We take a look at the Nicholas Meregali Fundamentals Of Jiu-Jitsu DVD Bundle today, which claims to deliver in-depth details on how one of the best Gi grapplers in modern Jiu-Jitsu builds his competition game. The bundle consists of 5 different titles, each outlining a guard or passing aspect of Meregali’s game plan.
While I am not the biggest fan of Gi Jiu-Jitsu, I’ve done it excessively over the years and I have followed Meregali since his early black belt days. I’ve always been fascinated with how effective he is in his matches and I couldn’t wait to dig into the dissection of his methods. Here’s what I found out:
Key Takeaways
- A five-part bundle containing passing and guard Nicholas Meregali DVD titles.
- Based on the world title-winning game of one of the best grapplers in Gi BJJ.
- Contains almost 15 hours of material on Gi guards, passing, and submissions.
- BJJ World Expert Rating: 6 out of 10.
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Nicholas Meregali – A Gi BJJ Virtuoso
Nicholas Meregali was a grappler that most people involved in Gi Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu knew as a top competitor in the late 2010s. The Brazilian-born began training in 2010 and managed to reach his black belt in just 6 years. He was promoted by Mario Reis and Jeferson Adan already having won the Brazilian Nationals as a blue belt and the IBJJF Worlds and Europeans at purple and brown.
His winning streak carried over into his black belt performances, marked by winning the IBJJF Worlds 3 times, completely dominating both his division and the absolute in 2022. He also has a double gold title at the IBJJF Pans, as well as 4 more Brazilian Nationals as a black belt.
A major jump in his grappling career was his humility. Recognizing that he is masterful with the Gi, but lacks No-Gi experience, Meregali opted to join the New Wave team so that he could learn from the best – John Danaher himself. He started training with Danaher and Gordon Ryan in 2022 and hasn’t stopped, as he is getting ready to conquer the No-Gi BJJ World as well.
Since his No-Gi still needs work, as witnessed at the 2024 ADCC, Meregali has been relentless at putting out high-level instructionals depicting his multiple world title-winning Gi game. Now, all of them are available in the Nicholas Meregali Fundamentals Of Jiu-Jitsu DVD Bundle,
Reviewing The Nicholas Meregali Fundamentals Of Jiu Jitsu DVD Bundle
The review of this Nicholas Meregali Fundamentals Of Jiu-Jitsu DVD Bundle was way less enjoyable than I thought it would be, but he managed to salvage it at the end. It is a 5-part bundle that contains DVDs outlining his guard and passing game for Gi Jiu-Jitsu, with a total running time of just under 15 hours:
Open Guard Attacks DVD – AVAILABLE HERE
Subject Matter: As you’d expect from the title, this first member of the Nicholas Meregali Fundamentals Of Jiu-Jitsu DVD Bundle outlines the Brazilian’s open guard approach, focusing mostly on attacking with submissions from the lasso guard.
Key Points Covered: This 6-part instructional by Meregali is a fairly short one but organized in a way that will truly help people with no or little prior experience develop a competitive open guard Gi game.
Mergeali starts with guard basics, talking about mechanics, positioning, and grips in the first two parts of the DVD, before moving on to actual attacks, mostly in the form of triangle-Omoplata combinations. He uses the lasso guard and a few variations to launch his attacks, supplementing them with plenty of overhead sweeps. the X-guard and De La Riva also make an appearance.
Technical DVD Specifications: Short by modern BJJ DVD standards, this six-volume instructional only lasts around 2 and a half hours, with some of the volumes barely reaching 10 minutes of material.
Closed Distance Open Guard DVD – DOWNLOAD HERE
Subject Matter: A bit more precise than his previous DVD, this Meregali BJJ instructional targets playing open guard at a specific distance. While I wouldn’t call it fundamental it does provide lots of basics and refrains from over-complicating things.
Key Points Covered: This title in the Nicholas Meregali Fundamentals Of Jiu-Jitsu DVD Bundle offers a lot of value, in terms of setting up a balanced open guard game. Instead of just attacking Nicholas covers how to avoid common mistakes, guard retention and recovery, transitions between guards, and important counters to passes.
The main culprits are once again X-Guard and De la Riva variations, based on Gi grips, as well as the dangerous collar and sleeve guard that Meregali used a lot in his matches. Transitions to the back appear towards the end, making this DVD a very well-rounded open-guard resource.
