Andre Galvao's Reverse De La Riva Sweep in BJJ
When we first posted this clip back in December 2015, the whole write-up was one line: an awesome little reverse De La Riva sweep from one of the best in the business, Andre Galvao. That was it.…
Words: Jiu Jitsu Style
When we first posted this clip back in December 2015, the whole write-up was one line: an awesome little reverse De La Riva sweep from one of the best in the business, Andre Galvao. That was it. You either trusted us and watched Galvao work, or you scrolled past. Eleven years on, the reverse De La Riva has stopped being a "little" anything — it's one of the load-bearing positions of the modern BJJ guard — and the man who was quietly showing it to us that afternoon is still one of the sharpest teachers in Jiu Jitsu.
Watch it: Andre Galvao's reverse De La Riva sweep.
Why the reverse De La Riva sweep still works
The shape Galvao was demonstrating hasn't moved an inch. You're underneath, playing reverse De La Riva — your hook wrapped around the outside of your partner's near leg from the inside, your shin blocking their thigh, your grips managing the far leg and the sleeve or belt. From there you don't muscle anyone anywhere. You off-balance first, break their base toward the corner they can't post to, and let their own weight fall into the sweep. When they step to recover, that step feeds you the angle to come up on top.
That's the genius of the position, and it's exactly why it suited Galvao. A multiple-time world and ADCC champion who built Atos into one of the sport's great academies, he never relied on being the strongest man in the bracket — he relied on being in the right place a half-second early. The reverse De La Riva is a half-second-early position. It gets you underneath the hips before the passer has settled, and it turns their attempt to circle around your guard into the very momentum that tips them over.
How a 2015 clip plays straight into the 2026 BJJ game
Re-watch it now and the striking thing is how current it looks. The reverse De La Riva went from a competition-scene curiosity to a foundation stone of the modern guard, and the whole leg-entanglement era grew out of exactly these hooks. Mikey Musumeci threads reverse De La Riva into ashi-garami and back takes for fun. The Ruotolo brothers fold the same frame into their no-gi guard on the way to heel hooks. Every serious IBJJF guard player from Tainan Dalpra to Cole Abate treats the reverse hook as standard equipment rather than a party trick. The skeleton of what Galvao showed in one short clip has not aged — the rest of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu simply built on top of it.
What changed is the audience. In 2015 a reverse De La Riva sweep was a neat highlight for the people who already followed Galvao's competition record. In 2026 it's a position an upper-blue-belt at a good academy is expected to drill, with instructional apps, BJJ Fanatics modules and a decade of free footage on YouTube and Instagram all treating it as core curriculum.
Drilling Galvao's reverse De La Riva at your gym
Strip the names out and Galvao's lesson survives intact. The sweep works because the control comes first — a deep, honest hook, the shin doing its job against the thigh, the grips owning the far side so the passer has nowhere clean to put their weight. The finish is the last thing in the sequence, not the first. Most people miss the sweep because they yank for the finish before they've actually taken the base; Galvao takes the base and the finish arrives on its own.
So drill it the way he'd want you to. Get a patient partner to circle and try to pass, and learn what each of their steps gives you — the sweep one way, the back take the other, the recovery angle when they defend the first thing. Play with the off-balance until you can feel the exact moment their weight commits. Then go back to the clip, eleven years late, and notice that one of the best in the business already knew all of it the first time.
See you on the mats.
Originally published on Jiu Jitsu Style, 11 December 2015. Refreshed for 2026.