The Outside Passing Jason Rau DVD is an instructional that offers very straightforward methods and techniques to deal with common No-Gi guards by taking the long way past the legs. While not the favorite method of most grapples these days, it is a very strong and tactically smart option that is definitely going to make you a better grappler.

Key Takeaways

• A No-Gi BJJ DVD with an hour and a half of quality passing material. 
• It consists of 4 volumes that outline a passing strategy based on going around the legs.  
• Covers distance management, posturing, and dealing with supine and seated guards. 
• BJJ World Expert Rating:7 out of 10.

OUTSIDE PASSING JASON RAU DVD AVAILABLE HERE!!!

Taking The Long Round Past the Guard

If we rewind some ten years ago, when BJJ was mostly done with the Gi, passing on the outside was the go-to method for dealing with guards. Of course, back then people didn’t pay too much attention to whether a guard was seated or supine, as it was more important to execute the pass using strong Gi grips.

I remember that the knee slice pass was taught as a new thing and I was quite taken aback by it as a blue belt. It ushered in a new era of passing by stepping inside the legs, opening a path for pressure passing that skipped the single/double under stacks. The rest is history, as some of the most powerful passes emerged from an exploration of passing through the legs.

That placed outside passing, a.k.a. going around the legs in second place, as it does take considerably more effort in terms of movement and an understanding and feeling of body positioning to pull it off. Moreover, without Gi grips, it is considerably more difficult to stop the bottom person from blocking you or simply standing up.

The Outside Passing Jason Rau DVD is a rarity among modern instructionals, as it focuses on demonstrating this type of passing rather than the easy way through the legs.

Jason Rau: An Old-School Submission Specialis

Jason Rau is a scary dude to be standing across when you’re on the mats.  The Matt Serra black belt has spent considerable time training with every beast that has stepped on the mats of the famous blue basement in NYC, which is effectively every one of note in the MMA and BJJ World.

Jason is not as OG as Renzo or Danaher, but he certainly grapples like he was raised in that era. Now doner that is a direct result of spending most of his grappling life under the tutelage of the charismatic and equally as crazy, Matt Serra.

Rau discovered the Gentle art in 2010 and was so dedicated that he got his black belt in just 6 years, a feat matched only by a few in the history of the sport. He began with Gi BJJ, but quickly gave that up for the submission allure NO-Gi offered, and became one of the best on the planet.

His titles at the RISE Invitational (three-time champion), the Sapateiro title and a strong second place in the 2018 ADCC East Coast Trials do not paint a complete picture of the abilities that the 34-year-old has on the mats. His teaching reflects them much better, and that is exactly what you get a glimpse of in the Outside Passing Jason Rau DVD.

Detailed Outside Passing Jason Rau DVD Review

The Outside Passing Jason Rau DVD is a four-part BJJ instructional, presented in No-Gi and lasting about an hour and a half. While somewhat short by modern standards it does provide invaluable information on how to approach outside passing without the Gi against all types of modern guards.

Part 1 – General Passing Concepts

Jason begins his instructional as you’d expect someone who has spent time training with Danaher to start – methodically presenting the subject and key underlying principles. In the opening chapters, Jason goes over the effectiveness of outside passing and talks a ton about grip configurations.

The grips lay the foundation of all the material that follows in this instructional, as I found out throughout the Outside Passing Jason Rau DVD review. he also talks a lot about how to negate the power of the bottom person’s legs, which is an absolute essential if you want to pass modern guards.

Part 2 – Securing The Pass

Rau keeps on exploring how to deal with the legs in volume two, mostly dissecting the high leg position and what you can do to disrupt it. As I mentioned, grips play a pivotal role, with about half of this part of the Outside Passing Jason Rau DVD focusing on the cross scoop, popularized by Danaher as a leg-locking attachment.

Rau, an avid leg locker himself, uses it to introduce passing into the mix, making it easy to switch sides, pummel with the legs, and set up powerful staples that create the all-important bottom leg. A few thoughts on pressure passing bring this part to an end.

Part 3 – North-South Passing

Past the halfway point of the Outside Passing Jason Rau DVD, it is time to explore passing into the best possible post-pass pin which is the North-South position. Rau covers several key principles regarding knee and hip placement, as he goes through different motions to get as far away from the opponent’s guard as possible.

Of course, the pin is half of the work, so most of this is instructional and actually dissects how to hold people down from the North-South position and prevent them from re-guarding, which is pretty easy when you’re hips are so far away from theirs.

Part 4 – Dealing With the Seated Guard

As we come to the final part of this Outside Passing Jason Rau DVD, it is time for a short selection of top solutions for the seated guard. Rau gives a principle on how to retain posture and grip and fight with purpose so that you kill off any direct seated guard threats.

Passing-wise, he covers an interesting approach based around ankle picking from the top, as well as using misdirections to create an outside route past all types of seated guards.

Advantages of Staying On The Outside

Seeing how easy and straightforward inside passing is, why should you bother passing to the outside? Well, it doesn’t have as much to do with the passing, as it does with what happens after you pass the guard.

I remember hearing Ryan Hall in some old instructional saying that you should stay around your opponent at all times so that you can let them move without losing position. This tactic was the foundation for creating submission openings during transitions, and transitions can only happen if the other person can move.

Staying on the outside means you need to move less in order to keep control of the bottom person, as long as you control the direction in which they head so that they end up in a worse position or a submission trap set by you. It is a lot more difficult to navigate such a strategy from tight-pressure pins as opposed to loose outside control.

The Outside Passing Jason Rau DVD does not cover submission traps but it does go over crucial aspects of pinning directly after using outside passing. Once you get that down, you can set any submission trap you want.