Technical DVD Specifications: Once again, Meregali opted for 6 distinct DVDs, none rally offering too much in terms of length, but a lot in terms of useful information. The total running time is just over 3 hours.
Standing Guard Passing DVD – GET IT HERE
Subject Matter: In the third part of the Nicholas Meregali DVD Bundle he switches to the top, exploring standing passing against various guards while relying on the Gi. The focus is on different passes and how you can use them against the most common BJJ guards.
Key Points Covered: Meregali begins by covering essential mechanics first, similarly to his other DVDs. Most of the first two volumes cover the stages of passing and an overview of common passing sequences.
As the instructional progresses, Meregali goes into what each guard offers in terms of strengths and and where their weaknesses are. He uses a system of grips to gauge the effectiveness of passes, quickly switching between different ones.
Technical DVD Specifications: The first top position contribution to the Nicholas Meregali Fundamentals Of Jiu-Jitsu DVD Bundle is a serious one in terms of length, with the 6 volumes totaling just over 4 hours of material, neatly organized in chapters and sections.
Meregali’s Gi System DVD – FULL DOWNLOAD
Subject Matter: The best-sounding part of the Nicholas Meregali Fundamentals Of Jiu-Jitsu DVD Bundle is the breakdown of his entire competitive system, which covers his top and bottom game, as well as grip fighting strategies.
Key Points Covered: This is a short instructional, more of an overview than an instructional, really. It could’ve been a set of 4 YouTube videos instead, with Meregalsi very shortly touching on his X-guard game, Torreando passing, mount, and back finishes, and dealing with the top half. The only part really worth it is the volume on grip fighting tactics.
Technical DVD Specifications: 4-part DVDs featuring no more than 20 minutes of material per volume, and those are the longer ones. An underwhelming total of 1 hour of material touching upon different badly connected parts of Meregali’s Gi game.
Half Guard Pressure Passing DVD –DOWNLOAD DVD HERE
Subject Matter: The final part of the Nicholas Meregali Fundamentals Of Jiu-Jitsu DVD Bundle covers pressure passing versus the half guard, something Meregali became known and feared for.
Key Points Covered: A comprehensive and very detailed guide on dealing with the half guard by utilizing pressure passing. Meregali goes bit by bit to deconstruct all the layers of the guard, methodically guiding you toward an unstoppable pass.
He also covers different half guard variations and what variables of the methodology you need to adjust to deal with them, rather than doing completely new types of passes. The last part of the instructional features Meregalis’ favorite top half guard submissions.
Technical DVD Specifications: While numbering only three volumes, this is the most substantial DVD in the Nicholas Meregali Fundamentals Of Jiu-Jitsu DVD Bundle, lasting well over 3 hours, although 2 of those are contained within the first volume. without a doubt the best DVD in the bundle!
The Final Verdict
The Nicholas Meregali Fundamentals Of Jiu-Jitsu DVD Bundle is a resource that Gi players who are thinking about organizing their game might find useful. I’d say it is limited in potential to giving blue belts stuff to think about and then use to build a game by consulting their coaches.
The DVD on open guard is underwhelming, to say the least, and is not really going to be of much help to anyone. I have no idea why the Meregali’s Gi System is in this bundle at all, as that one should be outlawed for being so notoriously unhelpful and ill-conceived.
That said, Meregalis standing passing, close distance guards and, in particular, the pressure passing DVD are worth getting in this Nicholas Meregali Fundamentals Of Jiu-Jitsu DVD Bundle. They actually provide everything you need to build as strong and versatile guard and passing game for Gi Jiu-Jitsu, and might even be useful to advanced grapplers at brow and black belt level.
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Fundamentals Win Fights!
As a big fan of fundamentals for competitive BJJ, I must say I was pretty disappointed at what Meregali delivered. Knowing how methodical and detailed he is in his matches I expected that he’d at least deliver actionable advice in his Nicholas Meregali Fundamentals Of Jiu-Jitsu DVD Bundle rather than just snippets of his game.
The bundle as a whole is not that bad, and it is going to be useful for building a Gi game based on the experiences of one of the most efficient Gi grapplers in the world. It does reduce al to of the clutter of modern BJJ, sticking to the things that will win you matches, especially in terms of simplifying open guards.
All BJJ Guard Passing DVD and Digital Instructionals GI & No-Gi
