Key Takeaways
- A two-part Gi BJJ instructional covering guard passing concepts.
- Features a complete breakdown of far, medium, and near distances along with practical examples.
- Contains 30 minutes of narrated rolls, competition footage analysis, and drills.
- BJJ World Expert Rating: 9.5 out of 1
DISTANCE ON TOP GUI MENDES DVD GET HERE:
Everyone is struggling with guard passing in BJJ. That’s just the nature of battling one of the staple positions that launched the sport – the guard. With hundreds of different guards available these days, the mobility advantages of the top person are more or less effectively canceled.
So what can you do? Pick up the Understanding The Distance On Top Gui Mendes DVD. Apart from Gui Mendes being the man behind the instructional, which is reason enough to buy any BJJ DVD, the way he structured the material and how he covers the subject using mostly concepts.
Guard Passing Conundrums
What can you achieve in Jiu-Jitsu if you don’t engage with your opponent? Yup, exactly, there’s nothing you can do. This is very true for all kinds of grappling exchanges but people seem to fail to grasp this importance in certain instances, one of which is passing the guard.
If you are the person on top, you’ll find it extremely difficult to pass a good guard from a distance where you can’t establish contact with the bottom person. When you get close, though, your grips and positioning also have to be precise and with a purpose, otherwise you’ll just end up defending sweeps and submissions.
The key aspect that helps you put gripping for passing in BJJ into perspective is distance. At different distances, there are different parts of your opponent’s body available for you to grip in a controlling way, without offering offensive grips to the guard player. That’s exactly what you’ll learn from the Understanding The Distance On Top Gui Mendes DVD, among other very useful passing concepts.
Remember Guilherme Mendes?
Before the Ruotolo brothers, there were a few very impressive brother duos in BJJ that were tearing it up at the highest levels. With the likes of the Ryan brothers, Rodriguez brothers, and Rutolos leading the charge these days, it is easy to forget about their predecessors, such as the Myaos and the Mendes brothers.
The Mendes brothers, in particular, had one of the greatest impacts on Jiu-Jitsu overall, through both their competitive efforts and as coaches and teachers. Guilherme and Rafael Mendes, a.k.a. Gui, and Rafa, were Andre Galvao’s first star students, and Gui became the first Atos black belt in history.
The brothers, largely responsible for the Berimpbolo and huge development of the De la Riva game during their world championship conquering days, ended up opening their own academy Arto of Jiu-Jitsu, which is a true competitors’ den. However, they don’t just produce top-level talent – they also help innovate and evolve BJJ further.
Those who can’t train in the AOJ can at least learn from Gui and Raga using the best learning method available these days – instructional. The Understanding The Distance On Top Gui Mendes DVD is a great one to start with, particularly if you consider yourself to be a passer.
Understanding The Distance On Top Gui Mendes DVD Review
While at first glance this might seem like a short DVD instructional, you’re bound to end up surprised. Despite only two volumes featuring in the Understanding The Distance On Top Gui Mendes DVD, one of them lasts almost two hours, with the other presenting all the technical aspects through narrated sparring. The total running time is around two and a half hours.
Part 1 – Distancing Concepts
I am not too sure if I like or dislike instructionals where most of the information is in only one volume. On one hand, it allows for practicality, and there is a definite ease when it comes to connecting the dots. The downside is that it is difficult to find specific chapters when you are dealing with a two-hour-long video.
Apart from these first-world BJJ problems, the Understanding The Distance On Top Gui Mendes DVD is the perfect instructional. Gui starts by explaining what his goal is with this instructional, before exploring the three key distances that you’ll encounter when passing the guard.
These distances, which he defines as near, medium, and far, are defined by the guard player and the type of guard they are playing, forcing you to adopt as a passer. Mendess goes deep into connecting technical passes such as Torrenados, leg drags, and stacks with each distance, as well as offering a simple concept of how they all connect.
Strategy is also a part of this DVD, with Mendes discussing how to use your understanding of distances in guard vs. passing exchanges and developing your tactics based on them.
Part 2 – Sparring Analysis
The second part of the Understanding The Distance On Top Gui Mendes DVD lasts just under 30 minutes and offers 10 minutes of sparring analysis, with all the concepts discussed above in action.
Furthermore, this portion of the instructional also contains competition footage, helping make the important distinction of how things look in the gym vs. tournaments. Once again, Gui narrates everything, offering in-depth analysis, and concludes this DVD with a set of key mobility drills.
Changing Your Attacks
The best grapplers in the world are those that move in very unpredictable patterns. Take Gary Tonon or the Ruotolos for example – you never know what’s next. Some of the best matches in the history of the sport involve them, along with opponents such as Renato Canuto and Andrew Tackett who also favor movement over static control.
Having the ability to change your approach is crucial for every aspect of BJJ. but with passing, being multi-dimensional is more of a requirement than an advantage. The more you can figure out how to change angles and more importantly, distances, the more you’re forcing the bottom person to change guards.
Again very good guard players, and/or those crazy flexible people, this makes a world of difference. The moment when the bottom person is changing their guard is exactly the moment you want to go for your pass. However, in order to achieve it, you need to figure out how to change distances and force guard players to follow you.
The Understanding The Distance On Top Gui Mendes DVD is a great resource to not just get you going, but also help you clear this up if you are already experienced in BJJ, including black belts.
FULL DOWNLOAD: UNDERSTANDING DISTANCE ON TOP GUI MENDES DVD
Control The Distance!
Figure out where you are and where you want to be, and then manage distance to achieve your goal. Ti can be as easy as that when you learn the concepts from the Understanding The Distance On Top Gui Mendes DVD! The best way to simplify one of the most difficult things in BJJ, which is passing, is to understand the concepts that make or break it, and Mendes is the man to help you learn this fast!
All BJJ Guard Passing DVD and Digital Instructionals GI & No-Gi
