David Dunn BJJ DVD Review: Undisclosed Open Guard Concepts

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Undisclosed Open Guard Concepts David Dunn BJJ DVD Undisclosed Open Guard Concepts Review

How long can you control a guard position and prevent people from passing without attacking them with sweeps and submissions? Mastering this skill is what sets elite grapplers apart from everyone else, and is one you should prioritize in terms of your bottom game.

The Undisclosed Open Guard Concepts David Dunn BJJ DVD is one of the few instructionals that gives guard retention the focus it deserves. It mostly explores how to set up guard retention using motion rather than staying static, opening up options for quick submission counters along the way.

Key Takeaways

3-part Gi BJJ DVD containing 2 hours of open guard retention concepts.
Fundamental principles of blending submissions and guard retention for all levels.
Presents a few innovative concepts for rolling to retain state open guards.
BJJ World Expert Rating: 7 out of 10.

THE UNDISCLOSED DAVID DUNN BJJ DVD AVAILABLE HERE!!!

Trailer: David Dunn BJJ DVD Undisclosed Open Guard Concepts

The Hierarchy of Guard Concepts

What is the most important task you have from the guard? It is to stay in it. There is no point in ‘playing’ guard if you can’t retain a guard. Sadly, people lose sight of this aspect of playing guard in BJJ, especially open guards because of the lure of attacks.

If you try to attack from a guard that has no defensive structure, ti is like trying to defend a fortress with no walls. No matter how much you shoot your cannons, someone will get through.

In the hierarchy of playing open guard, preventing people from getting past your legs is your number one task. Whether you grip fight, move to retain your guard, manage distance, switch between different guards, or all of the above, you have to stay on guard to be able to attack from guard.

Attack-wise, threatening with more than one thing is a must, as you should know by now, regardless of how long (or short) you’ve been training. The Undisclosed Open Guard Concepts David Dunn BJJ DVD addresses such attacks, bunching them together as submission sets, which work off of a very slick guard retention concept.

David Dunn – A Chuck Norris BJJ Instructor

Perhaps seeing Chuck Norris mentioned here seems like a joke, but in case you did not know, Chuck is a 3rd degree BJJ black belt under Jean Jacques Machado. Chuck has his own martial arts federation called the UFAF (United Fighting Arts Federation) with a bunch of affiliates throughout the world.

One of his most esteemed BJJ instructors, in charge of the Sidekicks Fight Academy and a 5th-degree black belt himself under Jean Jacques Machado, is David Dunn. A lifelong martial arts practitioner with several black belts in other arts, Dunn is not just a BJJ enthusiast but also a World No-Gi Champion at a black belt in 2007 and 2009.

David is one of the last representatives of the early breed of American Jiu-Jitsu practitioners who learned their traits directly from the Gracies (or Machados, in this case). He still actively teaches both regular classes and seminars and has decided to make his efficient and highly technical style available to the masses via the Undisclosed Open Guard Concepts David Dunn BJJ DVD.

Detailed DVD Review

What you get in the Undisclosed Open Guard Concepts David Dunn BJJ DVD is roughly 2 hours of opened guard retention and attack concepts, divided into 3 parts. The instructional is recorded with the Gi and is pretty specific, so there is not a whole lot of carryover to No-Gi.

Part 1 – Open Guard Concepts

First up on the roster in this David Dunn BJJ DVD are the fundamental guard concepts that make the position effective. Dunn first addresses how to face your opponent in a way that allows you to retain the guard easily and never risk getting passed.

He then uses this concept as the foundation for setting up a seated guard game vs. a standing opponent, which, especially in No-Gi is crucial for managing distance and creating attacking opportunities. The main focus is on the board structure so that you can deter passes and the crucial goal of attaining inside control.

Once control is in place David moves on to explore a more active version of the seated guard. He has his own take on an open guard variation that he presents here for the first time. Dubbed the “Rollup Position”, it is the main subject covered in the rest of this DVD.

Part 2 – Rollup Position Attacks

After introducing the Rollup Position in the previous volume, David now goes deeper into dissecting it, showing how once you activate your guard after getting inside control you can use it to set up various submission attacks.

In a unique twist, David does not just show solitary submissions, but rather submission sets. he has several different ones and applies them depending on the opponent’s reactions to his Rollup Position. Halfway through this volume, he demonstrates the Fruit Roll Up, a variation he likes to use when attacking to string his submissions together.

A few transitional attacks, such as back takes and fail-safe transitions to the knee shield, introduce the dilemma threat factor in the Undisclosed David Dunn DVD, making it even more legit.

Part 3 – The Fruit Roll Up

The final portion of the instructional is all about the Fruit Roll Up and how David uses it to retain guard against passing threats in cases where he has no inside control from the guard. This volume features lots of reversals and rolls, as David still keeps facing the opponent as his main goal.

This part of the Undisclosed Open Guard Concepts David Dunn BJJ DVD is also where he introduces the body clip concept, which basically has you wrapped around the top person as a paper clip, opening up submission options. Once again, submissions are demonstrated as sets, with lots of triangle options.

Rolling for Guard Retention

Inversions burst into the sport of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as an offensive guard maneuver but its main value is its defensive prowess. While it is fancier to use it for spinning attacks, those tend to backfire, mostly because the bottom person stacks themselves while inverting.

Rolling, whether it is inverting, rolling over your head, or maneuvering left and right through the turtle, has an immense role to play in guard retention and setting up powerful defensive guards. Placing a defensive emphasis on your movement from guard is going to make it very difficult to pass.

the side effect you’ll notice is that you can now enter all those spinning moves like Imanari rolls or Bolos without any effort or resistance, as your opponent is going to be trying to decipher how to deal with your guard. That right there is the power of the guard in BJJ that you should learn how to yield and the Undisclosed Open Guard Concepts David Dunn BJJ DVD is meant to help.

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Let’s Roll!

Playing guard is one of the key aspects of the sport, but the majority of people hit a wall in not being able to stay in guard long enough to play it. Retention is the most important aspect of that guard you should master. To do so, you need to stop attacking and let people try and pass your guard(s) as you focus on retaining it.

If you have no idea where to start, the Undisclosed Open Guard Concepts David Dunn BJJ DVD is a good resource to get you going. While it does focus on motions that are practical and effective, it does skip over some fundamental aspects of defensive guards and guard retention, but it is still a very solid starting point if you’re struggling with guard retention.

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Review: Cross My Heart And Hope To Ashi DVD By Kade Tsitos

By

Ognen Dzabirski

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Review: Cross My Heart And Hope To Ashi DVD By Kade Tsitos

Even though the Ashi Garmi was introduced to the sport fairly recently it has already gone through several major ‘renovations’. Lachlan Giles was the first to offer significant innovations to Danaher’s system which eventually paid off.

The likes of Robert Degle, Craig Jones, and Jaine Fragoso keep the flame burning, innovating further and introducing new concepts and uses for the Ashi Garami game. With the Cross My Heart And Hope To Ashi DVD By Kade Tsitos, on the back of impressive performances that earned him a No-Gi world title, Kade Tsitos now joins this group, offering valuable input on how to take the Ashi game further than you’ve ever thought.

Key Takeaways

3-part No-Gi BJJ DVD containing 2 hours of modern-day Ashi Garami material.
Innovative take on the double trouble principle and Cloverleaf leg locks.
Organized to cover braking mechanics, positional maintenance, and entries.
BJJ World Expert Rating: 9 out of 10.

HOPE TO ASHI KADE TSITOS DVD AVAILABLE HERE!!!

See Trailer: Cross My Heart And Hope To Ashi DVD By Kade Tsitos

The Versatility of Ashi Garami

Back when I began BJJ almost 15 years ago, Japanese terms in the sport were not a thing. Apart from the Kimura, and a few Judo throws, everything else was either English or Portuguese. John Danaher changed all that single-handedly, and now we have terms like Ashi garami and Ude Sankaku to deal with.

Personally, coming from Japanese martial arts myself, I didn’t mind this, but it does confuse people trying to comprehend the already overly complex art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. So, why did Ashi Garami stick as a term?

Mostly because it works. Leg entanglements opened a new dimension in the sport, one which put lower body attacks into the forefront. But it did al to more than that, improving people’s passing, guards, sweeps, and even standing game by introducing threats we were missing before.

The other thing that ensured the term ‘Ashi Garami” sticks is the fact that saying “leg entanglements” is far less practical to use than just saying “Ashi”. But let’s stop there with the Japanisation of the BJJ vocabulary.

Ashi Garami nowadays is a staple in the sport, allowing people to quickly rise through the competitive ranks by organizing a game around this powerful set of positional variations. One such person is young Kade Tsitos, who has an instructional outlining his take on the Ashi Garami leg lock system which is pretty original.

Who is Kade Tsitos?

Kade Tsitos is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under Vagner Rocha and one of the people to watch in the world of professional Jiu-Jitsu. Already a world champion in 2022 at the brown belt level, the young South Florida native has a very strong submission game, mostly focused on attacking the legs.

His road to the IBJJF World No-Gi title in 2022 was marked by something very few grapplers have achieved at a high level – a 100 % submission rate. His results are not surprising given his full-time training under Rocha, as well as his meticulous study of Danaher’s work and Gordon Ryan’s performances.

Namely, Kade used to spend 6 hours a day studying competition footage of Ryan and all other world champions, looking for that edge that would set him apart from his opponents. He seems to have found it in leg locks, and particularly heel hooks by pulling a Bruce Lee on the material available and only taking what is absolutely maximally efficient while removing the fluff.

The Cross My Heart And Hope To Ashi DVD By Kade Tsitos is his attempt at presenting his work to the BJJ community, as well as presenting his teaching style and establishing himself as a competitor-instructor.