FULL DOWNLOAD: OUTSIDE PASSING JASON RAU DVD

Cash Me Outside! 

Grab the Outside Passing Jason Rau DVD, and spend a weekend going through it several times. Once the new week begins, you’ll be able to surprise everyone by suddenly utilizing a method of passing that has been somewhat abandoned, especially in No-Gi.

After you confuse everyone, you’re free to figure out how to connect inside passes and submissions traps, such as leg-locks and front headlock chokes into the mix, emerging with a very strong and diverse top game.

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The Tripod Passing Jozef Chen DVD is a very welcome example that people in the BJJ world understand this shift in perspective when it comes to passing and top-level athletes do not offer an insight into how they approach this daunting grappling task. I am categorical that it will make you a better passer and help you learn BJJ faster. Read on to understand why.

Key Takeaways

• A No-Gi grappling instructional with 6 parts, covering a very practical approach to passing inside-based guards. 
• The material is organized in phases and includes games rather than drills to master everything faster. 
• Put together by ADCC trials winner and B-Team brown-belt sensation Jozef Chen. 
• BJJ World Expert Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

JOZEF CHEN PASSING DVD AVAILABLE HERE!!!

The Formula for Passing Modern BJJ Guards

The guard game in BJJ changed significantly in the past decade, and I’m not talking about the boring lapel guards IBJJF “stars” use to claw advantages. The prerequisite for leg locks, popularized by John Danaher and Eddie Cummings as ‘inside position‘ is the real culprit that skyrocketed the threat of open guards in Jiu-Jitsu.

To be fair, only guards utilizing inside positions, such as butterfly, X guards, Reverse De la Riva, etc pose a leg-locking threat. Other outside-based guards are better suited for upper body submissions, such as chokes and armlocks.

This categorization of modern guards as inside and outside allows you to set up a passing game that kills off the guard’s immediate danger, making it a lot easier to figure out different guard positions as opposed to trying to figure out each distinct guard on its own.

Knowing where the threats are also allows you to break some staple rules of guard passing, as you can afford to take risks in a direction that has nothing to threaten you with. The Tripod Passing Jozef Chen DVD specializes in taking you past inside position guards in a versatile and fairly easy-to-master way.

Jozef Chen – The New Breed of Grappler

The BJJ Akademie gym in Berlin, Germany is one of the best places to train BJJ in Europe. It has a bunch of exceptional athletes and a lineup of top instructors, some of which I have the pleasure of personally knowing. The one person you most likely know, and everyone will certainly know in a few years, is Jozef Chen. 

Currently aged only 20, the young brown belt who represents the B-team on the world-class competition stage has only been training for barely 5 years. Starting BJJ at 14, Chen quickly tore through the professional competition scene, taking names along the way. His list of victims includes grappling standouts like Tommy Langhaker, Oliver Taza, and Elijah Dorsey, to name just a few.

Still working towards his black belt (promoted to brown by Craig Jones in 2023), Chen has used his versatile ethnic origin to train all over the globe, blending experiences into his unique game. Even though the B-Team is his base now, most of the things he has learned over the years, he attributes to relentlessly watching BJJ DVDs.

Now, he gives back with one of his own, with the Tripod Passing Jozef Chen DVD explaining how to deal with modern guards by beating inside position as you break most rules of passing.

Full Tripod Passing Jozef Chen DVD Review

The Tripod Passing Jozef Chen DVD is an instructional demonstration of the best way of Beating Inside Position against modern guards which pose a big danger of leg locks and back attacks. The full running length of the DVD is just under 3 hours, with Chen demonstrating everything in No-Gi.

Part 1 – Pre-Passing

It is crucial to understand that passing guard consists of phases that you can’t simply skip over, and not many people tend to give them the attention they deserve. Contrary to this practice, the first volume of this Josef Chen DVD is all about the prep phase for passing, which determines how successful the passing effort turns out to be.

Chen first covers distance management and the different phases of engaging from different distances upon making contact with the guard player. Of course, he introduced the concept through the lens of the tripod pass system he covers in this instructional.

In that sense, he outlines two distinct phases, as well as focuses on what you should do with the lower and the upper body as you go through them. In what I consider to be a stroke of brilliance, CHen also introduces pass maintenance, which keeps you safe in a half-pass situation until you can inch yourself forward.

Part 2 – Passing Half Butterfly

The main area that the  Tripod Passing Jozef Chen DVD targets is dealing with inside position guards, a.k.a. leg lock threats. With the half butterfly guard being every guar player’s preferred hub for setting these up against skilled passers, Volume Two is all about how to break this popular and annoying guard down.

Chen covers how to play and win the push-pull game when overhooks are involved,  as well as how to engage passing from different ranges, taking away the most valuable advantage that half butterfly brings to the table.

I particularly enjoyed that Chen passes to both sides, given that the tripod position usually leads people to only pass on one side. Using the well-known principles of underhooks from the top, and some float passing tactics, Chen offers a very secure way to beat one of BJJ’s most dangerous guards.

Part 3 – Using Shins and Elbows

The one thing I’ve always found extremely boring to drill is leg pummeling for guard passing. I still hate drilling and do not spend a minute doing it, but that doesn’t mean the pummel is not extremely useful in passing, particularly tripod passing.

This part of the Tripod Passing Jozef Chen DVD offers several different ways to use the shins as you change levels from entering a supine position to going chest to chest in order to maintain your pass. There’s that awesome concept of pass maintenance again.

Throughout the motions, Chen explains how your elbows are your best posts, carefully deconstructing all the different ways to use them to improve your shin pummeling effectiveness. he uses some popular guards, such as the knee shield and Reverse De la Riva in this part to reinforce his points.

