Key Takeaways

• A two-part No-Gi DVD blending together trips and throw techniques for BJJ.
• Contains a bunch of different trip-throw combinations, executed from either underhook or overhook control.
• Features bonus submission follow-ups, as well as effective mat return tactics.
• BJJ World Expert Rating: 8 out of 10.

 TRIP THROW DILEMMA MICHAEL PIXLEY DVD GET HERE:

The best way to throw someone down is to trick them into messing their balance up. If you decide to only attack one aspect of their structure, such as posture, you’ll likely hit a brick wall, and end up messing it all up. Or worse, you’ll be forced to pull guard and butt scoot.

The solution to this issue lies in dilemma attacks. The Trip Throw Dilemma Michael Pixley and Heath Pedigo DVD offers a way to combine Judo and wrestling into a simple system that will allow you to finally start taking people down at will. Or pulling guard better, if you’re dead set on being the subject of BJJ memes.

The Story of BJJ Dilemmas 

It was Danaher who introduced the concept of dilemmas in BJJ under that name, providing a very concise and detailed explanation of how threatening at least two things at once forces opponents into making bad decisions, allowing you to capitalize on at least one of your attempts.

Others before him used the same tactics, from the Gracies onwards, and even people before them, probably. I’ve heard it explained as baiting, trapping, leading, faking, etc. Regardless of the name, it comes down to tricking your opponent into messing up, by offering them two scenarios that they don’t like as their only options.

In essence, it is the illusion of an option, as whatever the outcome is, it favors you. With dilemmas, you usually like to combine end-range movements such as a submission with a pass or sweep that, allowing each to enhance the threat and effectiveness of the other.

You can also use dilemmas to take people down, ranging from pulling guard and doing takedowns (the guard pull-ankle pick being one widely used example) to combining different types of takedowns to achieve your goals.

The Trip Throw Dilemma Michael Pixley and Heath Pedigo DVD presents one such example of a choice that your opponent won’t find easy to make. Your only task in succeeding with ti is presenting it in a way that leaves no other options open. 

Michael Pixley and Heath Pedigo

The Daisy Fresh team has really pushed the boundaries on BJJ in more ways than one. From putting together a team out of nowhere and in the middle of nowhere, to producing world-class competitors and even changing the template of BJJ instructionals.

One thing we often see from the team’s founder Heath Pedigo is that he participates in the instructionals of all his students. The credits are shared, but it still remains within the team and we viewers get to see two perspectives rather than one. Imagine if Danaher and Ryan did that too.

In terms of bios, Heath Pedigo is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Rodrigo Vaghi. He founded the Petigo Submission Fighting Team from Mount Vernon, IL, which became known as the Dasiy Fresh team. He has been training and competing since the late 90s, which puts him among the pioneers of submission grappling in the US.

Michael Pixley, on the other hand, is a Heath Pedigo purple belt, and the Daisy Fresh team wrestling coach. The former NCAA and NAIA Champion announced himself to the world by taking out Nicholas Meregali at the ADCC, leaving lots of questions about whether belts really mean anything in BJJ anymore.

Nevertheless, the focus of today’s article is on the Trip Throw Dilemma Michael Pixley and Heath Pedigo DVD, a joint effort that introduces a blueprint to developing a dilemma question for standing that few will be able to answer. 

Trip Throw Dilemma Michael Pixley and Heath Pedigo DVD Review

The Trip Throw Dilemma Michael Pixley and Heath Pedigo DVD is a two-hour-long instructional that covers a simple way of using underhooks and overhooks to launch dilemma attacks while standing. It is a No-Gi instructional featuring Daisy Fresh team members. 

Part 1 – Overhooks

This Trip Throw Dilemma Michael Pixley and Heath Pedigo DVD is beautifully divided into two portions, the first of which addresses how to get people to the mats relying on overhooks. Of course, it presents a dilemma, offering leg attacks in the form of trips, paired with hip and upper body throws. 

The main culprits in the first volume are ankle picks and inside leg trips, made possible by the overhook that denies the opponent a chance to counter. While these can prove difficult to finish, as opponents can still escape by raising their foot off the mats in time, Pixley and Pedigo fortify them with a couple of Judo throws, one of which is dubbed the Meregali throw. Read into it as you want.