Cross My Heart And Hope To Ashi DVD By Kade Tsitos

In the Cross My Heart And Hope To Ashi DVD By Kade Tsitos you get three volumes of No-Gi material explaining the system Tsitos himself used to become a world champion. The instructional is organized incredibly well, and Kade provides around 2 hours of high-quality content inside:

Part 1 – How to Finish Heel Hooks

Kade Tsitos begins his instructional by applying the modern approach to learning grappling techniques and that is from the endpoint and goes towards the start. Instead of talking about entries first, Kade starts by offering instructions on how to finish heel hooks both belly up and belly down.

A standout principle is the three-second rule he applied to finishes, which is a great way to gauge if a heel hook is worth pursuing or not without losing the Ashi. These principles provide a goal that makes it easy for anyone to understand the different entries that come next in this volume of the Ashi DVD By Kade Tsitos.

He covers both standing, top and bottom entries, mainly focusing on the cross Ashi Garami, a.k.a. the Honeyhole.

Part 2 – Positional Principles

Once in the Ashi, the key aspect that ensures success with heel hook finishes is not losing the position. Kade’s progression takes us to positional maintenance in this volume of the Kade Tsitos BJJ DVD, covering all the best options in terms of leg placement.

Apart from a very detailed analysis of the usual cross-feet, triangle, and foot-to-foot positions, Tsitos also explores open-foot control concepts. He puts a strong emphasis on how your grips help you improve your Ashi Garami retention, laying the foundations for the material that follows in the next volume.

Part 3 – Shoelace & Tombstone

Part three of the Cross My Heart And Hope To Ashi DVD By Kade Tsitos lifts the veil on Kade’s own complete leg locking system, based on innovation in terms of the Cloverleaf position. He splits his control and attack checkpoints between the Shoelace and Tombstone positions, which he presents in detail.

His concept is all about the double-rouble principle, which gives him access to both legs, but not just for control. Tsitos like to attack both legs with submissions at all times, entering mostly from the bottom. He also connects kneebars and heel hooks beautifully, constantly threatening both legs with both submissions.

The instructional wraps up with several key points on how to defend the Cloverleaf position, and solve the double trouble problem that high-level Ashi players bring. All in all, it is a very useful Ashi Garami instructional.

Taking Ashi Beyond Leg Locks

the one thing that emerged as Ashi Garami took its rightful place in the BJJ hierarchy was the fact you could use the position for a lot more than just leg locks. Of course, leg locks are the primary threat from there, but so is the rear naked choke from the back, and we don’t use the back just to choke people out.

One very practical aspect of Ahsi Garami is using it as sort of a guard. I say sort of because the positioning requires both players to have their hips on the mats, at least for a while, which is not common with guards. But, this is exactly why Ashi is an improved guard, allowing you to hold your opponent in kind of a half-sweep position.

moreover, Ashi Garami emerged as a very powerful transitional position that is available for a person escaping from bad spots during positional battles in grappling. Getting out of the mount or the back presents Ashi opportunities halfway, which literally cuts the effort required to escape in half.

The Ashi also turned the turtle position into a very offensive one, completely changing the way we play the positional game in the sport. And that is not the end. Innovative sources such as the Cross My Heart And Hope To Ashi DVD By Kade Tsitos provide us with even more ideas and options on how to use Ashi in different aspects of Jiu-Jitsu.

Cross My Heart And Hope To Ashi DVD By Kade Tsitos Review — Cross My Heart And Hope To Ashi DVD By Kade Tsitos Free Technique

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What is Your Favorite Ashi?

We all have our favorite Ashi game, and we should have a mini system that revolves around it. Mine is the outside Ashi and I have my little tweaks that work for me. The difference between me and Kade Tsitos, apart from a World Title in BJJ is that the Cross My Heart And Hope To Ashi DVD By Kade Tsitos contains a system that is applicable to everyone as opposed to just Kade.

Not many modern BJJ instructionals stake this claim, and even fewer deliver on it, so it is a literal breath of fresh air to have this instructional available. I’d recommend it to everyone, as everyone is a leg locker as much as a “triangle choker” or “arm locker” these days. Why not try the latest best thing that is proven to work?

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David Heineman DVD Review: Introduction To Grab Attacks

By

Ognen Dzabirski

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David Heineman DVD Review: Introduction To Grab Attacks

Grabbing people and holding on to them is all we basically do in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Seriously, you can’t pull anything off, standing or on the ground, unless you have a connection with your opponent, and that connection mainly comes from our arms.

The David Heineman DVD we are looking at today claims to offer ways in which you can deal with grips and grabs. Introduction To Grab Attacks is an instructional mainly created to teach self-defense to people, but as such, holds material that can be of great use to competitive grapplers as well.

Key Takeaways

A 4-part self-defense instructional covering how to deal with grabs.
Contains 2 hours of material, most of which is not very useful for BJJ players.
Interesting options concerning defensive grip fighting, especially from standing.
BJJ World Expert Rating: 6 out of 10.

GRAB ATTACKS DVD AVAILABLE HERE!!!

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The BJJ Subject Everyone Hates Talking About

One of the most difficult subjects to teach in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is grip fighting. It reminds people of useless Aikido drills and is very boring to do. I agree with the boring part, but there is just no way to underestimate the importance of grip fighting tactics in BJJ.

In fact, all those Aikiido stuff that should work “when someone grabs you” actually do, just not in the way they’re presented in that particular martial art. In BJJ, we do pretty much the same when we strip grips off during grip fighting, we just do it without the dancing and the skirts.

Since there is no effective way of grappling without connecting to your opponent, winning the grip fight sets the stage for everything you’re about to do, or fail to do. Superior grips mean you can impose your game, while inferior ones mean you should focus on getting them off immediately, or pay the price.

Not many instructionals have captured the essence of grip fighting, and none have come up with a way to teach that students won’t find boring, and therefore, ineffective. Now, I decided to look at the Introduction To Grab Attacks: David Heineman DVD in the hope that a self-defense approach to grip fighting might hold the answer.

Stay Safe with David Heineman

David Heineman is a lifelong martial artist with a knack for practical self-defense. I say practical because every time I see self-defense being advertised my first instinct is to cringe and be very doubtful. As someone who has taught many self-defense classes to people with no experience, I can recognize BS from the cover itself.

David’s name is one I had heard before in grappling or MMA circles, so I was wary at first and did my deep dive. Heineman is a legit martial arts instructor, holding a black belt in BJJ since 2022, given to him by Mike Cimm. He has been training since 2013, on the back of decades of experience training in Muay Thai, boxing, and taekwondo, in which he holds a 5th-degree black belt.

During the pandemic, David created his brand called “Stay Safe Martia Arts” which he uses as a platform to get people interested in martial arts and learn self-defense. So, with his work rooted in self-defense, and a legit background, I decided to take a careful and critical look at the Introduction To Grab Attacks: David Heineman DVD.

Full David Heineman DVD Review: Grab Attacks

The Introduction To Grab Attacks instructional is a No-Gi DVD that covers self-defense strategies to deal with different grabs coming at you from all directions. It is spread over four parts, each covering a specific positional scenario, and lasts just under 2 hours.

Here is what we found during our detailed David Heineman DVD review:

Part 1 – Controlling the Torso

The first part of the Introduction to Grab Attacks DVD sees David focus on fundamentals of body positioning and connections that every grappler will instantly recognize. He begins by covering posture and inside control, crucial concepts in any aspect t of martial arts training.

Heineman moves on to specific methods of inside control next, covering overhooks, underhooks, and the importance of distance management. Several drills you’d see in a group for first-timers on the mats wrap this part of the DVD up.

Part 2 – Dealing with Grabs

The second portion of the David Heineman DVD goes over grabs you’d encounter in the street, with some of them applicable to BJJ, and others pretty useless. Hair grabs, for example, were a waste of a perfectly good chapter.

The various collar and wrist grabs David covers are more realistic and much more applicable to grappling. By covering a very aggressive aspect of gripping, David shares incredible content on how to quickly and efficiently dispose of dangerous grips.

The front headlock position and bear hugs also get some attention in this volume. Don’t waste your time with the bear hugs material.

Part 3 – Side Grabs

As unusual as side grabs sound in BJJ, you actually encounter them a lot. Arm Drags, Russian Ties, and side control are just a few examples of how people grab you from the side. While most of the things shown in this section are pretty general, there are a few very useful tips, especially in terms of grip management.

A few choke defenses also appear in this part, and they do not deliver. If there is one skill lacking with most people in BJJ (at least until they reach brown belt) is choke defense. Heneman attempts to cover choke defense in his Grab Attacks instructional but misses the mark completely. Nobody would escape a person who knows how to choke using those tactics.

Part 4 – Rear Grabs

The final part of the instructional is perhaps the most useful one for grapplers, outside of the deep analysis of the main concepts in the first one. As this David Heineman DVD draws to a conclusion, the focus is on rear grabs, mostly in standing exchanges.

Given the rising popularity of body locks, especially from the rear, the tactics he demonstrates are very useful in preventing people from ever getting to that position. The same old-school Gracie Jiu-Jitsu type methods can also work to fend off back attacks in grappling or MMA.

Smart Grip Fighting Wins Fights

The most important part of grip fighting in Jiu-Jitsu is intent. Unless you’re gripping with a clear purpose, you’re better off not gripping, especially with the Gi on. Simply holding on to someone is a great way of having that grip turned against you in a devastating fashion.

Next up, you have to address the opponent’s grips. Playing a negative grip fighting game refers to blocking the opponent’s grip tactics from providing them with a dominant position. In best-case scenarios, you block and redirect the grips, while in worst-case ones, you need to break and strip certain grips off as fast as possible.