Part 4 – Grip Strategies for Passing

In the final instructional part of the Tripod Passing Jozef Chen DVD, he spends more than 30 minutes addressing the importance of wrist control during tripod passing. The best part about using the tripod position is that it frees up at least one of your arms, which you can use to trap the opponent’s wrist(s) and ensure a successful pass.

Jozef truly does go over every applicable grip configuration here, offering solutions for scoop grips, hamstring grips, pulling grips, the Whizzer, pushing grips, etc. Once again, he uses practical examples utilizing the X guard, to prove his point.

He also covers a bonus concept in this section as he demonstrates how to trap smother someone into tricking them into urging you past their guard.  He also shows several very cool games that help all the material sink in, as opposed to boring, repetitive drilling.

Parts 5 & 6 Phases of Tripod Passing

The final two parts of the Tripod Passing Jozef Chen DVD go over the phases his tripod system uses for beating inside positions even against much more skilled opponents. He outlines the three phases of entering, maintaining, and offense from the tripod position using a different partner in each of the last volumes.

These are sort of a blend between narrated rolls and the execution of the passing games offered in the previous volume. Effectively, they represent how to practice the material so that you can quickly make sense of it and integrate it into your game.

Use Your Head More

The tripod passing position is one I don’t let my students use early on. The problem with it is that it breaks the passer’s posture, opening up a bunch of different attacks for the bottom person. Jozef Chen does offer solutions to all this, mainly by way fo wrist fighting and body positioning, but that requires a bit of experience on the mats to successfully pull off.

That said, I am a huge proponent of using the head to post on the mats, effectively getting a fight limb to use. I do use it for passing myself, but I always stay alert to position my butt high over the head, essentially keeping the posture unbroken. Chen demonstrated the same in his instructional.

The best way to start practicing Chen’s stuff without getting into trouble, if you’re not skillful enough yet with passing is to try the tirpod position out as pin. Top side control, top half guard, knee on belly, and even mount are great to provide you with invaluable balancing and body positioning experience before you can use it to beat the versatile threat of the legs using the info in the Tripod Passing Jozef Chen DVD. 

JOZEF CHEN TRIPOD PASSING DVD DOWNLOAD

Wave As You Pass!

It is about time that you become so confident with your passing that you can wave to the crowd as you cruise by your opponent’s guards using the prevent tactics from the Tripod Passing Jozef Chen DVD.

Gi or No-Gi, beginner or coach, you’ll figure out many things about the modern issues that guard passing is facing in BJJ and grappling these days. The tripod position is a very welcome way to turn guard passing on its head (pun intended) and surprise even the most skilled guard players in your academy!

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The Fundamentals Of Guard Passing Kron Gracie DVD attempts to put everything into order in a way that works for everyone. Don’t be deterred by the word “fundamentals” as what Kron shows is basic, but in terms of directly applicable concepts rather than specific techniques. 

Key Takeaways

• 4-part Gi DVD with just over two and a half hours of passing instructions.
• The focus is on beating guards rather than learning pass sequneces.
• Covers numerous scenarios of pressure passing from different distances.
• BJJ World Expert Rating: 7 out of 10.

FUNDAMENTALS OF PASSING KRON GRACIE DVD AVAILABLE HERE!!!

One of the Hardest Things in Jiu-Jitsu

Being caught in the guard, any guard, during grappling exchanges is one of the biggest nuisances in Jiu-Jitsu. A pet peeve of most grapplers, especially those just starting is figuring out how to make guard passing effective, while not falling into one of the numerous guard traps that the bottom person has waiting. 

The general approach to passing guard(s) in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu usually has us practice specific passes against specific guards, which ends up leaving people with a bunch of information that is difficult to recall under the pressure of live rolling or competing. This is one of the key reasons why guard passing is such a daunting task to complete. 

Usually, this approach results in frustration at the ineffectiveness of the approach, and people decide to focus further on one of the two areas described above – deconstructing the threat of guards or spending endless hours drilling passing motions. 

However this will only get you so far in BJJ, as once you reach the purple belt level, and go beyond it, such a divided approach becomes useless. So, why not start tackling the issue from a different perspective and begin thinking about a more general approach?

Finding the answers to the foundational questions that guard players present is the smartest way to try and organize such a huge area of BJJ as guard passing. The Fundamentals Of Guard Passing Kron Gracie DVD can help with that. 

The Turbulent Legacy of Kron Gracie

Kron Gracie… Where do I start? If you were a part of the BJJ scene anywhere in the world about 10 years ago, you knew the name Kron Gracie, and you knew it well. When he transitioned into MMA, trying to follow in the footsteps of his father Rickson, everyone expected Kron to be the next big thing from the Gracie family. Sadly it didn’t work out that way. 

By 2013 Kron only had an IBJJF European Open Title and got himself to ADCC gold despite being a black belt since 2018. Somehow, the 36-year-old never took the fire he had as a purple and brown belt, when he conquered the Worlds, and Pans, to his black belt performances.  

After initial success in MMA, which he began in 2014, fighting in Rizin and winning his 3 first fights via submission, he moved on to the UFC in 2019. Since then, though he has managed only 3 matches, winning his debut by submission but losing his next two fights to Cub Swanson and Charles Jourdain via decision. 

Kron’s grappling proficiency remains at the highest levels without a doubt. However, whether or not he is up to par with the latest developments in the sport, remains to be seen. So, if you’re not sure whether you should pick the Fundamentals Of Guard Passing Kron Gracie DVD up, keep reading for an in-depth review. 

Full Kron Gracie DVD Review: Fundamentals Of Guard Passing

Despite being just as effective in No-Gi as he is with the kimono, Kron Gracie prefers to do his BJJ like his Father and grandfathers did – with the Gi. So, this Gi instructional is divided into four volumes, three of which present information in a very conceptual and methodological way, and the last one offers key tips and tricks for common issues. 

