Key Takeaways
- A 4-volume No-Gi DVD on playing a submission-heavy closed guard game.
- It delivers several different closed-guard variations, offering sweep, submission, and back attacks from each.
- Places lots of emphasis on principles such as posture breaking, hand fighting, and chaining attacks.
- BJJ World Expert Rating: 8.5 out of 10.
CLOSET CLOSED GUARD CRAIG JONES DVD HERE:
Craig Jones has another new guard to promote, but exactly what is new about it remains to be seen. If you’re interested in the contents of the Closet Closed Guard Craig Jones DVD, we did our best to deliver an inside scoop on what this instructional delivers.
Before you move on with the full review, let’s manage expectations. Will you learn something new? Sure! Will it be something nobody in the BJJ world apart from Craig has ever thought of, or done? Absolutely not. Wil you emerge on the other side of this DVD with a better closed-guard game? Yes, and then some. On to the review now.
Closet Guard?
What is this craziness now? Will it be as good as some of Craig Jones’ other brainfarts, or as bad as some of Craig Jones’ other brainfarts? With Craig, you never really know what you’re in for. This time around, it is just wordplay in terms of originality, but the entire system is right up there with his best work, in terms of effectiveness.
Craig’s closet guard is just a re-take on the classic closed guard – legs wrapped around the waist, arms doing other things to break posture and set up attacks. You know, just like in your very first class.
If you’re expecting the closed guard to end all closed guards, different than any other version, you’re in for a disappointment, However, if you are expecting a quick and effective way out of the closet via sweeps, submissions, and back takes, than the Craig Jones Closed Guard DVD is your ticket out.
Another Craig Jones Moment of Brilliance
Craig already has some catchphrases that are etched into the very essence of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. To shorten the suspense his Closet Guard is not even in the same universe as “Just Stand Up” or some of his other recognizable stuff.
That said, as far as actual BJJ goes, the Closet Closed Guard Craig Jones DVD is a very useful instructional, providing a very effective way of setting up a closed guard game. I am not sure if you remember (or know at all) but Craig was a prolific guard player (closed and Z-guard) before he became famous for leg locks, which was before he turned into the most known troll in Jiu-Jitsu.
In short, Craig has spent more time hunting for triangles in the closed guard than he has in Ashi, fighting women, or digging up mysterious guys to give him millions of dollars to put on crazy events and dress the likes. All in all, this instructional is arguably one of Craig’s best in terms of its technical worth.
Closet Closed Guard Craig Jones DVD Review
The Closet Closed Guard Craig Jones DVD has four volumes of No-Gi instructions on playing several different closed guard variations. Over the course of three and a half hours, Craig offers different ways to get sweeps and submissions, very successfully linking them all together into an easy system:
Part 1 – Must-Know Subs & Hand Fighting
Craig starts the instructional by explaining the Closet guard concept – it’s just a phrase that places the closed guard as your first position because ‘everyone starts in the closet’. Otherwise, it’s just plain old closed guar,d with a submission-heavy focus and a few game-changing details.
In the first part of the Closet Closed Guard Craig Jones DVD hand fighting gets a lot of attention setting the stage for a few (more precisely 3) must-know submissions that Craig spends a lot of time on.
He then launches into a deeper explanation of one of them, the Omoplata, offering a mini-system with entries, finishes, sweeping, and follow-ups.
Part 2 – Triangle & Armbar Chains
In part two of the Closet Closed Guard Craig Jones DVD Craig delivers a lot of information on triangles, so if you’re a triangle nut like me, you’re really going to enjoy this volume. It’s not just setups and finishing triangles but also details on troubleshooting and a way to connect them into submission chains with armbars, and not just a flash combo.
I love that the armbars that Craig shows here start in the closed guard, but all the finishing is done from the top – the only way to do them, in my opinion. Anti-stacking info also features here, solving the biggest problem you might run into when looking for armbar-triangle combos from the guard.
Part 3 – Overhook Closet Guard
The best possible version of the closed (okay, closet) guard is the one featuring an overhook. Unless you’re camping out in Williams Guard, the overhook should be your go-to. This part of the Craig Jones Closet Guard explains why, in the off-chance, you don’t already know.
Craig begins with posture break strategies, following up with key overhook attacks that come back to the three must-know subs. Two, out of the three, feature in this part, as Craig offers a new connection, this time between the Omoplata and the Triangle, off the overhook control position.
Part 4 – Arm Across Attacks
Arm across means armbars. This final part of the Closet Closed Guard Craig Jones DVD once again demonstrates that he is true, but also offers a few more different avenues of attack in addition to armbars.
Craig uses the arm across position to launch into a side-guard-type position, which allows him to sweep as well as set up armbars, and even open up back attacks. Lots of armbars appear in this portion, once again linked to the triangle, and through it, everything else covered in this instructional.
Thinking Outside the Closed Guard
If you’re aiming to use the Closet Closed Guard Craig Jones DVD to improve your closed guard, you can expect great results, fast. However, have you asked yourself what your closed-guard goals are?
You see, context matters, and the end goal of playing closed guard (or any other guard, for that matter) is to get out of the closed guard in a way that places you in a dominant top position, or in a position to finish a joint lock or a choke.
It is a general way of looking at things, yes, but when you begin thinking about the guard in this way, rather than as a guaranteed position that will deliver specific sequences of moves, you’ll find that you’ll have a lot more success with it. In other words, know what’s on the other side of the closet when you’re dead-set on getting out of it!
FULL DOWNLOAD: CLOSET CLOSED GUARD CRAIG JONES DVD
Get in the Closet (Guard)!
Time to get in the closet for a bit, and figure out how to set everything up so that your exit from it is going to be unforgettable. This, I think, is the analogy that caring was after with the Closet Closed Guard Craig Jones DVD. He might have missed the mark in terms of making this one crazy memorable, but he did deliver a super-effective way of organizing your closed guard.