The bottom line is that whether you’re looking to attack or defined, standing, in guard, or on top, or finish a submission, you need your grips. Try doing any of the things above (which is everything in BJJ) and you’ll find out it is literally impossible.

Introduction To Grab Attacks David Heineman DVD Review — Introduction to Grab Attacks David Heineman DVD Free Sample

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Get Off Me!

This David Heineman DVD holds a few things that might come in handy (pun intended) during grip fighting in grappling or MMA instances. For the most part, it contains the same self-defense moves we’ve been seeing for decades in instruction. It’s not that they don’t work, it’s just that people need to train for decades to achieve proficiency.

Introduction To Grab Attacks might be a useful tool if you are lacking in the defensive grip department of your grappling game. it is an aggressive and very practical way of thinking about grip fighting and people grabbing you, which may at the very least, affect your mindset about the whole thing. The jury is still out on this one.

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John Danaher Arm Drags DVD Review: Master The Move

By

Ognen Dzabirski

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John Danaher Arm Drags DVD Review: Master The Move

We’re taking a look today at the John Danaher Arm Drags DVD, a part of his new Master The Move series. The subject is a move that is extremely potent in grappling but often falls short of its potential on account of several key mechanical oversights.

Throughout 8 volumes of this No-Gi instructional, John attempts to solve all problems commonly encountered with the arm drag and offers a complete system to help you excel with it. Standing or in guard, attacking or defending, you’ll find use of the arm drag, so it is about time that you do everything you can to master it.

Key Takeaways

An 8-part No-Gi BJJ DVD with over 5 hours of material on arm drags.
Covers seated and supine guards, standing and defensive uses of arm drags.
Each volume is a mini-system of its own that you can use to improve specific areas of your BJJ game.
BJJ World Expert Rating: 10 out of 10.

JOHN DANAHER ARM DRAGS DVD AVAILABLE HERE!!!

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A Staple of Grappling – The Arm Drag

The arm drag is a wrestling move that has been around as long as grappling. At some point, somebody, somewhere figured out that if you drag a person’s arm across their chest (or yours) you end up with a very dominant position to control their movement.

Nowadays, arm drag is everywhere, from Jiu-Jitsu to MMA, and represents a high-percentage move that allows you to completely isolate one side of the opponent’s body. The issue with it is that people tend to mess up two very important parts of the arm drag’s mechanics.

First of all, everyone thinks an arm drag is done using your arms. That is wrong. The arms are simply a means to connect to the opponent’s arm. Once you’re attached you use your entire body to execute the actual drag and achieve superior positioning.

Secondly, most people in BJJ grab the inside of the elbow when they’re pulling. In wrestling, they go for the shoulder so when you aim to place your grip inside the opponent’s armpit you’re going to get a much more powerful and effective arm drag.

For those interested in learning more about how to use this wrestling staple in modern Jiu-Jitsu, there’s no better resource than the Master The Move: John Danaher Arm Drags DVD.

The Man Who Changed Everything

Almost 15 years ago, when I first started training BJJ, the name John Danaher was not a staple of the BJJ World like it is now. I first heard of him from GSP, when one of the best P4P MMA fighters ever brought John to his Ultimate Fighter coaching team.

Fast forward a few years and in the early 2010s obscure grapplers started to dominate the then very young professional Jiu-Jitsu scene by using leg locks, a Boogeyman technique nobody cared for until that point. That is when John Danaher entered the spotlight, as the mastermind behind the system that shocked the grappling community.

As a grappler, Danaher is a rare example of how far someone can influence combat sports in general by only focusing on coaching others. Never a competitor himself, due to a myriad of reasons, mostly injuries, the eccentric genius showed everyone why Renzo more or less left him in charge of his famous blue basement for decades.

Danaher’s five minutes have turned into years, and at this point, he keeps on contributing to the betterment of the grappling world. His latest effort, the John Danaher Arm Drags DVD is an instructional aiming to demystify and organize the way in which we use one of the oldest grappling techniques in the context of our sport.

Master The Move: John Danaher Arm Drags DVD Review

The Master The Move John Danaher Arm Drags DVD is a BJJ instructional featuring 8 volumes of detailed instructions on how to integrate the arm drag into your grappling game. it addresses seated, supine, and standing situations, covering both offense and defense.

The material is presented in No-Gi but has a direct carry-over to Gi grappling. The total length of the full l8-volume DVD is around 5 hours. Here is what you can find inside:

Part 1 – The 10 Principles of Arm Drags

The entire opening volume of this John Danaher Arm Drags DVD targets the principles and basic mechanics that make armbars work. John spends an hour looking at the key considerations behind arm drags in BJJ and organizing the foundational principles behind the move.

Danaher’s system is based on simultaneously looking at follow-ups to classic armbars, thinking about lower body connections, dragging directions, stance, attacking both arms, grip control, head placement, etc. Exactly what you’d expect from a John Danaher instructional.

Part 2 – Seated Arm Drags

The reason people gravitate towards arm drags in BJJ so much, albeit mostly ineffectively, is that they work perfectly when you’re playing guard. Which guard? Well, as it turns out in this instructional, most, if not all of them.

The first guarded scenario in which John explores the use of arm drags is the seated guard. Danaherexplores ways in which you can use the arm drag both when rising and when you’re pulling the opponent down. A lot of your efforts to master the move depend on creating Kuzishi, or off-balance.

The first half explores different armbar techniques that create Kuzushi as part of the setup. The second position focuses on the opponent’s reactions, and how to turn them to an advantage by transitioning to other moves, such as the double leg, snapdowns, or leg entanglements.

Part 3 – The Supine Guard Arm Drag System

Volume three goes all the way to the mats, exploring supine guards and their relationship with the arm drag. The butterfly guard, one of John’s favorites, plays a major role here, but BJJ staples such as the Reverse De la Riva and the seated guard also feature.

Similarly to the previous volume of the John Danaher Arm Drags DVD, after exploring the mechanics Dnahaer launches into common scenarios. These include arm drags that lead to slides, trip attacks, and more wrestling-based leg takedowns, like the ankle pick.

Part 4 – Dragging Arms from Butterfly Guard

Nearing the halfway point of the instructional, John’s focus shifts solely to the butterfly guard, and its next-door neighbor, the half butterfly (a.k.a. butter-half) guard. This is a shorter volume compared to the others, given the highly specific subject.

The central problem addressed here is the high hand issue, which dictates how you grip and when you can arm drag. John offers ways to mitigate this, opening up a bunch of sweeps, including the dreaded should crunch.

Part 5 – Defensive Arm Drags

An aspect of arm drags you probably haven’t thought of before is using them for defensive purposes. Of course, Danaher knows all about it and shares it in the fifth volume of this John Danaher Arm Drags DVD.

The focus is on a position John dubbs ‘the double pits position’ which opens up the opportunity to enforce defense by using arm drags. Danaher also covers front headlock arm drags here, as well as some main principles of wrestling up to arm drags.

Part 6 – Arm Drags On the Feet

Since the previous volume got us to the feet, Danaher switches gears and starts looking at how you can Master The Move for standing exchanges. As with anything involving standing, grips play a crucial role, which in the case of arm drags, has everything to do with wrist control.

This volume is a mixture of Judo and wrestling that is typical for Danaher, with lots of Japanese terms thrown in there. The bottom line is that you need to use your legs and entire body to make arm drags work from standing, as looking to only drag with your arms is not enough to create Kuzushi.

Part 7 – Inside Tie Arm Drag

Nearing the end of the John Danaher Arm Drags DVD, we’re looking at more focused aspects of the standing arm drags game. First up is the inside tie position, perhaps the most effective grip vs. standing opponents in all grappling martial arts.

John connects this with an open stance entry, which results in different wrist and elbow-level drags, as well as the option to switch from one of the opponent’s arms to the other. In this volume, Danaher also talks a lot about how head positioning affects the outcome of armed drags.

Part 8 – Knee Drop Arm Drags

As this Danaher instructional comes to an end, John offers a last bit of arm-dragging brilliance by talking about knee drops. While most people in BJJ avoid these, they are unavoidable and heavily used in both Judo and wrestling.

the final part of the DVD addresses double and single knee drops, and how you can use them to attack either side of your opponent. Towards the end, Danaher shares some underhooking options as an alternative to the inside tie he favors.

Creating Back Exposure

While an arm drag is no guarantee that you’ll get to someone’s back, simply creating the exposure is a massive advantage during grappling. The arm drag allows you to isolate one side of the opponent’s body and force them into predictable motions which you can easily capitalize on using many different follow-ups.

The key thing that happens during an arm drag is that you break the opponent’s posture, by forcing them to twist their spine. If they resist this, that means a free one-way ticket to the back for you. When they try to pull out, the twist in the spine takes away a key foundation of grappling – their posture and allows you to set up really much whatever you want.

once you’ve got someone’s posture under your control, whether you’re standing or playing guard, you can proceed to make them fall. How do you do that? Find a way to use the attachment you have (arm drag) to make them touch the mats with the free arm. Once that happens you’re good to go.

Takedowns, sweeps, submissions, and transitions to leg locks or the back, all become a possibility once you have the opponent’s posture and balance broken. a lot of this is covered in great detail inside the John Danaher Arm Drags DVD.

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FULL DOWNLOAD: JOHN DANAHER ARM DRAGS DVD

Drag That Arm Across!

You’ve used arm drags, and you’ll be using arm drags, whether you want it or not. They’re just too good an opportunity to miss out on. Why not arm yourself with deep knowledge on these subjects, so you can actually be effective with them and not just use them to break up grip engagements?