The Fundamentals Of Guard Passing Kron Gracie DVD contains almost two and a half hours of genuinely useful material for anyone interested in mastering guard passing: 

Part 1 – Dealing With the Sit-Up Guard

As the Fundamentals Of Guard Passing Kron Gracie DVD kicks off, Kron’s first series of passes are Torreando pass variations. There is merit to starting to pass loose and far and going forward methodically, leading to pressure as you get closer. Kron captures that perfectly in this introduction. 

The majority of this volume, though, offers a roadmap for navigating the sit-up guard instead of looking at specific passing moves. The sit-up guard is a genuine threat in both Gi and No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu, and Kron covers just about anything that you might face, showing how to beat the position using the Gi and smart movement. 

Part 2 – Stacking and Knee Shield

Part two of the Guard Passing Kron Gracie DVD explores passing from a distance closer to your opponent, which merits a different passing style. Gracie starts off with solving the shin-to-shin guard, before moving on to offer quick tricks to break teh spider and lasso guards. 

The main feature in this part of the instructional is stacking as a position that allows you to destroy a bunch of guards and choose a side to pass to. Kron offers variations to the stack, like the half stack, which is incredibly useful against modern inverted guards.

Towards the end of the volume, Kron gives some attention to the knee shield, a position that is virtually unavoidable in BJJ, especially with the Gi. After several interesting ways to render the shield useless, Kron also provides a way to incorporate the reverse half guard into your passing game. 

Part 3 – Deep Half & De la Riva Passing

The second half of the Fundamentals Of Guard Passing instructional addresses a position we don’t often see feature in passing DVDs – the deep half guard. Most grappling instructionals explore the guard itself but do not offer solutions to the complex and numerous threats lurking in the deep half.

Kron begins by using a body part most skip over when trying to pass the deep half – the neck. Using very effective grips, he introduces a choking threat to the pass, allowing you to capitalize on either or both of them. 

The timeless De la Riva Guard also gets lots of attention, as well as all the guards that combine with it naturally, such as the X guards and the single-leg X. Instead of offering a single passing sequence, Kron ensures you’re aware of the combined threats of these guards and you can neutralize them easily. 

Part 4 – Exploring Common Passing Scenarios 

As we enter the final portion of the Fundamentals Of Guard Passing Kron Gracie DVD, Kron moves away from the methodical, system-based teaching we saw in the previous three volumes. Instead, he offers individual chapters in this DVD, with each targeting a common problem passers face, and how to deal with it.

Some of the standout chapters include valuable information on bodylock passing, why Kron dislikes explosive passes,  solving the half-butterfly guard leg lock threat, and how to handle flexible opponents who like to invert.

Modern Gracie-Style Passing

If you’ve ever rolled with a member of the Gracie family or someone who has trained under them their entire life, you know what I mean by Gracie-style passing. Any guard you put up gets unmistakably shut down, and for the most part, you don’t even know it. 

The sneaky tactic of killing guards before going into passing is what sets expert passers apart from everyone else, and the Gracies were true masters of this grappling trait. One of the key concepts to consider when trying to develop a Gracie-style passing game is awareness of the guard’s threats. 

Instead of trying to solve guards one by one, it is much more effective to understand the threats any guard offers – sweeps, submissions, and transitions toward the back. By figuring out body positioning and grip placement, you can achieve safety inside anyone’s guard, putting you in the best possible position to pass. The Fundamentals Of Guard Passing Kron Gracie DVD addresses this aspect in great detail. 

This brings us to the next trademark of Gracie passing – pressure. Even when passing loosely, the Gracies look to place all their weight on the opponent’s legs and/or hips and chest, trying to move forward as slowly as possible. Developing this skill, even if you are an explosive passer is going to provide you with everything you need to deal with any guard. 

KRON GRACIE GUARD PASSING BJJ DVD DOWNLOAD

Become a Notorious Pressure Passer! 

One of the most difficult things you’ll have to do in BJJ is get past the guard. There are different approaches to this huge issue, and none is foolproof. The one approach that is applicable to a wider range of people is to teach them how to deflect guard attacks before passing, rather than develop passing techniques one by one. 

The Fundamentals Of Guard Passing Kron Gracie DVD offers an insight into how one of the most popular representatives of the family arranges his guard passing system. If you want to be able to deal with any guard, not just the ones you know, you should invest in it and study the approach laid out inside. 

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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!!!

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.

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!

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The post Xande Ribeiro No-Gi Offense DVD Review: Stand Up and Passing appeared first on BJJ World.

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!!!

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!

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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The post Review: Half Guard Top DVD By Professor Henry Akins appeared first on BJJ World.

There are plenty of resources out there on how to knee cut through people’s guards. the only problem with most of them is that they focus on getting to the knee cut and how to slide by once you’re there. There is a Santeri Lilius DVD now, dubbed “Smash Or Pass: Knee Cut The World” that attempts to tackle the subject of how to retain the position, and start setting up your next steps while keeping your opponent in agony. Let’s see if it can.

Key Takeaways

• No-Gi BJJ DVD spread over two volumes, each lasting around 45 minutes. 
• How to be heavy and annoying without passing from the knee cut.
• A modern take on using the headquarters passing position for pressure.
• BJJ World Expert Rating: 7 out of 10.

SMASH OR PASS: KNEE CUT THE WORLD DVD AVAILABLE HERE!

Smash Or Pass – An Important BJJ Dilemma

The coveted top position in Jiu-Jitsu brings about plenty of opportunities to place the bottom person under a lot of pressure, eventually forcing them into giving up exactly what they want. it is why people chase every top position past the guard constantly, and why these positions earn you the most points in a BJJ match.