Part 2 – Underhooks

The second part of the instructional stays on the same track, although there is a change in the main method for control, swapping the overhook for an underhook. Most of the second part of the Trip Throw Dilemma Michael Pixley DVD covers shoulder crunch-controlled attacks, transitioning to headlock as needed. 

The dilemmas feature low foot trips and drag downs, paired with the occasional leg-sweeping throw. Judo drops also appear, offering a great addition to a few wrestling-inspired mat returns that the Daisy Fresh team loves to use.

As the final part comes to a conclusion, Pedigo and Pixley offer a very cool concept I never realized before, which is bundling trips together in a way that affects both legs, making it fairly impossible to defend against.

Two Dimension of Takedown Setups

Dividing the body into upper and lower in terms of management is the ultimate way of controlling people in grappling. It may be standing, or on the ground, it may be top or bottom, and even offense or defense – the goal remains the same.

In wrestling, they refer to it as bunching – getting the head and feet as close together as possible. I like to call it folding. This is what you want to force your opponent into if you want to control them, regardless of where you are. It is also what you don’t want to give away as well.

Since people who have grappled a while understand this, they won’t be easy to fold, which now means you have to alternate attacking different parts of their body, usually at both ends. Going for headlock and footsweeps, for example, is a great combo, but it can also be difficult to pull off against folks with good posture habits.

That leaves us with the Judo classics of using upper body throws from clinching positions combined with inside and outside trips. Sprinkle a bit of classic wrestling control in there, so that you’re not reliant on the GI and you have the blueprint offered in the Trip Throw Dilemma Michael Pixley and Heath Pedigo DVD. It works. 

FULL DOWNLOAD: TRIP THROW DILEMMA MICHAEL PIXLEY DVD

Throw or Trip? 

So, the dilemma is whether you’ll succeed with a throw or a foot sweep? The Trip Throw Dilemma Michael Pixley and Heath Pedigo DVD has everything you need to start asking such Shakespearean questions out of your grappling partners, even though you’ll have the advantage of knowing the final answer. 

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Key Takeaways

• A Gi BJJ DVD containing two volumes breaking down the different ways you can use Osoto Gari trips in BJJ.
• The material features Judo essentials adopted to the specific needs of BJJ.
• Contains plenty of submissions, either from standing or as follow-ups.
• BJJ World Expert Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

 OSOTO GARI FOR JIU JITSU JACKSON NAGAI DVD GET HERE:

Gi or No-Gi, your takedowns in BJJ are always going to be a determining factor of what happens on the ground, once you eventually reach it. The rule of thumb is that you want the most effectiveness with the least amount of effort, as that translates to the least danger while you attempt your takedowns.

For the purposes of BJJ, this means Judo trips and footsweeps. Whenever possible, try to learn from people who share specialized moves from other grappling martial arts, adapted to the needs of BJJ – such as the Osoto Gari for Jiu Jitsu Jackson Nagai DVD. It makes a significant difference.

Judo Trips for BJJ 

If you want to become better at takedowns for BJJ, turn to wrestling, not Judo. You’ll have an easier time figuring things out, incorporating them into your training, and eventually, adding them to your competitive game plan.

That said, Judo remains a highly effective option to spice up your standing game and introduce variety to your attacks. However, given the very long learning curve that Judo requires, you should apply the filter of reality and focus on moves you can learn fairly quickly, rather than hoping to develop Olympic-level Uchi Matas while drilling 15 minutes every two weeks.

Your focus with Judo for BJJ, at least in terms of standing exchanges should be on trips and footsweeps. You’ll be able to figure them out quicker than upper-body throws, particularly if you already have a wrestling-based game plan and some experience in not getting taken down easily.

Of course, any instructional specializing in Judo foot sweeps and trips for BJJ, such as the Osoto Gari for Jiu Jitsu Jackson Nagai DVD is a very valuable resource to help you achieve this goal, shy of joining a Judo gym. 

Jackson Nagai – Connecting Japan and Brazil

Jackson Nagai was born in Brazil in 1994, but spent half of his life in Japan, after moving there at the age of 10. Funny enough, he discovered Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Japan rather than his native Brazil, joining and academy Evox BJJ as a teenager and ending up in love with the sport.

