Youtube daily la Jan 5 2017

My name is Ricardo Delariva, I am a sixth degree black belt, of the master Carlson Gracie.

My start in Jiu-Jitsu was a bit unforeseen.

We were 3 brothers and we wanted to do some kind of martial arts, we were already interested

But we were undecided between Jiu-Jitsu and Kung Fu.

Only my father had seen some fights at that time.

A long time ago, it was on TV, it was Vale Tudo, and then it became MMA.

He already knew Carlson Gracie and the Gracie family.

There was an employee of my father who already trained Jiu-Jitsu too, so that lead us that way too.

But why we wanted to do martial arts?

What was the reason that light the fuse and get us started training in martial arts?

There was a discourse on the beach, where my brothers and I were playing football.

A group came along and wanted to join the game with us, but it was a big group.

My brother said: no, this game is for us, only for the brothers.

So the guys did not like it, so we had to run off the beach, so my dad immediately said: You have to get into the martial arts.

I know that you are in the doubt between Jiu-Jitsu and kung fu, but I have an employee who practiced Jiu-Jitsu.

He said that it is a very good martial art, very efficient, and will be very good for you.

So you will not have to run away from a fight, get away from the fight and will be able to face anyone during a fight.

That's where we went to Jiu-Jitsu. This was my start in the martial arts.

I never imagined that it would continue in Jiu-Jitsu.

So much so that in the first class, that we were together - the three brothers - I did NOT go!

I was afraid, I was scared.

I had never practiced a sport, outside the beach besides bodyboarding, surfing, soccer, or beach tennis.

I had never done a sport in a gym, let alone martial arts. So the first day I did not go and I stayed at home.

My brothers went, and they came back super excited, saying: "Woow it was very good".

Then I said: OK and I encouraged myself and I said: Thats it. I will go!

I - at the time - had just turned 15, and it was January 1980 - my birthday was on January 28.

As soon as we got the Christmas gifts of kimonos and the backpacks to take the kimonos to the gym, we started to train on 3rd or 4th of January.

Right after the parties ended, we started to train.

I missed that first day, because I was scared, scared for not knowing what was waiting for me at the gym.

On my first day of Jiu-Jitsu I did a little self defense and training and then I was delighted and I liked it very much, I never stopped.

What happens to jiu jitsu is a very fast growth from couple years back to today.

When I started no one knew, no one knew what Jiu-Jitsu was, when people say Jiu-Jitsu, "jiu-jitsu what?"

Not even my mother knew how to pronounce Jiu-Jitsu!

My relatives, friends didn't know. People say judo, karate or boxing, but Jiu-Jitsu they could not pronounce it right.

And Jiu Jitsu grew very much.

With this growth I was very lucky with the fights that I fought.

I have won some great fights, against some great fighters, and in that way, Jiu-Jitsu raised my name.

Also I was always teaching class since a young age. When I got my blue belt at 16 - I was a yellow belt then got the blue -

At 18 I was already helping my master Carlson Gracie in his academy.

Teaching with him, supervising along side him and I helped teaching children and girls in the academy.

All this helped me to have a name, as well as being teacher and helping my master from a young age helped me a lot.

Those fights that I managed to fight that were important fights.

Not only in the black belt, but in all the belts that I fought, good fights, exciting fights, beautiful to watch.

In earlier days of Jiu-Jitsu it was not common to see the guard, playing from the bottom.

It was more common to try to do a take down, be on top and then passing.

I tried to do it but I got very tired and did not like drilling the positions.

I was lazy, and this part of take-down requires a lot of repetition and hard work to secure a take-down.

I would rather lose my energy by training from the bottom.

Then practicing a take-down that would give me 2 points,

but then maybe exposing my back I could give 4 points if he takes my back.

I did not like that much, so I practiced from the bottom for the most part.

For me, going to the ground I tried to get the take-down or pull guard, so I began to pull guard.

At the time the guard was mostly used as closed guard.

People pulled closed guard to attack mainly by choke, americana and arm bar from the guard. That was it.

And when you open it, you were in the turtle.

I did not do that. I started to do open guard. I was very flexible, I still am today.

I have a lot of flexibility and it helped me a lot, it helped me a lot in this open guard version.

I still practiced closed guard but when I could not submit, I opened and tried to sweep.

So couple things made my name grow as a teacher, as a fighter and finally the Delariva hook.

I remember especially from brown to black belt I started to work more this technique (Delariva Guard).

Which today people call the Delariva Hook or Delariva Guard.

Combined the growth of Jiu-Jitsu with the growth of my name and it just took off.

It was kind of like that as Jiu Jitsu grow we grow with it. Jiu-Jitsu, Vale Tudo, MMA, UFC and it just exploded.

So I was with this Jiu-Jitsu boat and all of us raised by the raising tide together.