But why not use the principles that make top positions so powerful in grappling and apply them to a bottom opponent playing guard as well? Instead of only approaching guards one-dimensionally, thinking about blowing past them (which rarely works, by the way), why not use them to place pressure on the bottom person?

The best way to achieve this pressure is by making them carry your weight. Yes, chest-to-chest contact or knee on the belly are perfect ways to achieve this, but so is the Headquarters position which is on the other side of an opponent’s guard.

Essentially what you want is to smash and tier out the bottom person’s legs, either by carrying your weight or by focusing it on the thigh or shin of an opponent’s leg. The knee cut pass is the perfect example of this, which also happens to be the main subject in the Santeri Lilius DVD we have up for review today.

Finnish BJJ Talent Santeri Lilius

So, Santeri Lilius has an interesting story He is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under London-based Roger Gracie, originally from Finland, now heading his own gym Llilius Barnatt Martial Arts Academy in Costa De Sol, Spain. Quite the international character, which fits perfectly with his around-the-globe competitive performances.

Santeri earned his black belt from Roger Gracie back in 2015 and has remained active on the competition scene to date. He won the No-Gi Europeans in 2022, as well as the ADCC European trials in 2022 and 2023. On top of that, he has won just about every major tournament hosted in Europe and won bronze in the 2022 No-Gi IBJJF Worlds.

Style-wise, Lilius is an aggressive grappler who likes to attack surprise submissions, with the Estima lock being his bread-and-butter technique. He prefers to surf the top rather than grapple off his back, which only gives more credibility to this Santeri Lilius DVD which revolves around the knee cut pass.

Smash Or Pass Knee Cut Santeri Lilius DVD Review

The “Smash Or Pass: Knee Cut The World” Santeri Lilius DVD is a somewhat short, two-part BJJ instructional containing about an hour and a half of material. It is a No-Gi instructional, organized well and taught by a very experienced grappler who presents an original way to approach your positioning from the top in relation to the opponent’s guard:

Part 1 – The Headquarters Position

In the opening sections of the Santeri Lilius DVD, the headquarters position, popularized by Rafel Lovato Jr. takes center stage. After a short overview of what you can expect to see in the DVD, which I always appreciate as a chapter, Santeri shares his take on the popular passing checkpoint.

Unlike Lovato’s early efforts with it, Santeri prefers not just to control the leg of his opponent, but also to make them carry enormous weight, smashing them constantly without forcing a pass. A typical heavyweight strategy.

He calls the position the “slow and steady” headquarters, literally sitting in it until he can comfortably make the most out of the cracks in the guard that appear under the pressure and establish a knee-cut position. To that extent, he divides the headquarters position into active and passive, only moving to the knee cut when he has the active version.

Part 2 – Attacking Off the Knee Cut Pass

In the second part of the Smash Or Pass: Knee Cut The World instructional, Santeri Lilius goes over what you can do from the knee cut position before you pass. He really adheres to the subject matter of smashing as much as possible before passing.

Lilius very intelligently uses the knee cut position to open up the inside space of an opponent’s arm, aiming to sneak in an underhook. That gives him a launching pad for armbars, but also a very solid connection to prevent guard recovery.

Once again, slow and steady wins the game, with Santeri offering versions of the otherwise explosive knee cut pass that slow-cook the opponent. He keeps his hips pretty light in the position, mostly causing pressure and pain with his shin. this opens up elg pummeling that Santori uses to get to mount or even switch the knee cut side.

The instructional wraps up with a set of knee cut drills that, unfortunately, do not differ from the ones you probably know or do. In that sense, I find these to be utterly ineffective, although the rest of the content in the DVD is solid.

The Versatile Knee Cut Position

The knee cut position is much more than just a way to pass someone’s legs. In fact, I see very often how people rush through it, taking it for granted and actually messing up their pass. Do it too early and you’ll get your back taken, move too late and you risk guard recovery.

So what is so good about this position? It offers an aspect of grappling that not many positions can offer – the option to stay perfectly still and not do anything. Choosing to do this results in immense pain experienced by the bottom person on account of the leg you have trapped with your shin.

If you are evil enough, you may even utilize knee-on-belly concepts to make sure the bottom person’s leg is getting extreme punishment. Both the thing and the shin are great places to place this smashing pressure, as you ride it out and wait for your opponent to literally pull you into a pass

So, next time you’re knee cutting, stop the rush. Hang out for a while in the position, and see what happens. You’ll be surprised at how many options arise apart from sliding your knee for a pass. The Smash Or Pass: Knee Cut The World DVD contains around an hour and a half of different ideas on how to be a real nuisance from this position.  

DOWNLOAD DVD SANTERI LILIUS KNEE CUT THE WORLD

Knee Cut The World!

The knee cut might not be your favorite pass. It absolutely is not mine, but I still like to utilize it. It is very useful even if you don’t want to pass, and just want to expose the opponent’s legs for Ashi Garami entires. Or for hanging out and making them feel miserable and leaving them nursing huge bruises on their thighs.

This Santeri Lilius DVD effectively merges a powerful passing movement with a very reliable pre-pass position to provide a great way to retain the top position while keeping all your options open. Getting those pressure taps is a guilty pleasure you get for free, so if you like to be sadistic with your passing or pinning, I suggest you check it out.

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Since nobody is going to allow you to keep them down, pass their guard, and submit them, you’ll need to work for it. And to do that, someone needs to give you directions. While everyone’s game is different and individual, there are some fundamental ways of approaching building a game that is tied together as a whole that is unchangeable.