This Master The Move: John Danaher Arm Drags DVD is one of his best instructionals to date, with lots of the fluff taken out nothing but highly useful information presented in 5 hours. If nothing else, the volume on the defensive use of the arm drag is worth getting the instructional alone.

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Xande Ribeiro No-Gi Offense DVD Review: Stand Up and Passing

By

Ognen Dzabirski

-

Xande Ribeiro No-Gi Offense DVD Review: Stand Up and Passing

I’ve never had the pleasure to train with Xande Ribeiro or visit one of his seminars, but I have seen most of his matches, and just about all of his BJJ instructionals. As a competitor, Xande’s legacy is in a class of its own, but he also has left a lasting mark on the BJJ world as one of the best instructors ever!

This latest Xande Ribeiro No-Gi Offense DVD is a great example of how Xande puts together his instructionals. He picks a wide subject, like building a No-Gi game based on Stand Up and Passing, and then goes over everything you’ll ever need for it: concepts, techniques, tactics, mindset, etc.

Another gem of an instructional that I felt privileged and happy to review today. Check out what you’ll find inside it:

Key Takeaways

A 5-part No-Gi BJJ instructional dissecting how to best build a full No-Gi game.
Over 3 hours of material on how to organize your standing, passing, and guard No-Gi game.
Taught by a legendary World Champion who was only mounted once in his career!
BJJ World Expert Rating: 9 out of 10.

NO-GI OFFENSE DVD AVAILABLE HERE!!!

Xande Ribeiro DVD Review No-Gi Offense — TRAILER: Xande Ribeiro No-Gi Offense DVD

The No-Gi BJJ Game Conundrum

If you’ve never competed in No-Gi, you’re going to be in for a big surprise. I don’t care if you are a black belt with tons of Gi experience, once you enter a No-Gi match, you’ll see that you need careful planning and a highly specific selection of moves and tactics to prevail.

The conundrum most people face in the BJJ World is how to be good at both Gi and No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu. More often than not, given the complexity of Gi BJJ, particularly in the domain of grip fighting, people opt to train with the Kimono hoping their skills will carry over to No-Gi.

Unfortunately, this approach is flawed and will be exposed once you try a full-paced No-Gi match. The solution is to do the reverse – train No-Gi more so that you develop skills that have a direct carryover to the much more grippable setting of Gi Jiu-Jitsu.

Even better, try to take the worst of both worlds and cross-train. For example, wear Gi pants when you go against people in No-Gi, and allow them to grip them. This way you’ll develop incredible passing skills for both.

Feel free to play around with different training garment combinations, but prioritize No-Gi over Gi if you want to be better at both. If you want to do it fast, think about picking up the Xande Ribeiro No-Gi Offense DVD.

The Living BJJ Legend That is Xande Ribeiro

it has been a while since I’ve seen a new Xande Ribeiro instructional. I am a sucker for the Ribeiro brother’s teaching style, so I jump in at every opportunity to get a peek into how they handle things, especially since they go for conceptually broad subjects as opposed to narrow specialties.

The pedigree of Xande Ribeiro, the younger of the BJJ power brothers duo is a black belt under his older brother Saulo Ribeiro and is one of the real Brazilian pioneers of the sport in the USA and the world. Always laid back and respectful, the Riberios have been behind some of the biggest names in the sport, such as Rafel Lovato Jr. and Diego Sanchez.

While with most people in the sport, the biggest accomplishments come in the form of world titles, with Xande, the bar is set in another universe. Namely, the 43-year-old has only had his guard passed four times in his career, and has only conceded mount once!

Of course, he also has a bunch of world titles to his name, 7 IBJJF Worlds with the Gi and 2 in No-GI, to be exact, as well as being the ADCC world champion on two occasions. you understand now why I was so stoked to have an early look at the Xande Ribeiro No-Gi Offense DVD covering Stand Up and Passing.

Detailed Xande Ribeiro No-Gi Offense DVD Review

The Xande Ribeiro No-Gi Offense DVD, although titled ‘Stand Up and Passing’ is actually a complete blueprint to Xande’s world title-winning No-Gi game. He has been using this approach since 1999, and, while updating lots of the moves the meat and potatoes of the system remain the same as 25 years ago:

Part 1 – Everything About the Single-Leg

The single-leg takedown is one of the strongest moves for the standing portion of any grappling, MMA, or self-defense situation. It also happens to be Xande’s go-to way of getting people to the mats, so he addresses his favorite set-up, finishes, and pins I the first portion of his No-Gi Offense DVD.

He starts by demonstrating finishes first, just like all the top wrestlers train. What Xande does perfectly is tie these finishes with some ultra-heavy pressure passes immediately off of the takedown. he covers how to enter the single-leg takedown after demonstrating finishes, which is exactly how you need to train as well.

Once on the mats, Ribeiro shows his signature super hold pinning position, that he uses to stop opponents from standing up as he moves to pass their guards. Lots of old-school Judo side control variations feature in this volume, providing some incredible pressure pinning options.

Part 2 – Stacking and Pressure

If there is one thing you can associate with the Ribeiro brothers, it is their immense pressure game from the top. The secret is not in them being ultra heavyweights (although it helps), but rather in how you force your opponent to position themselves.

This part of the Xande Ribeiro No-Gi Offense DVD is all about stacking people up before you pass, making them beg for the pass. Xande starts with double under, an old-school way of passing that still works beautifully to this day. Some moves he shares, like reaching for the next are true game changers in stack passing!

Ribeiro’s powerful simplicity continues with the proven No-Gi tactic of forcing half guard so that he gets easier access to smashing passes based on the crossface. This volume mends the way to force mount off of a forced half guard. In an elegant way, of course.

Part 3 – The Super Hold

The midway point of the Stand Up and Passing Xande Ribeiro instructional starts with the previously mentioned super hold position, focusing on passing. The endpoint is a Kesa Gatame variation, and Xande offers regular and reverse versions for even more pressure.

The super hold can also be used to bypass side control entirely and get to mount directly from performing any pass. Xande shares the details on how to achieve this, as well as key tips on how to maintain the mount using the same super hold principles after you get there.

Part 4 – Sweeping

The penultimate volume of the Xande Ribeiro No-Gi Offense DVD shifts gears as Xande heads to the mats, to explore the building block of his No-Gi guard game. Remember, this is the man who has only had his guard passed on 4 occasions in his entire career!

Ribeiro’s focus is on the closed guard first, exploring the most secure gaurd position you can play in No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu. he goes over a variety of attacks using two-on-one grips, and lists his favorite transitions into the effective Coyote half guard. Once there it is sweep bonanza with stuff like the rollover and dragon tail sweep.

Part 5 – Butterfly Guard

Xande Ribeiro brings his No-Gi Offense DVD to a close with a volume that covers his highly offensive butterfly guard game. He begins with grips that lead to arm drags, constantly exposing the back. Then, he goes into sweeping using the shoulder crunch, which, contrary to popular opinion is not something Gordon Ryan came up with.

Xande uses his vast competition experience to provide the perfect contention points for his butterfly gaurd attacks and other guards, such as the body lock Coyote gaurd and different Ashi Garami entries that lead to unstoppable submissions.

The instructional concludes with a series of sweeps and wrestling-up tactics that essentially bring you back full circle to the standing and passing aspects of his game.

Setting Up An Aggressive No-Gi Game

Given the dynamic, and after a short while, slippery, nature of No-Gi BJJ, constantly moving is not something you can afford to slack on. However, purposeless movements are worse than not moving at all and even conceding creating positions, so you better have an idea of what you’re going to do.

For the most part, it comes down to recognizing dangers, understanding your goals, and bridging both with the most appropriate grips. It sounds simple, but it is actually very complex, and not at all easy to apply across your entire No-Gi game.

This is where experience matters, and the best way to learn from experience is to learn from someone who has heaps of it. Of course, if you have access to a world-class No-Gi competitor who has won it all, by all means, go to them for advice.

Alternatively, you check out the blueprint of one of the best, most methodical grapplers ever by acquiring the Xande Ribeiro No-Gi Offense DVD that will teach you everything you need to know about selecting the most efficient moves for an unstoppable, aggressive No-Gi game.

Xande Ribeiro No-Gi Offense DVD Review — FREE: Sample the Xande Ribeiro No-Gi Offense DVD

FULL DVD DOWNLOAD: XANDE RIBEIRO NO-GI OFFENSE

Get After It!

You can figure out how to grapple with the Gi pretty much on your own, as it allows you to get away with stuff by gripping and manipulating the cloth. However, there is nowhere to hide in No-Gi, and unless you ask for advice, you’ll struggle and probably give up on it.

Since this Xande Ribeiro No-Gi Offense DVD is now available, there is no need to get the Gi back on – you have all you need to build a truly comprehensive No-Gi BJJ game. As someone who has exclusively done No-Gi BJJ for the past 7 years (just as many years with the Gi prior to that), I found incredibly useful information in this DVD. I expect it ill help you solve No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu as well!

Essential Things You Need For No-Gi Class

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Jaine Fragoso BJJ DVD Review: World Class Legal Leg Locks

By

Ognen Dzabirski

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Jaine Fragoso BJJ DVD Review: World Class Legal Leg Locks

Time to look at another leg ock instructional, and not skit that, but another one targeting only legal leg locks. Legal or not, your leg lock finishes will only be as strong as your entries and control are, so learning from a World Champion is going to help you, regardless of your real or perceived grappling experience.

Leg locks are definitely a staple of the modern competition game in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and they have become an integral part of Gi and No-Gi grapplers alike. The Jaine Fragoso BJJ DVD we are looking at today targets World Class Legal Leg Locks based on the experiences of a professional Gi competitor with a career on the rise and tested at the highest levels of the sport.

