsu evolution. To others, it’s an invitation to soccer kick you in the head.

Spin on some cardboard to beats in the street, and everyone calls you Ozone or Turbo; spin underneath a guy to take his back, and everybody loses their minds.

Every job has a perfect tool. The berimbolo is a great tactic in many situations, and when you strip away the loaded connotations some people put on the word, I think that becomes apparent. It’s a terrific move for people who have trouble keeping their grips, since the belt grip is a tough one to break. For people fond of De La Riva guard, it’s a good chance to either get to the most powerful finishing position in jiujitsu — the back. Besides that, it’s fun, and fun has value.

Skate to create.
It also inspires numerous puns and Photoshop jokes, at least in me. Skate to create.

 

I just did a series of two Berimbolo introduction videos for the Roy Marsh Jiu-Jitsu YouTube channel. Please check these out and let me know what you think! As you’ll see, I often use berimbolo to take the back, but just as often I’ll come up to pass the guard — or use it to take mount, which I didn’t show here, but I will if people are interested.

 

Have fun with these and let me know if you have any questions in the comments. Feel free to request future videos — or future silly Photoshops — too. I thought about making Kool-Aid Man shirts for Toro, but no plans are in the works for that, at least now.

KoolAidBerimbolodrawing

BerimboloMachoMan

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Leg Lasso Sweep From Open Guard

The leg lasso is one of my favorite open guard positions. With the lasso in, we can defend the guard and transition back to closed guard if we want to. We can also set up powerful and safe attacks.

It’s very frustrating for our opponent to pass the lasso guard, and frustrated people make mistakes. This sweep is one we can hit when our opponent makes a very common mistake: trying to pass without clearing the lasso first.

Thanks again to Roy Marsh for letting me show some techniques at his school and helping me film these videos. If you enjoyed them, you’ll definitely like the other videos on his YouTube channel by Roy himself and guys like Drew Culbreth, so check them out and subscribe if you like.

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Tripod Sweep From De La Riva Guard

My new technique video is out on the Roy Marsh Jiujitsu YouTube channel. It’s my take on a fundamental, effective and powerful move: the tripod sweep.

I like to set this up from De La Riva guard, ideally with a cross-grip on the sleeve. But as I say in the video, we have a wide array of options to hit the sweep depending on what grips we get and how our opponent behaves. The little foot transition in the video is something I drill over and over.

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Video: DLR sweep from combat base

My friend Roy Marsh asked me to come teach an open guard series at his school last week, and I stuck around to make a video for his YouTube channel. This simple De La Riva guard technique is my highest-percentage sweep when my opponent takes the combat base (one knee up) position, and I hope you dig it.

I had fun doing the video, and I know Roy’s going to be posting a bunch of great stuff from guys better than I am, so if you like this technique, please consider subscribing.