Key Takeaways
- A No-Gi BJJ DVD offering a deep dive into the top submissions from the Outside Ashi Garami position.
- Offers tactics on dealing with grounded, kneeling, and standing opponents, as well as a submission-heavy plan B.
- Features mostly heel hook finishes and ankle locks, organized in unstoppable dilemmas.
- BJJ World Expert Rating: 8 out of 10.
OUTSIDE ASHI RELOADED JASON RAU DVD – GET IT HERE
When looking at leg lock instructionals, anything that comes from people who have trained at the blue basement of the RGA is better than anything else. This notion is still true, regardless of how many great leg lockers there are in the BJJ world.
The Outside Ashi Reloaded Jason Rau DVD is another great instructional based on a ‘classic’ leg locking position. The Outside Ashi is your gateway engagement to help you figure out leg locks, but it can also be the only thing you do to catch everyone — even world champions.
The Best Ashi Garami?
If you had asked me this 10 years ago, I would’ve said the Inside Senkaku/Honeyhole, or perhaps the Game Over/Sambo Knot. These days, I have no idea whatsoever, as there are just about as many Ashi Garami variations as there are open guards.
Picking an Ashi Garami is like picking out a suit to wear to a wedding — it is a very individual and personal thing to do. That said, there are some positions that offer certain mechanical advantages, but they also come at the cost of complicated and difficult entries.
If I had to pick, I’d say use the strongest leg engagement position that you can get to repeatedly, using the least amount of effort. The Outside Ashi Garami ticks all these boxes, and if you figure out your bite, it’ll become a very trusted attacking position. The Outside Ashi Jason Rau DVD can help with that.
Jason Rau: A Sub-Only Pioneer
Many big names in grappling have come out of the legendary blue basement of Renzo Gracie’s Academy in New York. One name that often flies under the radar, at least in terms of association with the team, is Jason Rau — a true submission specialist and a very forward-thinking grappler.
A black belt under UFC champion Matt Serra, Rau has been around for a while. He has some big wins in his career, including submission victories over Dustin Akbari, PJ Barch, Josh Hayden, and Austin Morris, to name a few.
While well-versed in submission holds of all varieties, Rau is particularly fond (and good at) leg locks, as proven by his multiple RISE and Sapateiro titles. It comes as no surprise that another of his instructionals, the Outside Ashi Reloaded Jason Rau DVD, is a leg locks one.
Outside Ashi Reloaded Jason Rau DVD Review
The Outside Ashi Reloaded Jason Rau DVD is an hour-and-a-half-long instructional that contains four volumes of No-Gi leg locking tactics and techniques.
Part 1 – Keeping the Outside Ashi
No Ashi Garami — no leg locks. Staying in the Ashi position, whichever it may be, is one of the more difficult things to accomplish. The Outside Ashi Jason Rau DVD acknowledges this by focusing on the all-important bite and positional dynamics first.
Rau starts by explaining how to create heel hook–ankle lock dilemmas and talks us through the optimal leg configuration for getting heel exposure and for finishing. He pays a lot of attention to bite strength, demonstrating how to turn a weak bite into a strong one, and offers several super helpful grip variations.
Part 2 – Grounded Opponent Finishes & Transitions
This is what most people refer to as a ‘footsies’ game — trying to finish an opponent whose hips are on the mat while you have an Outside Ashi. Building on the bite and braking mechanics from the first part, Rau shares tips on setting up his new undercross position and capitalizing on belly-down ankle locks.
He also talks about heisting a lot, moving both to the inside and outside directions. The results include heel hooks (of course), figure-four ankle locks, and back exposure. A couple of long butterfly guard setups wrap up this volume of the Outside Ashi Reloaded Jason Rau DVD.
Part 3 – Leg Locking Kneeling & Standing Opponents
I’d say that this is the most useful/important part of the entire Jason Rau Outside Ashi DVD. It’s way harder to do any leg locking with the opponent kneeling or standing, so getting their hips back down is a huge goal.
Jason covers his favorite ways of using the long butterfly position to get a very strong bite first, before addressing the height of the opponent. He relies a lot on the Matrix to get into a strong Ashi, pairing his attacks beautifully with the Y guard. The finishes are heel hook–ankle lock combos.
Part 4 – Tertiary Attacks
Every high-level submission artist has a backup plan. The final portion of the Outside Ashi Reloaded Jason Rau DVD is all about tertiary attacks, since the heel hook and ankle lock combination already offers a dilemma threat.
The rarely seen reverse closed guard position features here, as Rau shows us how to use it to dig for heel hooks or a very nasty Z lock. Some 50/50 tactics with backside finishes and a neat cross ankle lock conclude this fine instructional.
Access Means Opportunity
If you have seen the entire Danaher DVD on leg locks, you might have noticed that while he has tons of information in there about the most effective positions, he also shares his go-to roll that he has all his students master first.
It is a flow of several Ashi Garamis that ends in a super-strong outside heel hook finish from the Outside Ashi. This serves as yet another testament to how reliable this position can be at the highest levels, endorsed by the leg lock mastermind himself.
As a student of the game and Danaher, Rau knows better than most that the Outside Ashi is a better position to try to master than the Inside Senkaku, especially if you’re new to leg locks. The Outside Ashi Reloaded Jason Rau DVD holds plenty of answers in that regard.
DOWNLOAD HERE: OUTSIDE ASHI RELOADED JASON RAU DVD
Get Outside!
Why not take what is readily available? The Outside Ashi is there more often than not, and with a little dedication and the Outside Ashi Reloaded Jason Rau DVD, you can easily become a master of it! Moreover, you can use it to get to all the fancier and more complicated Ashi Garami positions later — so start outside!