Key Takeaways

BJJ DVD with 6 volumes, featuring the Gi and containing 2 hours of material.
Covers only legal submissions to do in Gi BJJ tournaments.
A competition-clad way to attack legs from top and bottom positions.
BJJ World Expert Rating: 7 out of 10.

WORLD CLASS LEG LOCKS DVD AVAILABLE HERE!!!

World Class Legal Leg Locks Jaine Fragoso BJJ DVD Review — Preview The World Class Legal Leg Locks BJJ DVD by Jaine Fragoso

Why Are Some Leg Locks Still Illegal?

The legality of leg locks is an issue I thought was being debated somewhere around 2016, maybe 2017. Yes, the IBJJF was late to the party (as usual) lifting the bounty off heel-hooks after 2020, but still imposing a bunch of conditions for people to use them.

At the end of the day, there is no change whatsoever to Gi BJJ rules, which in my opinion holds the sport back a lot. We are far past the dummy claims that leg locks destroy people and will maim them for life – it simply isn’t true. So why run from leg locks in this day and age of grappling evolution?

I will say what I have said over and over again – learn all leg locks, and learn them as early as you can, preferably starting your very first day on the mats. Of course, if you want to compete in certain tournaments, you’ll have to abide by the rules. It is easier, however, to know all types of leg locks and choose which ones to use than get caught by someone who does.

I appreciate instructionals like the World Class Legal Leg Locks Jaine Fragoso BJJ DVD, which covers the subject of legal leg locks, providing people with a filter as to what they can use. I just find the restrictions pointless and detrimental to the sport at its point.

A Lightweight to Watch: Jaine Fragoso

The name Jaine Fragoso is one that has been sending ripples in the lightweight divisions for the past few years, and those ripples are about to turn into waves. Jaine has been tearing the competition scene, primarily in the Gi, collecting prizes across the board, from IBJJF to AJP.

The 26-year-old black belt representing Serao Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blew up in the last year, conquering the IBJJF worlds and the IBJJF No-GI pans, among a bunch of other open-style tournaments that include IBJJF, UAEJJF and ADCC events. For the most part, she has been hunting for submissions with other particular expertise lying in the leg locks department.

The Brazilian has a very aggressive competition game, comfortable with her opponents knowing exactly what she’s going to do, and doing it anyway. Fragoso is extremely skilled in getting leg locks from everywhere, top, bottom, standing, and even on her way out of bad sports.

The most impressive thing is that she sticks to legal leg locks as she prefers to battle it out in the Gi. The World Class Legal Leg Locks Jaine Fragoso BJJ DVD covers the entire system that she has used to get a BJJ World Champion title.

World Class Legal Leg Locks Jaine Fragoso BJJ DVD Review

The World Class Legal Leg Locks Jaine Fragoso BJJ DVD is a Gi instructional on the subject of competition-legal leg locks. It contains six volumes, each covering a specific subject, but all amassing to a disappointingly short running length of barely 2 hours. All the material could easily fit in a two-part DVD.

Part 1 – Closed Guard

While the closed guard does not pop as the main position to set up leg locks, there are some options available, albeit they are viable at best. Jaine’s take on the subject is to utilize the closed guard to force her opponents to stand up. This is an effective approach that she has pulled off in world-class tournaments.

With the legs exposed versus a standing opponent, this volume of the Jaine Fragoso BJJ DVD offers several ways to capitalize, both when they’re facing you and turning away. The best part is that she also has an entry that doesn’t require the top person to be standing. It makes sense, although I haven’t tested it yet on the mats to see whether it will work.

Most of the submissions throughout the instructional focus on kneebars, with the occasional ankle lock and toe hold here and there.

Part 2 – 50/50 Leg Locks

The second part of the World Class Legal Leg Locks instructional explores a very well-known leg locking position that doubles as a guard and an Ashi Garami – the 50/50. The attacks available here are not too plentiful, and Fragoso offers only three options in this part, covering inside attacks, outside attacks, and options versus standing opponents.

This part reminds me of old Dean Lister leg lock DVDs where he categorizes things as inside and outside relative to his legs, and goes on to explain entire systems in one chapter. It is exactly what Jaine does in this volume.

Part 3 – De La Riva Guard

I really do not like people claiming they can set up leg locks from the De La Riva. Apart from the Caio Terra ankle lock, you’re not really getting leg locks from the DLR, as it is impossible to do since it is an outside guard. You simply start in it before going to other guards more suited to leg locks.

Honestly, nothing new or overly impressive appears in this part of the DVD, with half dedicated to DLR as the starting position and another half exploring the Reverse De La Riva. A bit underwhelming.

Part 4 – Half Guard Leg Attacks

The half guard is a position with lots of leg-locking options as a result of its mechanics. This is reflected in this portion of the Jaine Fragoso leg locks Legal Leg LocksDVD, which is the longest one in the entire set. In it, she goes over bottom and top leg lock setups in relation to the half guard.

Jaine begins by talking about underhooks going under both the armpit and the leg. She then covers every direction available for leg locks. focusing on the Jegue as her main position. She also covers the deep half guard offering some interesting ways of introducing leg lock attacks to the BJJ classic position.

Part 5 – Leg Locking Open Guards

A volume mainly exploring leg lock entries and finishes against common open guards used in Gi competition. The main culprits are the spider guard, over-under, and the lapel guard. Most of the setups and attacks are straightforward and make great use of the guard’s grip placements and mechanics to open up leg attacks.

Part 6 – X-Guard Attacks and Counters

As the Jaine Fragoso BJJ DVD concludes, the focus is on one of the most common leg-locking positions – the single-leg X guard. She attacks both legs which I particularly enjoyed, as a former leg lock enthusiast.

The best part about this volume is the section on counter leg locks, and how to defend them while you’re going for your initial submission. Counterattack awareness sis huge for leg lockers, and I was glad to see it covered in such a smart way in an instructional.

The Legal Equalizer

Whether you are a seasoned black belt, a small framed person, a huge ultra-heavyweight, or just the recreational school teacher looking for some fun, leg locks will help you be better on the mats. They remain one of the best techniques in the submission department for all types of grapplers which is a rarity in the BJJ World.

How many submissions can you think of that everyone can understand fairly easily, can pull off against peers and more experienced grapplers alike, and result in a high percentage of success? There was a reason why the DDS built their entire game around leg locks and still use them heavily to this day. They just work.

That brings us full circle, back to the elephant in the room once again – legality. Providing that leg locks can be done safely and effectively has not changed the minds of the powers to be, particularly when it comes to traditional Gi Jiu-Jitsu.

So, it comes down to you. Will you pick to grapple using just one bullet in your leg-locking six-shooter, or fill that barrel up and shoot off your hip at anyone daring to get near you? The World Class Legal Leg Locks Jaine Fragoso BJJ DVD will help, but it only supplies some of the bullets you need to be a true leg-locking outlaw!

BJJ DVD Review: World Class Legal Leg Locks by Jaine Fragoso — Free Technique: World Class Legal Leg Locks by Jaine Fragoso

FULL DVD DOWNLOAD: WORLD CLASS LEG LOCKS by JAINE FRAGOSO

Leglocks From Everywhere!

If there is one thing I like about the World Class Legal Leg Locks DVD it is that Jaine covers both top and bottom entries into leg locks. She really offers solutions that easily take care of some of the most annoying guards in Jiu-Jitsu such as the spider and lasso guard.

The bottom line is whether you want to limit yourself to the legal leg locks demonstrated in this Jaine Fragoso BJJ DVD or you want to be able to go for the highest percentage of lower body finishes. Honestly, the entries demonstrated here will help you with either, so picking this DVD up as a Gi competitor is likely to provide you with a very important edge.

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Tomer Alroy BJJ DVD Review: Competition Tested Bottom Game

By

Ognen Dzabirski

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Tomer Alroy BJJ DVD Review: Competition Tested Bottom Game

Playing guard is fun for most people who train BJJ, mostly because they get to be lazy and still “fight” at the same time. This perception changes drastically, however, once you try and use your guard(s) in a highly competitive setting.

There are two main things to consider when building a bottom position game plan for competition: stick to the most effective positions and tactics and do not overcomplicate things in open guards. The Competition Tested Bottom Game Tomer Alroy BJJ DVD si a Gi instructional by a seasoned black belt competitor that fulfils at least one of these conditions.

Key Takeaways

A 4-part BJJ DVD instructional with the Gi, with over 3 hours of material.
Contains fundamental guard movements and useful drills.
Offers practical building blocks for defense, closed and open guards.
BJJ World Expert Rating: 7 out of 10.

COMPETITION TESTED BOTTOM GAME DVD AVAILABLE HERE!!!

Review: Competition Tested Bottom Game DVD by Tomer Alroy — Preview the Competition Tested Bottom Game DVD

Being Dangerous Off Your Back

the quintessential skill that sets Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu apart from other martial arts, especially grappling martial arts is the ability to be dangerous when you’re on your back. Or butt, we don’t discriminate bottom positions in this sport.

For most people, it is counterintuitive to lay with their back on the ground, and that is a habit you should stick to. The nature of the sport of BJJ, however, dictates that one person is almost always with their back on the mats, or constantly in some sort of a bottom position.

So, if you can’t be the person on top, then you should do everything in your power to either force your way up and switch places or get a tap. The catch is that if you lose your guard as you attempt this, you’re both giving away better pinning positions to the top person and conceding points.

What you have to do is remember that you need to constantly attack when you are with your back on the mats, but you should never sacrifice the guard (legs in between you and the top person) when you do so.

What you’ll find out is that being offensive is far more effective at fending off guard passing attempts than being defensive and trying to keep the guard at all costs. As it turns out, you need a fine balance between attacking and defending and we thought the Tomer Alroy BJJ DVD Competition Tested Bottom Game can help so we did a detailed review and breakdown of its contents.