Apart from your coach, there is the Danielle Kelly BJJ DVD dubbed DK Style: The Art Of Setting Up Takedowns To Effective Submissions And Leg Locks. She is a world-class competitor and world champion. It is easy to choose to heed her advice.

Key Takeaways

• 3-part No-Gi BJJ DVD by ONE FC reigning Atomwiehgt Grappling Champion Danielle Kelly   
• An hour-and-a-half-long blueprint to building an interconnected top game.
• Aimed mostly at competitors looking to dominate from the top.
• BJJ World Expert Rating: 9 out of 10.

Click Here

GET THE ‘DK STYLE’ DANIELLE KELLY BJJ DVD HERE!!!

The Art of Mastering Offensive Transitions

It is very easy to get lost in the intricate realm of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu techniques and positions and claim they don’t work. Of course, things are not going to work when you’re trying to factor in tens of ultra-fine details while disregarding the big picture of what you’re trying to achieve.

Who cares if you tapped your opponent in the finals using a choke you just came up with? It doesn’t have to contain all 37 details your coach showed you, as long as it works. Well, speaking of things that work, making sure an opponent you take down does not stand up is key to doing everything you intend to after the standing battle.

This is one aspect of grappling I see students struggle with a lot. After a takedown, everyone expects a rest, an opponent that will accept to stay on the mats, and a passing opportunity whenever they feel like it. It rarely works that way.

If you want to be successful with your top game, you’ll need to be able to integrate every major aspect of the game into it and stay aware of the whole picture. That is exactly what the ‘DK Style’ Danielle Kelly BJJ DVD addresses – how to connect takedowns, passing, and submissions.

Danielle Kelly: The  Female Grappler to Beat 2024

Danielle Kelly is one of the most inspiring and positive faces in the world of Jiu-Jitsu. Currently holding the ONE FC Atomweight Grappling World Champion title, Dani represents all the grapplers of the new era.

Still only 28, Danielle is a black belt under Karl ‘Silverfox’ Pravec, one of Renzo Gracie’s best students and a world-renowned coach. Proudly representing team Silverfox, Kelly has placed herself as the one to beat, with flawless performances inside the ONE cage so far, which put a spotlight on her constantly evolving grappling style.

On the mats, Danielle’s style is marked by relentlessness – she never stops. Kelly, who has competed in just about every grappling martial art since the age of 10, is not afraid to wrestle, fight with her back on the ground, or hunt for leg locks.

She worked her trade to perfection in professional Jiu-Jitsu tournaments such as EBI, WNO, and ADCC Trials. She then found her home in the ONE cage, representing the highest level of BJJ along with Mikey Musumeci among elite-level grapplers, wrestlers, and Sambo fighters.

Kelly’s first title defense is set for August 2, 2024, when she’ll face her toughest opponent to date – the experienced and dangerous Mayssa Bastos. With the match about a month away, Dani still found time to treat us with her first instructional, and with it, a peek into her teaching style.

Danielle Kelly BJJ DVD Review: Setting Up Takedowns To Submissions And Leg Locks

Yes, Dani loves leg locks, but this instructional is much more than just a leg lock Danielle Kelly DVD. It is a blueprint of her grappling game, focused on her top game in No-Gi, and she makes that clear from the beginning.

Dani shares her competitive go-to moves in three volumes of the DK Style Takedowns, Leglocks & Submissions instructional, with the material amounting to just under an hour and a half.

Part 1 – Throws And Takedown Sequences

As she begins her instructional, Kelly opens up with a short overview of her mindset during competitive grappling matches, which I find much more useful than trying to impart a one-size-fits-all strategy. She keeps it short, moving immediately into a very powerful takedown throw combo based on the Uchi Mata.

As a former Judoka, I am acutely aware of how difficult the Uchi Mata is to perform against opposition in a BJJ setting. Dani resolves this glaring issue by chaining it with a Guillotine threat, that serves both as a takedown and a submission threat. She expands on it using wall grappling tactics, which are perfect for those grappling in cages.

The conclusion of the first volume of this premiere Danielle Kelly BJJ DVD is all about using the knee shield pass. Dani flows into it from both a successful Uchi Mata and the guillotine-enforced one, providing a very intuitive and logical sequence.

Part 2 – Leg Locks and Chokes

You only have to wait until the second volume of the “DK Style’ DVD instructional for some of those signature leg attacks Kelly is known for. The first point on the agenda is the knee bar, and how it works from the top, as a dilemma attacks bound with passing threats.

Staying true to the subject of the DVD, Kelly shows follow-up heel hooks to failed kneebar attempts, as well as a way to go in and out of the 4/11 position, using it for both leg locks and passing.

The cherry on the top of this Leg Lock Danielle Kelly is the D’arce choke set up by passing the knee shield half-guard. Another dilemma, another successful pass or tap. Or both. I actually tried this immediately after watching the instructional and it worked immediately. I do love D’arces, though, so that might have helped.

Part 3 – Leg Lock Submission Chains

The final portion of the ‘DK Style’ Danielle Kelly BJJ DVD keeps connecting leg lock attacks, starting (or better said, continuing) from the 4/11 position. Dani blends in a Kimura threat using the 4/11 before exploring ways to set up knee bar-heel hook combinations from the X guard.

As a final topic in its instructional, Kelly turns to a position that seems to be emerging as a popular leg-locking alternative – the bear trap. Of course, she wraps up with a heel hook, rather than trying to muscle in a calf-slicer finish. An elegant way to wrap this instructional up.

The Big Picture Competition Game 

Danielle Kelly’s ‘DK Style’ DVD covers a very important subject in BJJ, that is rarely discussed outside of game design in competition classes. While I am aware that not everyone has a competitive appetite (including me, lately) the ability to seamlessly transition between different key pins and weave in submission threats remains a big, if not the biggest, condition for success.