Along with his brother Samuel,  Jackson ended up showing incredible talent, dominating competitions around Asia. When he ended up back in Brazil, Nagai kept training at Nova Uniao, starting to really establish himself in the sport. He was a brown belt at the time, promoted by Marcio Pontes.

It took World Champion Gavriel Moraes to convince Jackson to turn to grappling as a career, getting him and his brother to the US. As part of the Checkmate team, Jackosn kept growing, earning his black belt in 2020, and having already won the Worlds, Pans, and American Nationals since.

Today, we’re looking at the Osoto Gari for Jiu Jitsu Jackson Nagai DVD, which is the first instructional we’ve had the pleasure of reviewing from this up-and-coming grappling sensation. 

Osoto Gari for Jiu Jitsu Jackson Nagai DVD Review

The Osoto Gari for Jiu Jitsu Jackson Nagai DVD is a two-hour long BJJ instructional featuring an easy-to-use footsweep system for BJJ that ends in different submission holds on the mats. It contains two different volumes and is shot with the Gi. 

Part 1 – Technical Osoto Gari

As the Osoto Gari for Jiu Jitsu Jackson Nagai DVD kicks off, Nagai begins like any Judo class would – with drills. He talks about timing and Kuzushi through the prism of the Osoto Gari, as he explores its foot-sweeping effectiveness and uses. 

Sticking to Osoto’s application for BJJ needs, he offers a slick armlock that pairs perfectly with it, as well as a collar choke that you can get after completing the trip. He also explores how to change the depth of the trip by pairing it with the even more technical Ouchi Gari.

The Kata Guruma (a.k.a. Fireman’s carry) also makes an appearance, offering a different dimension of takedown to pair with the Osoto Gari and once again, leading to a bunch of follow-up submissions on the ground.

Part 2 – Osoto and Kouchi Gari

The second part of this instructional goes further into the domain of Judo trips and sweeps, once again, only taking into account things that make sense in BJJ. Jackson first addresses the Kouchi Gari technique mechanics, as an opposite to the Osoto.

he follows up with ankle pick variations that end up opening leg locks, such as ankle locks and kneebars, and different passes once you reach the mats. he demonstrates how to Ososot Gari and Kouchi Gari work together, offering a system that’s hard to beat without the added threat of submissions.

Towards the end of this part of the Osoto Gari for Jiu Jitsu Jackson Nagai DVD, we also see how to turn a failed Osoto Gari into success by utilizing the balloon sweep, and, of course, following up with submissions. Nagai also covers single-leg takedowns, showing an easy seatup that features an Osoto Gari entry.

Go For The Legs First

During standing exchanges in BJJ, you have more ways to take the match to the ground than in any other grappling martial art. This is because you can pull guard in addition to throwing someone on their back, even though that might not earn you points.

Another thing to consider is that BJJ offers plenty of submissions, a few of which work during standing, while others require a standing exchange in order to set them up before going to the ground. This introduces too much variability off the bat and leaves people confused when they try to develop a standing BJJ game.

Let me simplify things. First, get grips. Then, disrupt your opponent’s balance. Finally, focus on tripping up their legs. Do that, and you don’t immediately get a takedown, you’ll get the chance to follow up with anything you want, from guard pulls to power doubles.

The Osoto Gari for Jiu Jitsu Jackson Nagai DVD offers options regarding the balance disruption and tripping up a portion of this three-phase standing concept. Grips are something you’ll need to figure out yourself. 

FULL DOWNLOAD: OSOTO GARI FOR JIU JITSU JACKSON NAGAI DVD

Trip ‘Em Up! 

Out of all the takedowns you do, sweeping the legs from beneath an opponent, sending them flying through the air for a moment is more rewarding than anything else. There is a movie-like pause while you wait for the opponent to land, during which you get to enjoy the helpless expression of terror on their face. The Osoto Gari for Jiu Jitsu Jackson Nagai DVD is going to teach you how to accomplish this and follow up with submissions immediately afterward. What’s not to like? 

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Key Takeaways

• A 4-part BJJ DVD featuring the Gi that explores how to optimally play guard using double sleeve control. 
• Covers guard retention, submission and sweep attacks, and transitions between different guards.
• Features the Spider/Lasso guard, De la Riva guard, shin-to-shin guard and X-guard.
• BJJ World Expert Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

 DOUBLE SLEEVE GUARD JON THOMAS DVD GET HERE:

What’s the first grip you establish when you play guard in the Gi? If you mention the collar anywhere in your answer, you have no idea how to play guard against standing opponents. If you don’t mention a sleeve grip, you have no idea of how to play any guard.