Tomer Alroy – A New Breed BJJ Competitor

Tomer Alroy is a representative of the new breed of BJJ competitors, those raised and bred to grapple it out on the mats over and over again. He is the leader of the Israeli Jiu-Jitsu competition team (yeah they take their BJJ seriously and have an official state team) and is an exceptionally dedicated competitor, particularly with the Gi.

Being directly in contact with his work, and knowing Tomer himself personally I can attest to his incredible talent and unique perspective at BJJ. Alroy places tactics and mindfulness over everything else, being a psychology major who transferred his academic knowledge to the mats.

More precisely he uses psychological techniques and insights to figure out the best approach to sport Jiu-Jitsu as competition is his main goal. So far, he has had some notable successes, focusing mainly on passing as his strongest suit. In this Tomer Alroy BJJ DVD however, he switches it up presenting us with his Competition Tested Bottom Game.

Detailed Tomer Alroy BJJ DVD Review: Competition Tested Bottom Game

Competition Tested Bottom Game is a Tomer Alroy BJJ DVD containing over 3 hours of material on how to develop a guard game fit for tournament use from scratch. It is a Gi instructional that is methodically organized, although overly complicated and confusing at times:

Part 1 – Basic Motions & Drills

Tomer has a very methodological approach to this instructional, reminiscent of a university curriculum. Starting with bottom position 101 Alroy first covers basic Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu movements but always in the context of why they are essential for a sound and diverse bottom game.

The first half of this Tomer Alroy BJJ DVD volume goes over shrimping, soothing, pummeling, inversions, spinning, rocking, posting… you name it. Basically, everything there is in terms of efficient guard play.

Somewhere in the middle of this volume, Tomer shares his concept of guard by addressing what he knows best – passing. He talks about the stages of passing, and the main methods you’ll face and he defines the danger zones of guard play, which I found very informative.

He wraps the opening volume up with a set of 4 basic movement drills which he strings together in a drill sequence at the very end.

Part 2 – Defensive Guard

As I’ve always said, if you want to learn how to defend something, ask someone who’s great at attacking it. In that spirit, Tomer, as a proficient guard passer, is acutely aware of how important guard retention is and addresses it in the second volume of his Competition Tested Bottom Game instructional.

Frames, as you’d expect, play a major role, but not necessarily a central one. Alroy does something I’ve seen very few people address and puts full body motion and the lack of it as the primary means of retaining a guard as opposed to over-relying on the arms.

In this volume, you’ll find everything and the kitchen sink on the subject of framing and pummeling from the guard. Unfortunately, the structure of this volume is not as easy to follow as that of his previous one with too much information crammed in many short chapters.

Part 3 – Closed Guard

The third volume gets back on track with a much more concise set of chapters going over the closed guard. I appreciated that Tomer chose a basic, yet exceptionally effective position to address, as this makes the Tomer Alroy Bottom Game DVD fit for beginners as well as seasoned competitors.

Most of the focus is on Tomer’s favorite ways to deal with the two biggest culprits a closed guard player faces – posture and base. Alroy uses a very smart and efficient way of placing grips to attack both simultaneously, using techniques such as armbars, collar chokes, pendulum sweeps, and the scissor sweep.

All in all, this volume is coherent, precise, and to the point, providing both concepts, a full framework, and all the means you need to play an effective and offensive closed guard. Some fun mermaid sweeps wrap this portion of the Tomer Alroy BJJ DVD up.

Part 4 – Open Guards (DLR & X Guard)

The final part of Tomer Alroy’s Competition Tested Bottom Game DVD is his open guard system consisting mainly of the De la Riva Guard and the X-Guard.

The DLR is first up, with basic positional mechanics, key Gi grips, and some sweeping options we know combining for a solid system for those that already understand this guard. I like that Alroy connects the DLR to the X-guard and then ties all of that to the closed guard to show how gaurd transitions work in a competitive setting.

Once again, I find the entire game too complicated to follow, as it is mostly suited to Tomer’s specific needs and preferences, there is some great information in there, especially with the flurry of submissions chapters at the end.

However, if you’re looking for an open guard game that is applicable to a wide audience of grapplers, there are better options out there. What you might take out is how to construct an open guard game by using the transitioning concepts Tomer shares in this part of the DVD.

How To Develop a Bottom Game for Competition

Developing an effective strategy in terms of your bottom game in BJJ, especially for competitive needs is not an easy task that you can afford to underestimate. It requires a fine balance between what works for your skill level and body type and what you like to use.

It takes competitors years to develop practical guard games that will give them an edge in competition. The way I’d advise beginners to approach it is to focus on passing and retaining top positions as much as they can. That way, you get to figure out exactly what you need to do when you’re on the other end, much like Tomer Alroy did.

What happens when you inevitably end up playing guard at a competition? Stick to the basics you can master, and more importantly, understand. That means that the closed guard as presented in this Tomer Alroy BJJ DVD and perhaps the half guard are your best friends. All the fancy-ass spinning lapel stuff can wait. Or you can just skip over it entirely.

Review: Competition Tested Bottom Game Tomer Alroy BJJ DVD — Free Technique from the Competition Tested Bottom Game Tomer Alroy DVD

FULL DVD DOWNLOAD: TOMER ALROY BOTTOM GAME

If you plan on competing, you’ll definitely need a reliable bottom game. As far as laying the foundational building blocks of your game goes, picking up the Tomer Alroy BJJ DVD Competition Tested Bottom Game is a great choice, particularly for those new to competition.

If you are a seasoned competitor who likes to take things to the highest levels of Gi competition, you’ll also benefit from this instructional. However, these benefits are more in the direction of virtually picking Tomer’s mind in terms of game construction than picking up ready-to-use tactics or techniques. A solid choice for Gi BJJ nonetheless.

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Daniele Bolelli Prison Rules BJJ DVD Review: The Not-So Gentle Art Of Jiu Jitsu

By

Ognen Dzabirski

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Daniele Bolelli Prison Rules BJJ DVD Review: The Not-So Gentle Art Of Jiu Jitsu

If you were ever caught with a sneaky move you never expected in BJJ, resulting in an immediate, and very painful surrender on your part, then you’ve been introduced to the concept of playing by “prison rules” in BJJ. Consider it your rite of passage.

The questions that immediately pop to mind once you tap to such a move are whether it is legal, and how you can learn and use it yourself. The Daniele Bolelli Prison Rules BJJ DVD aims to teach you exactly that, turning you into a very unpredictable and efficient grappler, regardless of size or experience.

So, buckle up and join us as we explain why BJJ is anything but a “Gentle Art” and how you can make the most out of forgotten grappling moves that catch everyone by surprise!

Key Takeaways

A Gi and No-Gi DVD instructional with 4 volumes and 2 hours of material.
Explores the world of painful, sneaky moves that give you a huge edge.
Highly effective pinning moves, takedowns, submissions, and escapes.
BJJ World Expert Rating: 8 out of 10.

DANIELLE BOLELLI PRISON RULES DVD AVAILABLE HERE!!!

The Not-So Gentle Art Of Jiu Jitsu Daniele Bolelli Prison Rules BJJ DVD Review — Trailer: Daniele Bolelli Prison Rules BJJ DVD

The “Gentle” Art of Jiu-Jitsu

I love how the Japanese can find beauty in anything. They even went as far as dubbing Jiu-Jitsu “the gentle art”, something that this martial art is not when you look at it, and even less when you experience it. However, there is a certain charm to the art and the flow that happens during rolling that can certainly be called captivating and elegant.

Of course, such a superlative for the art was adopted by the Gracies, who dubbed BJJ “Arte Suave” which means the same thing – gentle art. With BJJ being even rougher around the edges than traditional Japanese Jiu-Jitsu, this has become a frequent source of jokes and memes in the BJJ World, and not without merit.

Training grappling is going to leave you exhausted and happy but it won’t be gentle. The gentlest part about it is that people are gentlemanly about training and will refrain from using every move at their disposal to cause you discomfort, and pain and elicit a tap, or at least a response that allows progression to more dominant and anything but gentle, positions.

In fact, such moves have often been dubbed as rude and disrespectful, even though they are very effective and considered legal in competitions. Well, some of them are. The bottom line is that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, as gentlemanly as it is, has some very “unfair” moves in its arsenal, and you need to know how to do them.

The Daniele Bolelli Prison Rules BJJ DVD is an attempt by a very intelligent practitioner to guide you through using these moves to grab every advantage you can for yourself.

The “Mad Scientist” Daniele Bolelli

The first time I took a look at the Prison Rules BJJ DVD cover, I immediately recognized the name. Having listened to hours upon hours of Daniele Bolelli on the Joe Rogan Expreince podcast, I was still taken aback seeing him on the cover of his own BJJ DVD instructional!

The one thing I forgot about was that Bolelli is not just a legitimate BJJ black belt, but also an avid martial artist. This guy has trained everything, from obscure Kung Fu styles to boxing, Judo, and the illustrious Shuai Jiao, a.k.a. Chinese Wrestling.

With over two decades of experience in all sorts of grappling, Bolelli now teaches BJJ in Ojai Valley Martial Arts in Oak View and previously taught kung fu san soo at UCLA’s John Wooden Center.

Impressive falls short of describing Daniele, who, on top of all martial arts experience, is also a famous writer, respected lecturer, and very successful podcast host. I guess it was only a matter of time before a Daniele Bolelli BJJ DVD joined his list of accomplishments.

