Key Takeaways
- A No-Gi BJJ DVD covering every straight armbar variation you’ll ever need.
- Features top, bottom, and standing setups as well as submission combos centered around armbars.
- Offers incredible details on standard, reverse, and shotgun finishing mechanics and grip positioning.
- BJJ World Expert Rating: 7.5 out of 10.
ARMBAR IT ALL SHAWN WILLIAMS DVD GET HERE:
This instructional is an interesting one. It goes past the usual armbar setups and the needless repetition of things we’ve already seen. Instead, the Arm Bar It All Shawn Melanson DVD offers a direct guide on getting different kinds of straight armbars from all possible positions in grappling.
Even for those who don’t really like doing armbars, such as me, this instructional holds important information. I like triangles a lot more, but what I figured out through the years is that a triangle is a lot easier to get and finish when you’re using the arm as your anchor and one-way street to the choke. A lot more instances such as this one are presented in the DVD.
The Highest Percentage Submission
Statistics say that the armbars are the highest percentage submissions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This is easy to understand, given that most people training are white to blue belt, and the armbar is one of the things that is both familiar to everyone, and easy to make sense of.
So why not add them to your arsenal? Specializing in something is great, but if you know there is a super-high percentage chance of finishing something, and you’re not doing it, that’s like intentionally playing a game on the hardest setting when you still don’t even understand the commands.
The moral here is that you need to start using armbars more. Don’t worry, they won’t all work, but that, also, is a good thing for your JIu-Jitsu. The more high percentage a move is the more people are aware of it. it’s also why the Arm Bar It All Shawn Melanson DVD goes over so many different armbar variations.
Submission Maestro Shawn Melanson
You know who Shawn is. There is a great chance that you’re among his thousands of followers waiting for his next video to drop. He is a lot more active on Instagram than he is issuing long-form BJJ instructional, but I have a feeling that’s going to change if the Shawn Melanson Armbars DVD is any indication.
Shawn is a very active competitor, with his latest gold medal coming in the NAGA Rhode Island championship just a few weeks ago, in March 2025. With a record of 18 submission wins out of 30 and a bunch of gold medals and super fight victories, the black belt certainly can back up what he demonstrates in his videos.
The 31-year-old American No-Gi prospect is also active in MMA, with a 3-1 record. Fighting out of New Hampshire, I expect we’ll be seeing a lot more from him on the mats, on his popular social media channels, and in full-length instructionals.
Arm Bar It All Shawn Melanson DVD Review
The rm Bar It All Shawn Melanson DVD is a four-part instructional that lasts for a total of an hour and a half, offering interesting details, and importantly, variations on finishing straight armbars in No-Gi:
Part 1 – Mounted Armbars
In the opening portion of the Arm Bar It All Shawn Melanson DVD, mounted armbars are up first. Unusual, as most people tend to go from guard or show finishing mechanics. Not Shawn. He knows what works, and does not waste any time demonstrating it.
Right out of the gate, he talks about the S-mount dilemmas when you’re looking to finish an armbar. The solutions extend past just the traditional armbar finish, with triangle chokes, shotgun armbars, and a bunch of other straight armbar variations. They all work together to create an impossible scenario to defend against.
Part 2 – Side Control Armbars
The shotgun armbar that appeared at the end of the first volume sets the tone for what we get to see in this part. Melanson looks into the, according to me, most difficult spot for securing armbars as he takes us through far and near side setups from top.
Spinning armbars of course, feature in this part of the Shawn Melanson Arm Bar DVD, as do near-side quick finishes, such as the sliding armbar. I enjoyed the Rau Dag armbar, a setup I haven’t used before, and I also liked the solution Shawn has for the hitchhiker escape, which extends past just side control armbar setups.
Part 3 – Guard Armbars
The most difficult of the bunch. Setting up an armbar from guard is extremely hard, although the Arm Bar It All Shawn Melanson DVD does offer great pointers to help you figure it out faster.
Some of those key pointers include setups from the closed guard, using the 2-on-1 grip, and how to involve your legs in the finish. Shawn also provides great finishing details, as well as yet another shotgun armbar finish. The reverse armlock from headquarters is one I’ve been using for years and it’s definitely well worth pursuing.
Part 4 – Flying Armbars
I stick by my earlier statement that guard armbars are the most difficult ones to get. A close second in difficulty is the flying setup that, understandably, happens mostly from standing.
Bringing the Arm Bar It All Shawn Melanson DVD to an end in style, Melanson’s focus in the final stretch is on safe flying armbar setups against both a standing and a seated opponent. He offers a very useful and instinctive traingle follow-up and wraps everything up with a couple more armbar variations.
Everyone Knows Armbars
Even those folks who walk in from the streets, juiced to the gills on TRT, and who claim to ‘see red’ know an armbar when they see one. So, you can bet that anyone training BJJ, no matter how long, is also going to know what an armbar is, even if they’re not quite clear which variation you’re using to finish.
That means people will try to get away from you or stop your armbar somehow. And that is something you want. It would be naive to hope to finish an armbar every time you go for one – even Shawn can’t boast of such a perfect record.
What you get, though, when you go for a legitimately tight armbar attack, is a reaction. And those reactions are exactly why people develop entire systems around armbar threats. triangles, Omoplatas, Kimuras, Guillotines, back takes… the list goes on and on for stuff yoU can do when you have your opponent occupied with protecting their elbow.
The Arm Bar It All Shawn Melanson DVD shows a lot of armbar variations from top, bottom, and standing positions. All of them will have greater value for you as opportunity creators, rather than finishes, at least until you really specialize in one, or several of them. And that is a good thing!
DOWNLOAD HERE: ARMBAR IT ALL SHAWN WILLIAMS DVD
Pop Them Elbows!
Time to introduce a bit of urgency to your game. Use the information in the Arm Bar It All Shawn Melanson DVD to make people react more, by attacking their elbows from a bunch of unexpected positions. The shotgun armbars from this DVD alone are enough to make people scared of placing their palms on your body. Add in the classic finishes and submission combos and you can pretty much do whatever you want. Or an armbar.
Cop vs Thief: White Belt Cop Armbar Attempt Gets Countered by Woman
