Key Takeaways
- A No-Gi BJJ DVD showing how a world champion readapts their Gi guard game to No-Gi.
- The material is divided based on whether the top person is standing, kneeling, or seated.
- Includes sweeping, back takes, upper and lower body submissions, and quick guard transitions.
- BJJ World Expert Rating: 8.5 out of 10.
GUIDE TO SUBMISSION GRAPPLING MARGOT CICCARELLI DVD HERE:
At first glance, the Zen Guide To Submission Grappling Margot Ciccarelli DVD might not attract your attention. If I have one grievance with it, it is the title – it is too broad, not doing the material inside this instructional justice.
The DVD itself is incredibly useful. It depicts the complete gameplan Margot Ciccarelli used to dominate with the Gi, and her attempts (successful ones) to transition it to No-Gi. What’s better, it also contains the entire thought process behind using specific moves, along with parallels drawn to their Gi counterparts.
Translating Your Gi Game to No-Gi
If you’ve only been training with the Gi, and are now looking to move to No-Gi, you’re in for one of the most difficult things you’ll ever do in Jiu-Jitsu. In fact, the longer you were exclusive with Gi, the harder the transition is going to be. Oh, and the same is true if you’re switching from No-Gi to Gi.
The best way to figure out what works and not is to analyze how to change grip points or try out new angles to get the same thing. You won’t choke anyone worth their salt with a cross choke in No-Gi, so you’re better off trying to figure out a choke from the same position that would work. In this instance., I’d go with a Guillotine, as it works from both the bottom and top and offers plenty of grip variations to finish.
The bottom line is that you need to look at the outcome you’re trying to achieve. Do you want to sweep a standing opponent? Figure out how to engage them first – that will lead you to the guard you can use to sweep/submit later. Much better than trying to play a specific guard at any cost. Or, use a shortcut and copy the game plan from the Submission Grappling Margot Ciccarelli DVD.
Grappling Scientist Margot Ciccarelli
People who have laser focus on the things they do end up being incredible at their chosen profession. I doubt Margot Ciccarelli set out to be an extremely effective Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach, particularly since she is still competing, but her dedication to deciphering grappling has led her on that path.
The Murilo Santana black belt has spent her adult years training in a way that most BJJ athletes dream of. She started in the UK, under the mind-blowing trio of Nick Brooks, Daniels Strauss, and Ollie Geddes. Who knows what would’ve turned out if she stayed with the Mill Hill crew longer?
Margot had to travel shortly after discovering BJJ though, and ended up in Maui, picking up training under the guidance of local coaches, but not stopping there. Ciccareli went on to train in New York, California, Hong Kong, and the UK, learning as a true grappling nomad, and eventually earning her black belt from Santana in 2021.
Margot also launched a very cool project along with dancer Stehapnie Lee in 2018, called Jitz Jamming, which blends together dancing and BJJ in a form of movement-based flow.
To date, she has Gi world, Pans, and European titles at many different belt levels, and has demonstrated that her No-Gi game is just as strong by winning the 20024 European ADCC trials. Just something to remember as you check out the contents of the Submission Grappling Margot Ciccarelli DVD.
Zen Guide To Submission Grappling Margot Ciccarelli DVD Review
The Zen Guide To Submission Grappling Margot Ciccarelli DVD offers the standard four volumes, featuring pristine organization of the material, which amasses to a total of two hours:
Part 1 – Conceptual Framework & Engagement
As the Submission Grappling Margot Ciccarelli DVD kicks off, Margot presents her project with it, which is transitioning her world-title-winning guard Gi game to No-Gi. She begins by defining the concepts that will guide her material in the instructional, starting with the way she organizes her game into standing, seated, and knees down areas.
Margot also covers distance, explaining how to initiate matches and what cues to be wary of if the other person is more aggressive. She also talks about guard pulls from an interesting perspective, and offers great advice on timing by explaining how when to wait and when to impose your game.
Part 2 – Seated Tactics
Form seated, Ciccarelli’s focus is on De la Riva initially, with lots of inverting Bolo options to get to the back. You can tell her base is a Gi game, although the moves are definitely optimized for No-Gi in her guidelines here.
Leg locks come next, offering another high-percentage option from the position. This second volume of the Submission Grappling Margot Ciccarelli DVD offers straight Ashi Garami attacks that result in heel hook finishes, as well as no-nonsense transitions into Cross Ashi. I particularly enjoyed the use of leg traps to finish.
This volume also contains lots of 50/50 work that acts as both an Ashi Garmi for hunting kneebars and a back-taking/sweeping guard that eventually leads straight into passes.
Part 3 – Knees Down Game Plan
Arguably the most interesting and original part of the Submission Grappling Margot Ciccarelli DVD, where she engages in a more active guard exchange game as the opponent goes one level higher, starting with their knees on the ground.
The butterfly and Z guard dominate this portion of the material, with the emphasis on sweeping, mostly from the 2-on-1 grip configuration. Back takes, of course, appear at every possible turn, enforced by the threat of upper body submissions, such as the Kimura and Tarikoplata.
Part 4 – Standing Strategies
The toughest distance to cover from guard in No-Gi is when your opponent is standing, which is exactly what Margot covers in the final part of her instructional. She starts off with a few conceptual ideas on distance management and how to engage in a way that doesn’t put you at risk of getting passed and pinned.
As you might expect, there’s plenty of complex guard work happening here, with shin-on-shin guard leading the way, followed by RDLR, K-Guard, and X-guard combos. Each of these guards offers different submission threats, and when put together in a system, they pretty much cover 360-degree sweeping.
Of course, the hero so far of the Zen Guide To Submission Grappling Margot Ciccarelli DVD, back exposure, features in this part as well, with a few interesting spinning and dragging setups.
Understand Passing for a Better Guard
You can approach things in two ways when you’re trying to learn stuff in BJJ. You can look at what you’re trying to do, or you can look at what your opponent is trying to do. Yeah, ideally it would be both, but if you could do that I’d be reviewing your DVD and you wouldn’t be reading this.
In terms of what you can do, the task for a guard player is easy, Gi or No-Gi – don’t let people past your legs. If you can do that, you can look to off-balance them and try to get on top or isolate a limb to finish.
When you’re looking at your opponent, though, you’ll learn a lot more. If you ask me, you should start with this first whenever you’re trying to figure something out in Jiu-Jitsu and look at what you’re doing second.
If you just try to see what people do against your guards you’ll notice different levels and directions, to begin with. Both of these are covered in impressive detail in the Submission Grappling Margot Ciccarelli DVD, as she offers plenty of solutions.
DOWNLOAD HERE: SUBMISSION GRAPPLING MARGOT CICCARELLI DVD
Peace Comes from Within
The calmer you are, the better you’ll perform. Trying to be calm when someone on top of you is trying to bull-rush you and choke you though, is not easy unless you know exactly what you’re doing. For those of you that don’t some awesome answers lie in the Zen Guide To Submission Grappling Margot Ciccarelli DVD. Since it is No-Gi, it’ll work just fine in the Gi as well, saving you time and money if you cross-train.