So why ignore it? Build a game that works, regardless of whether or not you’re going to compete or just roll. A friend of mine once said that if you roll in the gym without setting a task to achieve, you’re just wasting your time. I completely agree.

Whenever you’re rolling, try to keep the big picture in mind. You’re going to take someone down, but then what? You’ll pass a guard but then what’s next? BJJ works as a turbulent flow more than a set of sequences divided by clear borders.

The Takedown and Leg Lock Danielle Kelly BJJ DVD is a great resource to start thinking like a competitor by looking at how a World Champion’s brain works in terms of planning her game. Even if you hate leg locks and takedowns, and would rather pull guard and do triangles, you’ll learn a lot from this DVD.

DOWNLOAD ‘DK STYLE’ DANIELLE KELLY BJJ DVD DOWNLOAD

Get Locked In!

While the ‘DK Style’ Danielle Kelly BJJ DVD is a great fit for anyone, white to black belt, Gi and No-Gi, it is a must for competitors who are serious about trying to go pro. Not many grappling athletes have released instructional covering their game design and the transition that makes their game work.

Then again, Dani is not just any grappling athlete. Pick up the DK Style: The Art Of Setting Up Takedowns To Effective Submissions And Leg Locksby Danielle Kelly and become a better grappler in just weeks! Oh, and don’t forget to cheer Danielle in her upcoming ONE FC World Title defense!

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The post DK Style: Takedowns to Leg Lock Danielle Kelly BJJ DVD Review appeared first on BJJ World.

The problem is that we have a ton of different top positions to consider, and instead of trying to make a dominant one work, we are happy to change between them until we inevitably fail and end up on the bottom. We’ve all been there.

Heather Jo Clark’s 10th Planet Top Game, focusing on how to make the top half guard your main top position, offers a complete game plan that will help you keep the top once you conquer it, throwing a bunch of curve balls at your opponent along the way.

Key Takeaways

• 2-part No-Gi BJJ DVD with almost 2 hours of 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu moves.  
• A bunch of unorthodox ways to hold, pass, and submit from the top half guard.
• Taught by Ultimate Fighter Season 20 winner Heather Jo Clark. 
• BJJ World Expert Rating: 8 out of 10.

GET THE 10TH PLANET TOP GAME DVD HERE!!!

The 10th Planet Game

Even when I was a white belt, training in a traditional BJJ Gi-only gym, I was fascinated with Eddie Bravo and his 10th Planet System. It just made sense. Bravo launched his own version of Jiu-Jitsu after getting his black belt from Jean Jacques Machado, trying to create a grappling style tailor-made for MMA.

While the 10th Planet style never really took off as an MMA-specific version of BJJ, it did take off- in a big way. Unorthodox, often flashy, extremely effective, and not bound by any traditional dogmas, Bravo’s 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu was the first major tectonic shift in the BJJ World.

Given his original idea of an MMA-oriented grappling style, Bravo spends a lot of time perfecting and modifying the best positions from wrestling and BJJ, resulting in one of the most intricate and tight styles in existence. Although the Rubber Guard might not be for everyone, stuff like the lockdown and the entire 10th Planet Top Game, from passing to the Truck and Twister are stuff that you definitely want in your arsenal.

‘Hurricane’ Heather Jo Clark

If you ever stumble into 10th Planet Boca Raton then you’re bound to run into Heather Jo Clark, a.k.. the head coach. The UFC strawweight and Ultimate Fighter Season 20 winner is a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu under Eddie Bravo and has been representing 10 Planet Jiu-Jitsu throughout her grappling career.

Just like most folks at 10th Planet, Heather is very competitive but decided to channel her energy into MMA rather than professional grappling. She joined the famous Jackson/ Winkeljohn Academy in Albuquerque training with the likes of Holy Holm, Julie Kedzie, and Michelle Waterson.

As her pro-MMA career took off, Heather moved to LA, deciding to make the Xtreme Couture gym her home base. Heather beat Bec Rawlings in the Ultimate Fighter Season 20 finale with a torn ACL, demonstrating grit and determination.

Before retiring in 2018, she fought several more times against high-profile names in the UFC, Bellator, and Invicta FC. Since hanging up the MMA gloves, Heather turned to teaching Jiu-Jitsu at the 10th Planet Boca Raton gym she built in 2023.

Heather Jo Clark 10th Planet Top Game DVD Review

The 10th Planet Top Game BJJ DVD is an instructional by Heather Jo Clark focusing on playing top half guard. It is a No-Gi instructional with almost 2 hours of material on how to hold, pass, and submit from the top half guard:

Part 1 – Half Guard Top

As Hurricane Heather kicks off her first BJJ instructional, she starts in the top half guard. The first chapter is a general overview of the position, and what you can do from it in BJJ and MMA. I happen to agree with Heather that forcing half guard from the top is one of the smartest and most efficient ways to pin and restrict motion.

As Heather starts rolling out the 10th Planet techniques, she begins using a no-hand pass which is very unique and will definitely surprise opponents. She goes on to explore body lock passing, known as ‘Buttock Compressor’ in the 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu vocabulary. The dog bar setup from this pass is one to watch out for.

Two-thirds in this volume of the Heather Jo Clark instructional she changes tactics again, offering a new avenue of passing, this time by switching hip sand forcing twister side control. Of course, this involves lots of rolling attacks, so sequences like The Ninja Roll to Swedish Twister appear a lot. They make sense and seem to work just fine, though.

Part 2 – Submissions

The 10th Planet system has always been one of the most submission-oriented styles out there, and Heather does it justice by dedicating an entire volume to the different ways you can make someone tap from the 10th Planet Top Game.