Allow Jon Thomas to help. In the Double Sleeve Guard Jon Thomas BJJ DVDyou get everything that he usually offers in his YouTube video, but taken up a whole level – this one lasts over two hours. Let’s take a closer look at this instructional.

The Coolest Trick in BJJ 

One of the things I really love to show people when I teach anything guard-related is how to prevent a pass using nothing but their grips. I simply get the bottom person to grab the top person’s palms, one in each hand, usually from a stated position. Then, I ask the top person to pass.

You can try it out for yourself, but let me save you the hassle – the top person can’t pass. It turns out, that the top person needs to have at least one arm free to grip during passing, otherwise, they stay hopelessly far away from getting their hips past the bottom person’s knees and hips.

You can use this cool trick any way you want while playing guard. whether you opt for wrists, palms, or sleeve grips, as long as the palms of the top person stay away from you and you can control their elbows to a certain point, you’ll have a breeze at keeping any guard. Most of you are already seeing attacking opportunities that appear as the top person tries to deal with the grips.

The Double Sleeve Guard Jon Thomas BJJ DVD makes a lot of sense when you know this fact about passing. Jon knows exactly how valuable double wrist control is, and he does an outstanding job explaining how to build a full guard game using them in this instructional.

Jon ‘Spaghetti’ Thomas

If you’ve ever searched for anything BJJ related on YouTube, which you have, as well as me and everyone else who trains, you’ve seen Jon Thomas. His YouTube channel is crazy good, offering not just in-depth instructions, but also constantly going over positions and moves that many people don’t use often.

From fundamental principles to crazy move sequences, Thomas has proven to be able to explain everything in a way that makes sense using short clips only. Now, imagine what a full-length instructional, such as the Double Sleeve Guard Jon Thomas BJJ DVD can offer! 

Thomas, apart from being a YouTube grappling celebrity, is a well-established black belt under Lucas Lepri. Jon has been training since he was a teenager, competing since the early 2000s. Along the way, he decided to go pro, seeking our Ryan Hall at first, before linking up with Alliance and settling under Lepti and Romero Cavalcanti.

Promoted to black belt in 2013, the Missouri native has won the Worlds twice at colored belts (purple and brown), but and the Pans three times (starting from blue belt). He still hasn’t replicated these results at black belt, although he has won a bunch of IBJJF open tournaments around the world.

The Double Sleeve Guard Jon Thomas BJJ DVD Review

The Double Sleeve Guard Jon Thomas BJJ DVD is a four-part Gi instructional that contains four volumes and lasts for over two hours. The material covers different guards that offer double sleeve control and methods to retain guard and attack using it: 

Part 1 – Positional Theory & Examples

With Jon being particularly effective with his guard, the depth of knowledge available in the Double Sleeve Guard Jon Thomas BJJ DVD is staggering. That is apparent in the opening chapters of the instructional when Thomas explains the positional theory that fuels his guard game. 

Through the four key aspects of any guard, Jon makes it obvious why the double sleeve control from the guard is so powerful, following it up with examples including the use of the De la Riva and sit-up guard. This first volume covers all the nuances of gripping, leg positioning, sleeve control, and basic off-balancing and set-up principles and directions.

Part 2 – Lasso/Spider Triangles & Retention

As we get to the second part of this Double Sleeve Guard Jon Thomas DVD, the focus is more on the practical use of the foundations demonstrated in the previous volume, mostly through the use of the hybrid lasso/spider guard. 

Jon’s attention in this part is on explaining how attacks from the double sleeve position work, and how to stay on guard when you’re opponent’s are trying to break the connection.  For the first aspect, Thomas picked triangle setups to explain how off-balancing and double-sleeve control exposes your opponent’s posture, and subsequently, their neck.

In terms of guard retention, he covers the most effective and often used threats from the top, from stomping to the wrist loops that make it impossible to hold, along with easy and straightforward solutions to them all.

Part 3 – X-Guard 

Part three of the Double Sleeve Guard Jon Thomas BJJ DVD tells us about a guard we’ve seen Thomas use over and over again: the X-guard. Arriving there off the use of the spider/lasso guard brings cohesion to everything Jon demonstrates, allowing him to easily explain the back-and-forth relation between these guards.  