A Closer Look at Daniele Bolelli Prison Rules BJJ DVD

The Daniele Bolelli Prison Rules instructional is a four-part DVD lasting just over 2 hours. Sticking to the theme of being unorthodox, Daniele demonstrates the techniques in the DVD both with and without a Gi, depending on the best use for them:

Part 1 – Involuntary Yoga

Immediately off the bat, this Daniele Bolelli BJJ DVD opens with a set of very unconventional moves. First up are three techniques borrowed from wrestling which often get frowned upon in BJJ: the cradle, the Butcher, and my favorite, the Stockade. They are all moves that restrict motion and are used to return and keep your opponent on the mats in a painful and crushing manner.

Next, Bolelli covers a few “friendlier” moves that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing in BJJ, such as the gift wrap and the baseball choke. Both are extremely efficient at pinning and choking, respectfully, and are only made better by Daniele’s concept of involuntary yoga which he also shares in this volume.

Part 2 – Crank It Up!

As you perhaps assumed, cranks play a big role in the Daniele Bolelli Prison Rules BJJ DVD albeit he does not restrict them to neck cranks only. His arsenal extends to face cranks, spinal cranks, and any other body part that can be on the receiving end of a crank.

Crank-wise, he shows interesting crossface options to make the position even more unbearable. He also throws in a couple of neck cranks, such as the Estima neck crank before addressing the mother of all cranks – the can opener.

Part 3 – Wrist Locks

When grapplers hear or read the term “prison rules” wristlock immediately jumps to mind. So, of course, the Prison Rules Daniele Bolleli BJJ DVD had to feature them, and they even got their dedicated volume.

I am not a big fan of wristlocks, but that doesn’t mean I don’t use them, and I will e putting the Russian 2-on-1 wristlock to use a lot! On top of it, Bolelli shares standing, Judo, and even Aikido-inspired wrist locks which are extremely effective.

This volume also contains some painful sweeping maneuvers, based around the 100% neck crank developed at 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu. Daniele wraps this volume up with a very good variation of the famous Jon Jones shoulder lock.

Part 4 – Catch Wrestling Staples

The fourth and final part of the Daniele Bolelli Prison Rules BJJ DVD contains moves that are more familiar to BJJ grapplers, and might even be considered to be milder compared to the previous content.

Here, the focus is mainly on submissions with Daniele turning to catch wrestling for inspiration on wrapping up heel hooks, shin locks, and armbars. He also explores the pinch headlock and the arguably most powerful position from the front headlock – the cowcatcher.

The Benefits of Being the “Bad Guy”

You can use different moves or concepts that fall under the umbrella of “rude” and “disrespectful” depending on your style of grappling and your build. Smaller grapplers will find that they benefit from using different “gentle” moves as opposed to larger ones, who mostly center their torture go-to moves around their weight.

The end goal of these moves is rarely to finish a submission, although the Daniele Bolelli Prison Rules BJJ DVD did offer some options on that front. What you will mostly get from using such tactics is the creation of reactions from your opponent. When they react, people tend to open up in a grappling sense, which means you can turn a disadvantage into an advantage using such a move.

Why stay stuck in bad spots simply because you are the smaller, weaker, or less experienced grappler of the two engaging in a roll? As long as you stay within the bounds of the sport, there is no bad move. It’s just like dissing neck cranks because they are not chokes – they’re still legit submissions.

So, consider being the bad guy/girl from time to time. You don’t have to base your entire game on the premise of playing by prison rules, but you should whip out your toolbox of evil surprises every now and then!

Review: Daniele Bolelli Prison Rules DVD — Free Sample: Daniele Bolelli The Not-So Gentle Art Of Jiu Jitsu Prison Rules DVD

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Playing by Prison Rules!

Having an arsenal of sneaky and effective pain-based moves in grappling is just like having martial arts skills. It is better to have them and not need them, than the other way around. While not every move in the Daniele Bolelli Prison Rules is going to work for everyone, everybody will find something to use in an emergency.

So keep it painful when you roll and mix in some “gentle” moves inspired by the Daniele Bolelli Prison Rules DVD. After all, there is beauty in everything, and nobody can say that rolling using mostly “rude” moves is not an art form on its own.

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Review: Half Guard Top DVD By Professor Henry Akins

By

Ognen Dzabirski

-

How often do you get stuck in people’s half gaurd when you’re trying to pass? Let me make it easier for you – you’re not trapped, it is just a matter of perspective. As long as you’re on top, and preventing the bottom person from getting to a better guard, you’re not stuck, you’re in charge.

The true art of the top half guard position in BJJ is to learn how to maintain it without getting swept, or allowing the person to re-guard in a guard that allows them a lot more free movement. The Half Guard Top DVD By Henry Akins Half Guard is a great resource on mastering both how you can stay on top of the half guard as long as you want, and how to pass it effortlessly.

Key Takeaways

No-Gi BJJ DVD with 3 hours of material spread over five parts.
Explores the concept of building a home base before passing and submitting.
Contains an entire volume with common questions answered by Akins.
BJJ World Expert Rating: 9 out of 10.

HALF GUARD TOP DVD AVAILABLE HERE!!!

Review: Henry Akins Half Guard Top DVD — See Trailer: Half Guard Top DVD by Henry Akins

What are Your Objectives From Top Half Guard?

One of the most intuitive guard positions to play in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is the half guard. people tend to gravitate towards it from both top and bottom, even when they have absolutely no idea what they are doing (which is most of the time).

As useful as the half guard can be for a bottom player, it is just as annoying to a top player looking to dismantle and pass it. What is on your mind whenever you’re stuck in the top half guard? Most likely it is wondering how to extract that one leg the opponent has that is preventing you from completing a pass.

Well, let me unveil the truth – the leg is not important. Focusing on it means you abandon your awareness of the rest of your body, making it easier for the bottom person to transition to a different guard or use the leg as a lever to sweep you.

our goals when on top should be to make sure you stay in the half guard, and even more importantly, that you stay on top, not allowing the opponent to grab a better guard. In other words, you need to use the top half guard to stall, until the opponent accepts you’re staying there.

That is when you can think about passing it, as now, you only have one guard to deal with as opposed to the whole array of BJJ guards. The Henry Akins Half Guard Top DVD we’re looking at today might come in handy for this last passing part.

Henry Akins: One Of Rickson Gracie’s Best Black Belts

Henry Akins is an American Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under one of the most legendary figures from the Gracie family – Rickson Gracie. He has been a standout coach for decades now, conveying the knowledge he gathered from Rickson to the masses in the BJJ world, without the restraints on details that the Gracies are known for.

Akins started training BJJ in the early 90s, after somehow ending up with one of the legendary Vale Tudo tapes featuring Rickson. He tracked him down and started training immediately, often traveling to Brazil as well. In 2004, Rickson Gracie gave Henry his black belt during a training session in his residence.

Later on, Rickson, who initially helped out as an instructor in Luiz Heredia’s gym before becoming a black belt, became a fully-fledged instructor in Ricskon’s Academy. Akins was the third American to receive a black belt from Rickson.

Game-wise, Henry Akins has that old-school, never-say-die style of grappling, revolving around the very basics of the sport. he is versatile in any position and goes as deep as possible with the details that make everything tick. With plenty of instructional to his name so far, the Henry Akins Half Guard DVD on passing is the first time he addresses the subject so far.

Half Guard Top DVD By Henry Akins: A Detailed Review

This Henry Akins Half Guard instructional is intended for No-Gi grapples, with nearly 3 hours of super high-quality material inside. As always with Henry Akins, the organization throughout the Half Guard Top DVD is pristine and logical, easy to follow and the addition of an entire volume dedicated to common questions and answers is pure genius!

Part 1 – Home Base

In the opening parts of the Half Guard Top DVD, Henry spends a lot of time dissecting how to set up your base when playing the position, so that you don’t have to fend off sweeps all the time and not get any passing done.

There is a lot of talk about base and positioning, as well as bridging and the opportunities this common BJJ motion provides for the top half-guard player. Akins sticks to the concept of a home base, a position that makes you invulnerable from the top half while allowing you to work offensively. It is also a safety net that you can fall back on any time something doesn’t pan off.

Part 2 – Launching Attacks

Once you’re safe with a home base, Henry moves on to attacks. blending together submissions and passes, this Henry Akins Half Guard Top instructional starts with a knee bara against the low knee shield, and goes into different methods you can use to dismantle the dreaded Z-Guard.

Aking, following the Gracie old-school approach to passing, does not want to spend time in side control, and aims to pass directly to the mount or back mount every time he can. As he shares different passing techniques and strategies he also covers grip fighting, and when to fall back to home base instead of rising your position.

Henry also dedicates a lot of attention to the position and the ways you can use to free the trapped leg. His system revolves around clearing the knee line, just like with leg lock defense, but does factor in low half gaurd variations like the quarter guard too.

Part 3 – Pummeling

Pummeling is an essential skill for grapplers to master but it extends beyond just pummeling with the armed. you need to be able to pummel with your legs just as effectively, especially if you want to become good at guard passing.

Akins shares lateral motion based on pummeling a lot in this volume, basing it all on the opponent’s reactions. Once again, most of the forward movement in this part of the Half Guard Top DVD is aimed at getting to the mount or the back.

A particularly interesting way of passing half gaurd, somewhat forgotten these days, that Henry demonstrates is the use of an inside hook. He uses it to both help his passing and kill off a potential butter-half hook for the bottom player, sprinkling in a diabolical calf-crusher submission in between.

Part 4 – Counters and Defense

The final technical portion of this Henry Akins instructional addresses the key aspect of playing top half guard – not allowing the opponent to sweep you, submit you, or take your back.

In that sense, Akins looks at the Kimura as the primary threat that allows the bottom person to achieve any of the three threats I just mentioned. With intricate and subtle body position Henry resolves all three issues at once, opening up a risk-free direction for passing.

