Key Takeaways
- A four-part Gi DVD delivering a very clear breakdown of essential guard concepts.
- Features direct examples such as spider guard, De la Riva, X-guard, and others.
- Offers details on distance, timing, space management, and creating safe zones.
- BJJ World Expert Rating: 10 out of 10.
BREAKING RHYTHM MARGOT CICCARELLI DVD GET HERE
Conceptually BJJ DVDs always come with a question mark. It is not easy to teach concepts, as I have found out the hard way. Unlike direct moves, they’re kind of open to interpretation, which sometimes leaves people focusing on things that are not important and ending up with useless information.
Somehow, though, Margot Ciccarelli managed to crack this puzzle. The Breaking Rhythm Margot Ciccarelli DVD is a resource even a first-week white belt can pick up, and develop a much more in-depth understanding of the underlying concepts of the guard. IT is one of the best conceptual DVDs I’ve seen in a long time!
What’s BJJ All About?
Understanding Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu can only come after a certain amount of time spent gathering the pieces that help you put together the big picture. That is why people only start looking at the puzzle as a whole around the brown belt level – they don’t have all the pieces yet.
That said, it is not difficult to figure out what all the exchanges in grappling are all about if someone delivers the information in a way you can easily understand. In such a scenario, you begin knowing what the game is all about, and all the techniques, moves, and tactics that you pick up along the way add to your options.
Remember that looking at BJJ concepts can be a double-edged sword, as there are probably just as many of them as there are techniques. Unless you can figure out the ‘string theory of BJJ’ a.k.a. the crucial concepts behind the game, you’re actually better off collecting techniques than concepts.
The Breaking Rhythm Margot Ciccarelli DVD offers an in-depth analysis of the key concepts that make guards in BJJ work. She sticks to the big picture using practical examples that will benefit both guard players and guard passers.
Free Flow Specialist Margot Ciccarelli
The story of Margot Ciccarelli is a very interesting one. With a degree in mechanical engineering, Margot was always driven by a curious and innovative mind, which were qualities that made her impossible to deal with on the mats. If you’ve seen her compete, you’ve seen her move seamlessly between bolos, lapel guards, inversions, and rides, staying aggressive at all times but never overcommitting.
Margot’s unique style caught people’s eyes during her colored belt days, when she seemed to cut through competition as a hot knife through butter, resulting in a bunch of World, PAns, European, and similar top-tier titles.
After her promotion to black belt by Murilo Santana in 2021, after 9 years of active training. Always the nomad, Ciccarelli started training at the famous Mill Hill gym in Londen, where she grew up, but her constant travels allowed her to learn from many high-end names in BJJ such as Rodrigo Caporal, Gui Mendes, Jude Samuel, and the tough crew at Unity in NYC.
Her understanding of mechanics along with her fascination with movement led her to co-create Jitz-jamming, a one-of-a-kind creative art form that is like Ginastica Natural, but done with a partner and much more BJJ-oriented.
IF you haven’t been to a Margot Ciccarelli seminar or seen many of her DVDs, there is no better place to start than her final one – the Breaking Rhythm Margot Ciccarelli DVD. Read on to learn why.
Breaking Rhythm Margot Ciccarelli DVD Review
The Breaking Rhythm Margot Ciccarelli DVD is a four-part BJJ instructional that features about 3 hours of super useful material on the underlying concepts behind BJJ guards. Margot uses the Gi to present her material, but the principles she delivers work regardless of apparel:
Part 1 – Building a Safe Zone
This incredible DVD begins with a unique approach to understanding BJJ, one that rarely features in instructionals – the psychologer. Margot begins by talking about concepts we’ve heard of and use daily, such as distance and space management, but she does it from a very interesting perspective.
After talking about the usual three distances of guards in Jiu-Jitsu, Margot goes on to present the concept of a safe zone, something that takes us past just simple guard retention tactics. She offers the mental framework first, setting the tone for the rest of the material in the Half Guard Evolution Rodnei Barbosa DVD.
The first volume also contains a few chapters on the subject of timing, and how windows of opportunity work in BJJ. I found this first volume so informational and inspirational I actually watched it two times before proceeding with the others.
Part 2 – Connecting Guards
One of the toughest things to do in BJJ successfully is get out from one guard to another when you’re under pressure, without giving away passing opportunities. Margot has a foundational concept to share on these transitions that ties in with the window of opportunity principle, and she delivers it in this p.art of the Breaking Rhythm Margot Ciccarelli DVD.
Ciccarelli uses the spider guard to explain a few nuances of guard retention that relate to the safe space concept, before providing easy blueprints to allow you to seamlessly change from the spider to the seated guard, X-guard, Tripod guard, and a bunch of others. As transitions start to flow, Margot introduces the best time to launch sweep attacks, offering plenty of examples.
Part 3 – Understanding Timing
As we reach the third part of the Breaking Rhythm Margot Ciccarelli DVD the subject of timing gets a lot more attention. Margot shares her approach to following people from open guards and the cues she relies on to transition into attacks or other guards.
While the principles are fairly simple and not something unheard of, Ciccarelli manages to offer an innovative way to practice them. She offers a way to make a grid based on your bpms, with reactions corresponding to any rises in rhythm.
Once again using double sleeve guards as the starting point, Margot offers examples of sweeps and transitions, and even upper body submission attacks using the system she developed. She wraps this volume up with a great chapter on the importance of knowing what the person on top is trying to achieve.
Part 4 – The Underhook De la Riva
The final volume in the Breaking Rhythm Margot Ciccarelli DVD is filled with more examples, this time featuring a guard that doesn’t rely on direct upper body control as much. The underhook De la Riva has been popular lately, especially among leg lockers, but Margot demonstrates how you can use it for a lot more than just lower body attacks.
Using the grid matrix Margot launches an unstoppable array of submissions, back takes, and sweeps, which explains what she did that left people confused as she moved seamlessly from position to position during her matches. Once again, she wraps up with an overview of the top person’s DLR objectives, making it easy to understand where your safe and hot zones are.
Mastering The Predictable
The Breaking Rhythm Margot Ciccarelli DVD offers a wealth of crucial concepts that help you better understand what makes guards work. During her demonstrations, Margot constantly refers to timing as a key aspect of everything you do from the guard.
Timing has a lot to do with the success of your attacks and your blocks, but there is a bigger underlying benefit to figuring it out than simply knowing when to sweep or launch ha triangle choke. Understanding timing means you can predict what the other person is going to do.
Think of it as a dance that comes with a preset combination of steps – number 2 is always going to come before 3, and number 4 is always going to follow 3. It is the same with creating motions from the top, particularly against the guard, allowing you, as the guard player, to set up your attacks beforehand and simply allow your partner to lead… until you decide to take over.
DOWNLOAD HERE: BREAKING RHYTHM MARGOT CICCARELLI DVD
Next Level Half Guard!
Playing guard can be very different from simply remembering a bunch of multi-step submissions and sweeps and trying to throw them at your opponent without any regard to what they’re trying to do or who the moves you’re doing connect.
The Breaking Rhythm Margot Ciccarelli DVD is the perfect fix for this issue which is widespread throughout the white to purple belt ranks in BJJ. The best part is that Margot covers things so clearly that anyone can understand what the guard is all about, even at white belt. A highly recommended addition to your BJJ collection!
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