Once again, keeping the guard is the key aspect, with JOn’s game making the most out of a double-sleeve grip from the X-guard. While it does mean you can’t immediately attack with a submission, it guarantees you can sweep in any direction you want. All of this is dissected over the course of half an hour in this volume.

Part 4 – Kneeling Opponents & More Spider Variations 

The final part is Jon taking us on a journey of how his mind works in terms of applying double sleeve control to a bunch of guards, as he ties in together the lasso/spider, DLR, and X-guard, reinforcing all the information delivered up to this point.

As the Double Sleeve Guard Jon Thomas BJJ DVD nears the end, Thomas moves on to explore a level change, showing how you can use double sleeve control from the shin-to-shin guard and DLR variations even against people half-kneeling or kneeling from the top. 

Grips Win Fights! 

The more you understand grip fighting in BJJ, the more effective you’ll be in winning all exchanges, which also translates to winning more matches. When you’re the bottom player, grips are crucial to success, whereas you can sometimes manage to slide by using sub-optimal grips if you’re on top.

For the most part, you need to understand two key aspects of gripping to have a hope of succeeding in grappling. The first one is that you need to use your grip for a purpose, rather than just place your arm at a specific point. For example, with double writs grips, you need to pull and place tension on the arms, not just hang on to the Gi.

The second key principle of gripping in grappling is that you don’t have to break any grip an opponent has on you. Unless their grip serves a purpose, like explained above, leave it be – it won’t affect you while handicapping your opponent as a result of dedicating a limb to something that serves no goal.

The Double Sleeve Guard Jon Thomas BJJ DVD is great at providing you with plenty of answers in regard to the first of these two key gripping principles for grapplers. If you like to play guard with the Gi, this instructional must be a part of your collection. 

FULL DOWNLOAD: DOUBLE SLEEVE GUARD JON THOMAS DVD

Grab Those Sleeves! 

Remember, sleeve grips are not death grips! Holding on to the sleeves needs to be uncomfortable for your partner, not just give them a connection they can use to pass. The Double Sleeve Guard Jon Thomas BJJ DVD offers the perfect blueprint for setting up any guard game that utilizes double-arm control by using the same simple principles. 

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Key Takeaways

• A 2-volume Gi BJJ DVD that breaks down the highly effective lapel-based Assassin choke. 
• It contains different ways to finish the choke, from different positions and using different lapels.
• Features combo attacks that connect arm locks and other chokes to the system.
• BJJ World Expert Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

 ASSASSIN CHOKE BARET YOSHIDA DVD GET HERE:

Lapel chokes are attractive, effective, and fun, but they can be hard to set up. Unless you can somehow hide your intentions from the opponent and catch them completely off guard once the choke starts to sink in.

One way of doing this is to use a specific configuration of your lapel to set up as many different chokes as you can think of. The Assassin Choke Baret Yoshida DVD delivers exactly that, organized neatly in two volumes. In about an hour, you’ll see everything you’ll ever need to assassinate people using the cloth. As long as you drill it regularly, of course.

Adding Reach to Your Chokes

Can you tell me what the biggest problem of any No-Gi choke is? Think rear naked choke, or Darce, as they’re easy examples. You probably figured it out by now, but I’ll still say it – arms’ length. Since you can’t really do anything about how long your arms are, you have to figure out alternate ways of remedying this.

One thing you can do is switch your angles, trying to pinpoint a position that will allow you to finish chokes even if you have T-rex arms. However, given that your opponents are going to do all they can to defend, this doesn’t really offer a very effective solution.

Enter the Gi. Or, rather, a specific part of it. The lapels, as well as the collars, and even the belt, are all great tools that you have at your disposal to extend the reach of your chokes. In fact, the Gi can completely take over the tasks of one of your arms, leaving you not just with a tighter noose, but also an extra limb to tighten it with.

The Assassin Choke Baret Yoshida DVD explores a choke many people is difficult to set up, on account of the level of Gi manipulation involved. Baret does not agree, obviously, and outlines exactly why in this instructional. 

