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!!!
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.
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.
