Andre Galvao is one of the people who have been recording instructionals since the VHS days. The man has a lot to teach, as all the monsters that keep coming out of his Atos den testify. Galvao has been active with shooting new material for instructional lately, with his “Dealing With Closed Guard When Standing” release being the latest Andre Galvao DVD review we did.
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Overview
Dealing with the closed guard is a difficult task for BJJ athletes of all levels, with and without the Gi, from the inception of Jiu-Jitsu all the way to today. In this particular DVD, Galvao targets a subject that remains constantly important and is somehow just as constantly overlooked by coaches and instructors.
As you’ll see from the detailed Andre Galvao DVD review that follows, this is instructional with a modern look, containing 4 volumes of material, but still carrying Andre Galvao’s signature touch of shooting instructional with few subjects explained in extreme detail.
The multiple ADCC and IBJJF champion is well versed in both Gi and No-Gi, but this particular instructional is a Gi-specific BJJ DVD.
Instructor Background
Andre Galvao is a two-time ADCC winner, three-time ADCC super fight winner, and seven-time IBJJF world champion, among many other huge accolades in the last couple of decades.
A black belt under Luis Dagmar, Galvao is considered to be one of the best competitors ever in the sport of Jiu-Jitsu, particularly with the Gi. Galvao is the man behind one of the best-ever BJJ competitor gyms based out of San Diego, CA, the Atos Jiu-Jitsu Academy. Throughout the years, the academy has produced the likes of the Mendes brothers, Keenan Cornelius, the Ruotolo brothers, and many other world champions.
Galvao has a hands-on approach to teaching, constantly training with his competitors and still competing himself at the highest levels of the sport.
His teaching methodology is old-school Brazilian, with Andre sharing an extreme amount of details during long-winded explanations of even the smallest steps of a technique. This makes him one of the best coaches in the business, as he can make the same subject interesting and useful to white and black belts alike.
Subject
The subject covered in this Andre Galvao DVD review is his approach to dealing with the closed guard whenever you get stuck in it. As specific and precise as he is, Galvao focuses on dealing with the closed guard solely by employing standing up, a concept that seems to be dominating modern BJJ in the past year or so.
The DVD covers staying safe from sweeps and submissions, successfully opening the closed guard and executing several different passes, and shutting down any recovery attempts along the way. He even shares a few submissions to ensure you stay past the bottom person’s dangerous legs.
Complexity
The subject is a basic one, and despite taking it very deep into detail and covering transitions that include some advanced stuff like defeating the Spider guard, Andre Galvao is a master of making subjects interesting and appealing to grapplers of all experiences.
As such, this is a DVD great for anyone that would like to learn how to deal with the closed guard in the Gi.
Technical Details
This Andre Galvao DVD has four volumes, each of them lasting about 45 minutes. this brings the total running time to just over 3 hours. Moreover, each of the volumes has only a few chapters, in that typical Andre Galvao instructional fashion, allowing for an easy way to follow topics in terms of organization.
The downside of the long-length chapters is that it can be difficult to rewind and find precise elements once you’re coming back to re-watch the material.
The camerawork, video and audio quality, cover design, and all other technical aspects are at the industry standard set by BJJ Fanatics.
“Dealing With Closed Guard When Standing” is available both in hardcopy DVD and digital high-definition formats.
Detailed Analysis
DVD #1
The way Andre kicks off his instructional is by sharing a very crucial concept that clearly demonstrates a way of thinking when it comes to working from inside someone’s closed guard. That concept is the notion to “be first” and be able to avoid the closed guard game by breaking it down before an opponent has the chance of applying all the layers of their game.
This concept takes about 30 minutes of the first volume and covers a myriad of details and scenarios, which are hard to represent at the level they should be represented in this Andre Galvao DVD review. Let’s just say that you’ll re-watch this portion at least several times given the quality of innovative information in it.
The second and third chapters focus on approaching the closed guard game while standing up, with some drills for balance and strength preceding a very important crucial chapter on jumping guard tactics.
DVD #2
The second part of Andre’s “Dealing With Closed Guard When Standing” DVD contains only two chapters, each lasting in excess of 20 minutes.
The first one covers a very cool concept on blocking sweeps, particularly muscle sweeps by shifting your weight and breaking the bottom person’s posture so that they are unable to disrupt your base and off-balance you.
Some grip tactics follow in the second chapter, with Andre giving a fresh perspective on an old Gi BJJ classic – standing up to open the guard with the cross-sleeve grip control.
DVD #3
The third part of this instructional contains a whole of 4 chapters, which is a lot by Galvao standards, However, the way the content is organized leaves nothing to chance, so this structure makes lots of sense.
Galvao keeps going where he stopped in volume t open2, discussing the cross sleeve grip further, in terms of not just opening the closed guard while standing, but also passing directly to the crucifix position.
The best part of this Andre Galvao DVD review was the portion on the so-called magic grip, which is truly a game-changer when it comes to winning the grip fight from inside the closed guard.
The final two sections in this BJJ instructional cover counter-attacks off of muscle sweep attempts that lead directly into submissions.
DVD #4
Galvao already surpassed many expectations with the quality of material so far in this DVD, but there was still more to come as icing on the cake in the last volume.
There is lots of focus on stuff happening outside the closed guard here, with useful moves and tips on approaching the front leg trap, dealing with the very common spider guard follow-up to the closed guard, and spicing it all up with the very final chapter making the cartwheel pass seem extremely simple and doable even for complete novices.
How We Grade The “Dealing With Closed Guard When Standing” Andre Galvao DVD Instructional
Considering this “Dealing With Closed Guard When Standing” instructional DVD’s technical aspects and quality of content, we come to an overall score for this instructional that I’ll deliberate on in short below.
Technical Quality: 9/10
The chapter length is the only thing that might annoy people, as 20-30 minutes of uninterrupted material is quite a lot to sift through when you are looking for something specific.
Apart from this inconvenience, all other technical aspects are pristine.
Quality of Content: 9/10
Content-wise, the instructional is truly a gold mine for every level of grappler, with the only drawback being that it is a very Gi-specific instructional which makes most of the moves demonstrated completely unusable in No-Gi. That is a real shame, as there’s great quality in the presented content.
Overall: 9/10
The final outcome of our “Dealing With Closed Guard When Standing” Andre Galvao DVD review is that unless you mind long chapters and are a predominantly Gi BJJ athlete, you can consider this instructional to be a 10.
Even those that might find an issue with the above-mentioned nuisances are going to benefit greatly from picking this DVD up.
Wrap Up
All in all, this might be Andre Galvao’s best instructional so far in my humble opinion. The subject matter is definitely one that lacks coverage in general, at least when it comes to a logical high-percentage system that is going to work. Here’s to hoping Andre shares a No-Gi follow-up to this DVD soon.
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