BJJ Elite – Baret Yoshida 

There was a period at the start of professional grappling when you couldn’t watch a pro event without seeing Baret Yoshida compete in it. It also means that you could probably predict one of the semi-final or final spots, given Yoshida’s deadly game.

The guard specialist, who is an Egan Inoue black belt has been racking up wins and medals at the highest level of the sport since 2002. The Hawaiian-born managed to win the IBJJF worlds in No-Gi 4 times in a decade, also conquering the Pans in the process and having all medals except the gold on multiple occasions in the ADCC.

Baret started training early, joining Relson Gracie’s academy in 1994 when most people still had no idea what BJJ is. Given his location, he chose to switch academies at purple belt, option for the Inoue academy, then ultra-popular on account of Enson and Egan. He also gave MMA a try, but a 6-6-1 record meant that he opted to stick with BJJ instead.

That said, there’s hardly anyone who knows more about No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu at the highest competitive levels than Baret Yoshida. Particularly dangerous off of his back, he always poses a serious submission threat, something that becomes crystal clear as you go through the Assassin Choke Baret Yoshida DVD.

Detailed Assassin Choke Baret Yoshida DVD Review

Interestingly enough, even though Baret is a true No-Gi specialist, the Assassin Choke Baret Yoshida DVD is a Gi instructional. Over the course of two volumes, Yoshida offers more than an hour of quality material pinpointing one specific aspect of BJJ – Gi chokes. 

Part 1 – Assasin Submissions

The first part of the Assassin Choke Baret Yoshida DVD features very little of the choke you’d expect to see init. Worry not, there’s plenty of that in the second part, but I do wonder why Baret did not switch the order of DVDs. 

Anyhow, this portion shows the Assassin choke just for reference’s sake, before moving on to explore different ways that other submission holds tie-in with it in a complete submission-hunting game. For example, Baret shows Kimuras, bread cutter choke variations, and lots of crucifix variations of the move, showing how versatile your transitioning can be while holding on to the choke.

Part 2 – Assasin Chokes from Everywhere

The second part is a lot more detailed when it comes to executing the actual Assasin’s choke. The first part of it explores different setups, such as back mount, off of Nelson holds, and top side crucifix. Variations include one-arm choke finishes, choking with the belt, and switching sides.

The Assassin Choke Baret Yoshida DVD then goes further in the rabbit hole of Assasin chokes, covering the likes of baseball chokes and neckties as ways to reinforce the submission power of the Assasin choke. The  Ninja choke, of course, features as well, before Yoshinda wraps everything offering a cool Assasin choke flow you can drill. 

Introducing Lapels to Your Submission Game

Lapels are a great way to improve your BJJ submission attacks which are not limited only to chokes. You can easily rely on lapels for hunting armlocks as well, particularly bent arm lock variations, and even finishing some leg locks.

Using the lapel has a host of advantages – it provides a great gripping surface that doesn’t slip, you can thread it around more easily than a limb, you can tighten it more since it has no joints, and you have four lapels at your disposal throughout any match.

The one glaring drawback is that you can’t use lapels in No-Gi. If you’re a Gi exclusive grappler, you don’t have this problem, whereas, for everyone else, variations of powerful Gi chokes exist to stand in while rolling in no-GI: guillotines for loop chokes, Darce for Brabo, bow and arrow choke for the rear naked choke, etc.

The Assassin Choke Baret Yoshida DVD offers all of these chokes but through the methodology of just one technique. This reduces the amount of information you need to master lapel chokes and makes it a lot easier to add to your game. 

FULL DOWNLOAD: ASSASSIN CHOKE BARET YOSHIDA DVD

The Assassins Creed! 

Next time you roll, try to choke your partner with the lapel. Forget about the Assassin Choke Baret Yoshida DVD, try to use the lapel any way you can think of.  You’ll be surprised at how effective it is! Then, you can turn to the resource by one of the elite competitors in BJJ and use a proven system to tangle everyone in the Assassin choke, as long as at least one of you wears a Gi. 

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Key Takeaways

• An 8-part No-Gi BJJ DVD offering Gordon Ryan’s crucifix attacks system.
• It features back and front mount crucifix uses, setups, finishes, and transitions.
• Offers two parts with crucifix-focused rolling footage and subsequent analysis.
• BJJ World Expert Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

 SYSTEMATICALLY ATTACKING THE CRUCIFIX GORDON RYAN DVD HERE:

Thinking about adding the crucifix to your back attacks game? Why have you waited for so long? If there is one thing you can do to take your submission threat from the back to DEFCON 1, it is the crucifix, and all the information you need about it is already out there!