Much to my pleasure, and I believe everyone else who’s ever been stuck in lockdown, Henry Akins demonstrates how to deal with the most annoying of half guards, and combines it with the powerful knee cut to get out.

Part 5 – Q&A

The final part of the Half Guard Top DVD by Henry Akins is like a podcast, where he and Michael Zenga go over a bunch of questions that Akins answers in depth. Seriously, this volume is the longest of the entire instructional, with Henry and Zenga chatting for more than 40 minutes!

Review: Henry Akins DVD: Half Guard Top — Free Sample: Half Guard Top Henry Akins DVD

Forcing Half Guard

So, how can you use the information for the Half Guard Top DVD By Henry Akins to improve your game? The first thing to consider is where dealing with the top half guard fits into your overall game plan from the top.

My personal passing tactic these days, especially against skilled opponents, particularly in a No-Gi setting is to force the half guard from top. The thinking behind this strategy is that it provides me with just one guard to solve as opposed to the myriad of options the bottom player has otherwise.

Forcing a bottom player to play half guard is easy – just sit on one of their legs. However, if that person knows how to play the half guard, staying on top while fending off attacks and passing successfully requires the same amount of effort as passing any guard does.

The gains from forcing half guard are that you take away a lot of the athleticism and pace of grappling exchanges by taking away the bottom person’s chances of moving. As long as you’re on their leg, they can’t get up, which means you are fairly safe from seeps and can think about winning the grip fight and advancing, just like Henry shows.

DOWNLOAD TOP HALF GUARD DVD BY HENRY AKINS

Stay on Top!

Staying on top, whether it is in someone’s guard or past it is a skill that requires a lot of time on the mats. As easy as it is to understand as a concept, staying on top of someone resisting you can be a very demanding task, and you need to figure out how to make it easier by any means necessary.

When in doubt about what you need to do from the top, get in half guard. it is a proven tactic that will greatly reduce the bottom player’s options and will allow you to dominate, salon gas you’ve picked up the Half Guard Top DVD By Professor Henry Akins and mastered its contents.

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DVD Review: Foot Sweeps Ankle Picks And Tripods By Adam Wardzinski

By

Ognen Dzabirski

-

DVD Review: Foot Sweeps Ankle Picks And Tripods By Adam Wardzinski

The concept of using wrestling and even Judo takedowns, trips, and footsweeps while playing guard is becoming a concept that people in BJJ accept widely. However, it is mostly done in No-Gi settings and there is not much information on how to execute it at the high levels of grappling wearing a GI.

One of the first people to attempt to dissect this is Polish BJJ World Champion Adam Wardzinski. In his Foot Sweeps Ankle Picks And Tripods DVD, the formidable guard player explains how he connects seated and supine guards by introducing the threat of wrestling up towards takedowns with the usual sweep and submission attacks that guards provide.

Let’s examine this Adam Wardzinski DVD instructional in more detail:

Key Takeaways

Gi BJJ instructional, with four volumes and more than two hours of material.
Adam’s seated guard system when people run from his butterfly guard.
Contains foot and leg sweeps, trips, and ankle picks from several open guards.
BJJ World Expert Rating: 8 out of 10.

FOOT SWEEPS ANKLE PICKS & TRIPODS DVD AVAILABLE HERE!!!

Foot Sweeps Ankle Picks And Tripods Adam Wardzinski DVD Review — See The Trailer: Foot Sweeps Ankle Picks And Tripods Adam Wardzinski DVD

The Art of Foot Sweeps From Bottom

In the world of guard play, and even MMA and self-defense, doing certain moves to end up on top comes at a steep price. Abandoning the safe structure of a guard just to finish a sweep can be rewarding, but it can also leave you completely exposed.

This is where combining threats comes into play. Elite grapplers tend to be cautious when they play guard, threatening with both submissions and sweeps until one works. Why not strangle an opponent or grab a leg lock as a sweep side effect instead of only gunning for a sweep?

The thing is, sweeps are notoriously hard to wet up, even as part of dilemma attacks. The reason si that people on top are wary of them, and often use the motions to improve their passing position. So, what could be a low-risk way of efficiently sweeping form guard, without risking counters or resulting in injury-inducing scrambles? The answer lies in the art of foot sweeps and ankle picks.

During grappling exchanges, the battle for grips determines who is going to be successful. Since grips are already in place, you have everything you need to take someone down. You just need to think low and time your attacks perfectly, by concealing them with other attacks and motions.

Attacking with Judo and wrestling-style sweeps from the bottom opens a whole new can of worms for the opponent to consider. Now, you’re essentially wresting up which creates more opening than simply laying on your back. Adam Wardzisnki masterfully demonstrates this interplay in his Foot Sweeps Ankle Picks And Tripods DVD.

The Most Popular Polish BJJ Black Belt

Adam Wardzinski, BJJ black belt, IBJJF World Champion (Gi), IBJJF Pans Champion (Gi & No-Gi), IBJJF European Champion (Gi), and UAEJJF Abu Dhabi Wolrd Pro Champion (Gi). Quite the list of accomplishments there, with only a slot left for the ADCC. Or the Craig Jones Invitational depending on what Adam decides.

Warzinski has been training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for the better part of 15 years, starting with Polish BJJ pioneer Karol Matuszczak and then connecting with Alan “Finfou” Do Nascimento, who gave him his black belt in 2016. Adam has been competing since day one, helping spread BJJ across Poland and Europe, and becoming world famous for his butterfly guard.

His prowess with the butterfly guard, which is a tactical masterclass, translates directly to a deep understanding of balance and Kuzishi, which makes him one of the most dangerous Foot Sweeps Ankle Picks And Tripods experts in the BJJ World. Now we are looking at an Adam Wardsinski DVD outlining his train of thought and strategies when it comes to blending foot sweeps and guards.

Foot Sweeps Ankle Picks And Tripods By Adam Wardzinski

Foot Sweeps Ankle Picks And Tripods is an Adam Wardzinski DVD instructional for Gi grappling. In it, the BJJ World Champion shares useful insights into his tactics for setting up foot sweeps from the bottom, blending in wrestling, Judo, and Jiu-Jitsu. The instructional has 4 volumes and a total running length of just over two hours.

Part 1 – Grips and Fakes

As the Foot Sweeps Ankle Picks And Tripods DVD begins, Adam addresses Gi grips first. Given that most of this instructional covers seated guard positions, establishing optimal grips very early is essential in having any success with the techniques that follow.

About half of volume one focuses on troubleshooting the best methods for obtaining superior grips from open guards. The first sweeps also appear in this opening volume with Wardizsnki demonstrating his take (and variations) on Marcelo Garcia’s popular “Idiot Sweep” which Adam dubbs the Dummy Sweep.

Part 2 – Shin to Shin

A position we’re used to seeing Adam excel in, whenever his opponents decide to stand up against his butterfly guard, which they are all fighting to achieve, given his reputation. The shin-to-shin is a natural, seated followup to the supine butterfly guard, and this part of the Adam Wardzinski DVD delves into the sweep/takedown variations Adam likes to employ.

He shares a few variations on sweeping without losing shin-to-shin contact, including a No-Gi grip setup, despite this being a Gi instructional. He also covers the transition from butterfly, whenever opponents force a disengagement.

Part 3 – Wrestling Up

As we reach the halfway point of this instructional, Wardzinski starts sharing some more dynamic foot sweeps, introducing more wrestling to the game. This volume of the Foot Sweeps Ankle Picks And Tripods DVD is all about ankle picks, which require a lot more timing and precision than foot sweeps.

In this part, Adam covers how to recognize opportunities for the ankle pick from the bottom when you only have one sleeve grip on the opponent. He also covers how to wrestle up using the ankle pick as well as how to pick and turn it into a foot sweep once you manage to grab the ankle.

Part 4 – Tripod Sweeps & Sit-Up Guard

I was looking forward to the tripod guard section in this Adam Wardzinski DVD since it is one of my go-to far-distance guards to play. Unfortunately, Adam spends only a few chapters unveiling his take on the position, with the reverse tripod sweep being in the spotlight.

Most of this final volume covers playing the sit-up guard, with foot and leg sweeping options that are available from the position. Wardiznksi also dedicates a chapter to connecting the sit-up guard with previous guards, resulting in a closed-loop system that cycles guards without ever leaving them exposed.

The Element of Surprise

One key aspect of the early success of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was that people never expected someone to pull guard during standing exchanges. Fast forward a few decades and guard pulling has become the butt of all memes (up intended), even though it is the one thing that helped launched BJJ internationally.

The point is that doing things that people do not expect, as long as they do not put you in a bad situation, is a very powerful way of setting up a BJJ game. The best grapplers in the sport are unpredictable ones, like Garry Tonon or Marcelo Garcia, as you never know what they’re up to.

With wrestling up from that guard, the concept is equally as unorthodox as pulling guard from standing was in the early days of BJJ. People do not expect it, nor do they have the correct instincts to turn it toa a scramble they can get out of.

This is exactly why incorporating Foot Sweeps Ankle Picks And Tripods from bottom positions gives you a key edge through the element of surprise.

Adam Wardzinski DVD Review: Foot Sweeps Ankle Picks And Tripods — Free Technique from the Foot Sweeps Ankle Picks And Tripods DVD

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Sweep Them Off Their Feet!

I like Adam’s instructional, and this Adam Wardzinski DVD has a lot of good information to offer. It is not too cohesive, and has some glaring holes in terms of follow-ups and setups, as it is mostly reactive, but does bring lots of value.

Foot Sweeps Ankle Picks And Tripods is an instructional that will particularly benefit people learning how to combine supine and seated guard together, mainly in the Gi. In other words, blue and purple belts will benefit the most from this, although seasoned competitors might also find something useful to extract.

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