One of the best guards in Gi BJJ history belongs to Andre Galvao. The OG guard master built the entire Atos team around having incredibly strong guard foundations, all the while encouraging experimentation that eventually gave us stuff like the Berimbolo.
Today’s review looks at The Andre Galvao Guard DVD Bundle, a two-part BJJ DVD collection with just under 8 hours of material, outlining how to play innovative, yet highly effective and quickly applicable Gi guards. Both competitors and recreational Gi players are bound to learn something from this bundle.
Key Takeaways
- A two-part Gi DVD bundle with 2 Andre Galvao instructionals on Gi guards.
- Features Galvao’s innovative 3 on 1 guard and a competitor’s blueprint for a versatile RDL game.
- 8+ hours of super-useful details on how to set up and connect BJJ Gi guards.
- BJJ World Expert Rating: 8.5 out of 10.
ANDRE GALVAO GUARD DVD BUNDLE AVAILABLE HERE!
Atos Team Leader Andre Galvao
Andre Galvao is a 42-year-old BJJ black belt, originally from Brazil, who is one of the early pioneers of BJJ in the US, where he established one of the strongest competition teams in the history of the sport – Atos.
The team is now famous for the next-generation phenoms such as the Ruotolo brothers, but over the years, incredible talent has emerged from there, including the Mendes brothers, Keenan Cornelius, Angelica Galvao, and many others. The man behind it all, Andre Galvao is already considered a legend in the sport as he still holds the record of going unbeaten in ADCC super fights more than anyone. Yes, that still includes Grodon Ryan, who ended that streak.
Andre also has 7 world titles and 9 Pans titles to his name, on top of a huge list of other accolades, including winning the ADCC in 2011 and remaining the Open Class Champion until 2022.
Throughout his rich career, Andre has released a bunch of different instructionals on all kinds of BJJ positions, but his strongest ones always had to do with the guard. Now, he has a collection, named the Andre Galvao Guard DVD Bundle that we’ll dissect today.
Detailed Review: The Andre Galvao Guard DVD Bundle
The Andre Galvao Guard DVD Bundle is a somewhat small bundle, at least in terms of the number of DVDs inside it. Galvao provides two different instructional, but he does not hold back on details, as these two last a combined 8+ hours! The perfect BJJ DVD Bundle for competitors who love to grapple with the Gi.
3 on 1 Guard Dominance DVD – AVAILABLE HERE!
Subject Matter: This huge instructional covers a unique guard approach crafted by Galvao himself, which builds on the classic Marcelo Garcia-style 2 on 1 grip. Andre opts to use 3 points of control rather than two and details his system in an 8-part long Gi BJJ DVD.
Key Points Covered: The Andre Galvao Guard DVD Bundle begins with the 3 o 1 Guard Dominance instructional, which features everything you’d expect from a guard DVD: pulling guard, retention, sweeps, submissions, and back attacks.
Initially, Andre goes over the grip configuration of the 2 on 1 guard, before introducing his own improved version of it. Chapters include details on setting the guard up, angling for Triangle/Omoplata/Armbar attacks, sweeping in all directions, and exposing the back.
Lots of surprise submission features, such as nasty spiral armbars, some surprising ankle locks, and a ton of different Gi grip variations to make it all happen. Actually, there are grip fighting and tactic details in each of the 8 parts of this Andree Galvao Guard DVD.
Technical DVD specifications: As you’d expect, Andre delivers a Gi-based DVD, which is divided into 8 volumes, featuring great organization and progressive flow to the material. The total length of the instructional is just above 4 hours.
World Champion RDL Techniques DVD – DOWNLOAD HERE
Subject Matter: The second, and final part of the Andre Galvao Guard DVD bundle is the world champion’s take on playing the Reverse De la Riva guard with the Gi. it is shorter than the previous one, with 4 volumes covering the highly specialized subject of RDL attacks proven to work at the highest level.
Key Points Covered: Galvao loves playing the De la Riva guard, which anyone who’s seen him in action knows. The Mendes brothers who pioneered the competitive RDL tactics still in use today were members of Atos after all.
Galvao begins this instructional by sharing crucial concepts of control and gripping, key inter-guard transitions, and innovative temporary guard positions such as the Y guard that enhance the potential of the RDL. Andre connects the knee shield with the RDL, a natural combination when the top person changes levels.
Attack-wise, he sticks a lot to collar base chokes, from cross chokes to loop chokes, with the odd kneebar sprinkled in for good measure. Sweeps also appear, mostly in tripod form, but spinning back attacks are the most prevalent, as you’d expect from a Reverse De la Riva guard DVD.
Technical DVD specifications: The Andre Galvao Guard DVD Bundle concludes with a 4-part instructional that has around 3 hours of solid material. Once again, it is a Gi-exclusive DVD, this time aimed at competitors.
The Case for a Strong Guard Foundation
The conundrum in BJJ is that everyone loves to play guard when they begin because they get to do stuff off their backs, it is fun, and they can get away with not being completely crushed by more experienced training partners. Along the way, as people’s grappling improves, their passing skills develop, and once they discover the top position, the fascination with guards is over.
The problem is that people focus a lot on the top positions reducing their guard play to quick attacks that get them top position or something along the lines of Ashi Garami. In doing so, everyone neglects the key function of any BJJ guard – to keep the top person in it.
A strong guard game means that whatever guard you decide to use is going to be a nightmare for the passer to break. That, however, means lots of suffering in trying to figure the guard out, and even more restraint in not launching attacks that leave you completely exposed. Not easy, but if you ever hope to emulate at least a fraction of what you see in the Andre Galvao Giuard DVD bundle, you’ll have to build those foundations.
ANDRE GALVAO GUARD DVD BUNDLE DOWNLOAD
World Champion Guard!
Andre Galvao became a World Champion in BJJ using his guard. Every BJJ World Champ out there has realized heavily on their guard as well. While I can’t guarantee you’ll ever be a world champion (likely not) I guarantee you’ll have a much better overall BJJ game if you have a strong guard. The Andre Galvao Guard DVD Bundle has everything you need to develop one, at least when it comes to Gi Jiu-Jitsu.
Reverse De la Riva Guard – The Best DVD and Digital Instructionals
All BJJ Guard Passing DVD and Digital Instructionals GI & No-Gi