Today, we’ll be looking at the Systematically Attacking The Crucifix Gordon Ryan DVD and what it has in store for us. There is no denying that we have lots to learn from Grodon, but given his previous track record with instructionals, is this one going to be a real hit or another messy miss? Read on!

The Best Back Position in BJJ?

I never really got the bug for attacking the back in BJJ, which is what everyone seemed to be after when I started training 15 years ago. I had a brief stint of fun with the Straight Jacket system by Danaher, but the classic back control just doesn’t click with me.

The crucifix, on the other hand, is something else. I know, I know, hooks bring points, hip control is crucial for choking, yadda, yadda, yadda. At the end of the day, there is a reason why one of the best grapplers ever, Marcelo Garcia, decided to opt for the crucifix as his main way of finishing from the back, after becoming one of the best backtakers in the history of the sport.

If you’re a smaller grappler (such as me) you’ll find that the crucifix offers just about everything the back mount does, and perhaps even more, in terms of the ability to control someone from the back, while exposing lots of submission options.

A drawback is that Truck and other leg ride attacks are not immediately available, which is balanced out by the option to easily mix up chokes and armlocks without having to adjust your positioning. Think about it this way – Danaher’s straight jacket system is just a different way of working off crucifix back control.

As usual, I expected Godron Ryan to be a lot more offensive than his mentor when covering a subject already covered by Danaher. The Systematically Attacking The Crucifix Gordon Ryan DVD didn’t disappoint in that regard. 

Why Everyone Will Remember Gordon Ryan

Gordon Ryan will undoubtedly remain a name that no one will forget in the BJJ World. Despite his crazy competition results, I think it will be his instructionals that keep his legacy alive in the decades to come.

Let’s face it, not many young grapplers these days watch Roger Gracie’s or Marcelo Garcia’s matches, but they still know the names and opt for the instructional. It is funny how things work out, as all the effort put into competing, not to mention all the trash-talking and beefs will end up being mostly for nothing.

Ryan is a polarizing figure, but one thing is for certain – steroids-fueled or not, he did manage to achieve great, if not insurmountable things in grappling. A part of his legacy is also the fact that BJJ athletes can actually get paid for competing now, and not just peanuts.

It was fun watching Gordon develop, from the scrawny kid who won his first EBI, to the man who walks into ADCC super fights as a black belt does among blue belts at an open mat. The thing with me is that I enjoy watching Ryan compete, but don’t really like how he structures his instructionals. Let’s see if the Systematically Attacking The Crucifix Gordon Ryan DVD can change my mind. 

Systematically Attacking The Crucifix Gordon Ryan DVD Review

The Systematically Attacking The Crucifix Gordon Ryan DVD follows the typical New Wave Jiu-Jitsu instructional template, offering 8 different volumes, the final two of which contain rolls and commentary of the crucifix techniques done live. The total running length of this one is just shy of 4 hours, and everything is demonstrated in No-Gi:

Part 1 – Two Sides of the Crucifix

Gordon begins the Systematically Attacking The Crucifix Gordon Ryan DVD by talking about the two main ways you can use a crucifix – from the back, which most people know, and from the mount, which is hugely underused and underrated. 

In a typical Gordon Ryan instructional fashion, ‘The King’ goes really deep into dissecting the nuts and bolts that make the position work. This part of the DVD is very well organized, focusing on how to control either arm of the opponent, how to position your limbs differently, and what your goals are.

Part 2 – Crucifix Submissions

The second part goes into the finishes that are available from the crucifix, which extends beyond just choking or trying to hit weird armlocks with your legs. Gordon basically does a short review of his Kimura attacks previously taught in other DVDs here, with the dorsal Kimura-Triangle combination being his main focus.

Throughout this portion of the  Systematically Attacking The Crucifix Gordon Ryan DVD, we also see some positional transitions, with a route to the crucifix from the North-South presented by Ryan. It makes a lot of sense but is not really viable to set up during sparring. 

