Staying on top of your opponent in BJJ and MMA provides many advantages, but it is not an easy task to accomplish. While you’ll undoubtedly get to a top position from time to time, staying in it often ends up being an issue.
The problem is that we have a ton of different top positions to consider, and instead of trying to make a dominant one work, we are happy to change between them until we inevitably fail and end up on the bottom. We’ve all been there.
Heather Jo Clark’s 10th Planet Top Game, focusing on how to make the top half guard your main top position, offers a complete game plan that will help you keep the top once you conquer it, throwing a bunch of curve balls at your opponent along the way.
Key Takeaways
- 2-part No-Gi BJJ DVD with almost 2 hours of 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu moves.
- A bunch of unorthodox ways to hold, pass, and submit from the top half guard.
- Taught by Ultimate Fighter Season 20 winner Heather Jo Clark.
- BJJ World Expert Rating: 8 out of 10.
GET THE 10TH PLANET TOP GAME DVD HERE!!!
The 10th Planet Game
Even when I was a white belt, training in a traditional BJJ Gi-only gym, I was fascinated with Eddie Bravo and his 10th Planet System. It just made sense. Bravo launched his own version of Jiu-Jitsu after getting his black belt from Jean Jacques Machado, trying to create a grappling style tailor-made for MMA.
While the 10th Planet style never really took off as an MMA-specific version of BJJ, it did take off- in a big way. Unorthodox, often flashy, extremely effective, and not bound by any traditional dogmas, Bravo’s 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu was the first major tectonic shift in the BJJ World.
Given his original idea of an MMA-oriented grappling style, Bravo spends a lot of time perfecting and modifying the best positions from wrestling and BJJ, resulting in one of the most intricate and tight styles in existence. Although the Rubber Guard might not be for everyone, stuff like the lockdown and the entire 10th Planet Top Game, from passing to the Truck and Twister are stuff that you definitely want in your arsenal.
‘Hurricane’ Heather Jo Clark
If you ever stumble into 10th Planet Boca Raton then you’re bound to run into Heather Jo Clark, a.k.. the head coach. The UFC strawweight and Ultimate Fighter Season 20 winner is a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu under Eddie Bravo and has been representing 10 Planet Jiu-Jitsu throughout her grappling career.
Just like most folks at 10th Planet, Heather is very competitive but decided to channel her energy into MMA rather than professional grappling. She joined the famous Jackson/ Winkeljohn Academy in Albuquerque training with the likes of Holy Holm, Julie Kedzie, and Michelle Waterson.
As her pro-MMA career took off, Heather moved to LA, deciding to make the Xtreme Couture gym her home base. Heather beat Bec Rawlings in the Ultimate Fighter Season 20 finale with a torn ACL, demonstrating grit and determination.
Before retiring in 2018, she fought several more times against high-profile names in the UFC, Bellator, and Invicta FC. Since hanging up the MMA gloves, Heather turned to teaching Jiu-Jitsu at the 10th Planet Boca Raton gym she built in 2023.
Heather Jo Clark 10th Planet Top Game DVD Review
The 10th Planet Top Game BJJ DVD is an instructional by Heather Jo Clark focusing on playing top half guard. It is a No-Gi instructional with almost 2 hours of material on how to hold, pass, and submit from the top half guard:
Part 1 – Half Guard Top
As Hurricane Heather kicks off her first BJJ instructional, she starts in the top half guard. The first chapter is a general overview of the position, and what you can do from it in BJJ and MMA. I happen to agree with Heather that forcing half guard from the top is one of the smartest and most efficient ways to pin and restrict motion.
As Heather starts rolling out the 10th Planet techniques, she begins using a no-hand pass which is very unique and will definitely surprise opponents. She goes on to explore body lock passing, known as ‘Buttock Compressor’ in the 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu vocabulary. The dog bar setup from this pass is one to watch out for.
Two-thirds in this volume of the Heather Jo Clark instructional she changes tactics again, offering a new avenue of passing, this time by switching hip sand forcing twister side control. Of course, this involves lots of rolling attacks, so sequences like The Ninja Roll to Swedish Twister appear a lot. They make sense and seem to work just fine, though.
Part 2 – Submissions
The 10th Planet system has always been one of the most submission-oriented styles out there, and Heather does it justice by dedicating an entire volume to the different ways you can make someone tap from the 10th Planet Top Game.
‘Hurricane’ opens with an unusual Guillotine choke setup that looks like a north-south choke, given the heavy use of the lat. She moves on to combine several more guillotines, including the mounted high-elbow finish into a very efficient and aggressive way to attack from the top half guard.
Other submissions featured in this volume include arm triangle chokes, mostly in the form of the D’arce and Anaconda, the usual pairing from the top half guard. heather also shares some interesting Japanese Necktie details, before wrapping up with an Americana/armbar combo.
Rule #1: Be The Guy/Girl On Top!
In the unforgettable words of Chris Haueter: always be the guy on top, and when on top, stay on top. Everyone who has been grappling for at least a while understands how crucial a versatile top game is for success and progress in BJJ.
The premise can be seen throughout grappling martial arts. From Judo and Wrestling to Sambo all grappling martial arts favor top positions, whether it is in a sports or self-defense setting. As Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu offers a lot more threats from the bottom, mostly by way of guard variations, learning how to be dominant from the top is much more challenging, but also rewarding.
Being on top puts you in cruise control, even if you have to deal with the opponent’s guard. Simply by making them carry your weight, you’re making them put in twice the amount of effort you do. Not to mention having nowhere to move behind them, courtesy of the mats.
Heather Jo Clark chose to focus on the half guard as the quintessential top position in Jiu-Jitu in her 10th Planet Top Game DVD instructional. Simply sitting on the bottom person’s leg is more than enough to put you in a position where you restrict movement, put pressure on, and can proceed to submit directly or by gaining more dominant positions. Smart play.
10TH PLANET TOP GAME HEATHER JO CLARK DVD DOWNLOAD!!!
Stay On Top!
Just listen to Chris and whenever you’re on top, stay there! Since this is easier said than done, the 10th Planet Top Game BJJ DVD by Heather Jo Clark is a great resource to help you figure out how to set up and use one of the best top positions in BJJ – the top half guard.
Whether you’re looking to improve your top game for grappling or need the best position to unleash merciless ground and pound in MMA, the safety and versatility of the top half guard mean that there is no need to look past this position. using an unorthodox approach such as the 10th Planet Top Game only increases your effectiveness by introducing the element of surprise.
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