Part 3 – Mounted Crucifix

I enjoyed this part of the Systematically Attacking The Crucifix Gordon Ryan DVD a lot, as it introduced an depth analysis of a crucifix position that nobody has covered in depth until now. Marcelo Garcia, the original crucifix hunter has everything covered in terms of the back, and everything subsequently done by others still works off of those principles. 

The mounted crucifix, though, is a whole different ball game. It offers a different type of control to what people are used to, making escapes almost impossible. Gordon offers options for working against open and locked hands, with the crucifix still viable against both. 

He also introduces some wrestling into the mix, presenting the dangers of the high crotch grip even from a dominant position such as the crucifix. He ends up with a portion of the crackdown, covering baiting entries along the way.  

Part 4 – Crucifix vs Turtle

The hallway point of the Systematically Attacking The Crucifix Gordon Ryan DVD goes over the crucifix as we know it, used against a turtled-up opponent. I’ll say it again, as I have many times before, the turtle is not just a position you can attack easily. As with other DVDs on the subject of turtle attacks, this one misses the spot by a country mile. 

Gordon demonstrates back crucifix entries using the turtle, mostly by trapping one arm with the legs or using gift wraps to break the turtle down. They’re all very effective, but the problem is getting there against someone who can actually play turtle. In that regard, this part of the DVD fails miserably.

Part 5 – Belly Up Crucifix

Redemption comes in the fifth segment of the Systematically Attacking The Crucifix Gordon Ryan DVD, with Ryan sticking to the back crucifix while supine, the position most people are after anyway. 

He begins by covering the main escape routes people take, which I find to be the best approach to figuring out positional dominance. He then launches into an in-depth analysis of controlling the opponent’s head and each arm, before offering a route back towards the submissions outlined in the second part of the instructional.

Part 6 – Connecting the Dots

Speaking of submissions, the final instructional volume of this Systematically Attacking The Crucifix Gordon Ryan DVD is one that surprised me. In earlier DVDs, Ryan just poured more and more info as his instructions dragged on. Here, he finally circles back to connect the dots, which is extremely helpful for the cohesiveness of this DVD. 

Kimuras, triangles, and chokes feature here, some against an opponent who can’t really move or do anything, while others work when the opponent escapes using one of the predictable routes. A really cool thing is that when setting up the subs, Gordon constantly leaves an option open to get back to the crucifix, which he shows in great detail.

Part 7 and 8 – R0lling Commentary 

As we come to the concluding parts of the Systematically Attacking The Crucifix Gordon Ryan DVD, we once again see classic Gordon Ryan narrated rolls. In all his previous DVDs this was my favorite portion, and I managed to learn the most from them as opposed to the other material. 

Once again, the rolling commentary proves to be exceptionally valuable., Gordon rolls for 5-minute rounds against 4 different people in the penultimate part of the instrucitonal and then spends double that time explaining every roll in the final one.

Back Control on Steroids

If I had to pick one position to play until the day I stop rolling… I’d stop rolling now. There is no fun in doing one thing over and over again, even if your goal is to specialize in one move as Roger did with the cross-collar choke.

That said, if I had to pick one variation of each dominant position to play, I’d accept that challenge with a smile. With regard to the back mount, the crucifix wins 10/10 for me, even at the expense of those 4 points that I’m mission out on because of the lack of hooks.

There’s something extremely satisfying about obtaining the crucifix position against an opponent who is of a high level and sees it coming. There’s an even more satisfying component when you take all their power away, and they eventually stop struggling to get out. you know the moment, they’d scratch their head about what to do next, if they only could.

The crucifix allows you to get the most out of the back mount, while still keeping all ‘around the world’ options open, in terms of going to front pins and back at your convenience. This Systematically Attacking The Crucifix Gordon Ryan DVD offers some valuable insights into the use of the position, particularly mixing up front and back variations. 

FULL DOWNLOAD: ATTACKING THE CRUCIFIX GORDON RYAN DVD

Ditch the Hooks! 

If you want to end up with an amped-up version of back control, ditch the hooks and turn to the crucifix. Start exploring the different ways in which spreading your opponent’s arms makes them weak, and you’ll never go back to traditional back control again. With the  Systematically Attacking The Crucifix Gordon Ryan DVD, you have a great toolbox to start using the crucifix from all kinds of different positions. Just don’t try to do the turtle stuff, and you’ll get great value out of this instructional. 

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