‘Hurricane’ opens with an unusual Guillotine choke setup that looks like a north-south choke, given the heavy use of the lat. She moves on to combine several more guillotines, including the mounted high-elbow finish into a very efficient and aggressive way to attack from the top half guard.

Other submissions featured in this volume include arm triangle chokes, mostly in the form of the D’arce and Anaconda, the usual pairing from the top half guard. heather also shares some interesting Japanese Necktie details, before wrapping up with an Americana/armbar combo.

Rule #1: Be The Guy/Girl On Top!

In the unforgettable words of Chris Haueter: always be the guy on top, and when on top, stay on top. Everyone who has been grappling for at least a while understands how crucial a versatile top game is for success and progress in BJJ.

The premise can be seen throughout grappling martial arts. From Judo and Wrestling to Sambo all grappling martial arts favor top positions, whether it is in a sports or self-defense setting. As Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu offers a lot more threats from the bottom, mostly by way of guard variations, learning how to be dominant from the top is much more challenging, but also rewarding.

Being on top puts you in cruise control, even if you have to deal with the opponent’s guard. Simply by making them carry your weight, you’re making them put in twice the amount of effort you do. Not to mention having nowhere to move behind them, courtesy of the mats.

Heather Jo Clark chose to focus on the half guard as the quintessential top position in Jiu-Jitu in her 10th Planet Top Game DVD instructional. Simply sitting on the bottom person’s leg is more than enough to put you in a position where you restrict movement, put pressure on, and can proceed to submit directly or by gaining more dominant positions. Smart play.

10TH PLANET TOP GAME HEATHER JO CLARK DVD DOWNLOAD!!!

Stay On Top!

Just listen to Chris and whenever you’re on top, stay there! Since this is easier said than done, the 10th Planet Top Game BJJ DVD by Heather Jo Clark is a great resource to help you figure out how to set up and use one of the best top positions in BJJ – the top half guard.

Whether you’re looking to improve your top game for grappling or need the best position to unleash merciless ground and pound in MMA, the safety and versatility of the top half guard mean that there is no need to look past this position. using an unorthodox approach such as the 10th Planet Top Game only increases your effectiveness by introducing the element of surprise.

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How to connect yourself to your opponent in a way that puts you in a dominant position is the key to winning BJJ exchanges. Since every roll and match is just a collection of these exchanges, and distance management is crucial in each of them, you understand how a resource such as the Engaging Without Regrets DVD has been sorely missing.

Chen’s one and only BJJ instructional to date covers this subject in a way that black belts should be envious of. Check out what you can find inside in our review below!

Key Takeaways

• 2-part No-Gi BJJ instructional with nearly 2 houses of material.  
• A rare resource for managing distance from top and bottom in BJJ.   
• Contains games for developing distance management skills in grappling. 
• BJJ World Expert Rating: 9 out of 10.

ENGAGING WITHOUT REGRETS JOZEF CHEN DVD HERE!!!

Distance Management in Jiu-Jitsu

The most useless you can feel as a grappler if you find yourself in a situation where you can’t engage with someone. You’d be surprised how often this scenario appears on the mats, particularly during the standing portion of rolls and matches.

Grappling martial arts such as BJJ only works if you can literally grab your opponent. During exchanges between two grapplers,  given how dangerous grips can be, it is not strange to see a wary approach that is all about outmaneuvering the opponent’s grip game.

This is very intricate and complex which is why sometimes there is just no way to get grips on an opponent who does not like to fight against them. Such exchanges often end up frustrating at least one of the grapplers, which is why distance management and ways to engage are so crucial concepts we need to address in the BJJ World.

As I constantly teach my students, when you can’t get grips, get closer! Movement is what is going to open up opportunities and break down the opponent’s defenses. It is noticeable in the style of some of the world’s top grapplers, and how much attention they devote to distance and engagement training.

One such rising star of the professional Jiu-Jitsu circuit is Jozef Chen, a young grappler who has been taking the world by storm. His style is evident in his fights, and his thoughts on the subject are now available in his ‘Engaging Without Regrets’ Jozef Chen DVD.

The Latest Grappling Prodigy – Jozef Chen

Jozef Chen is the one to watch in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu these days. And I mean that literally. Watching Chen compete is always an edge-of-the-seat experience, as the B-team representative blends together the crazy movement of Garry Tonnon with the crazy high submission rate of Craig Jones.

At the moment (2024) still only a brown belt, Chen has submitted a bunch of ultra-high-level professional grapplers, such as Tommy Langhaker, Oliver Taza, and Elijah Dorsey. He conquered the -77kg division in the latest ADCC European trials, also winning the Breakthrough Athlete of the Year award by Flo Grappling.

Chen, style, while still in development, is proving to be the big talk of the BJJ World these days. So far, the German-born grappler has not shared many of the tips and tricks up his sleeves, until he released this first Instructional. The Engaging Without Regrets Jozef Chen DVD is what we are going to review very thoroughly today.

Engaging Without Regrets Jozef Chen DVD Review

This NO-GI instructional is put together in a way that is unusual for BJ DVDs these days. It contains only 2 volumes about an hour each, with lots of short chapters, similar to how wrestling instructionals are formatted:

JOZEF CHEN DVD ENGAGING WITHOUT REGRETS DOWNLOAD!!!

Part 1 – Posture and Folding

As the very first ever Jozef Chen DVD instructional kicks off, Chen starts off strong by talking about the underlying concepts that help you figure out engagements in grappling. Posture is his first focus, presented mostly from the perspective of seated guards.

I enjoyed that his entire instructional is organized as some kind of an analysis. The first few chapters covering posture, for example, revolve around analyzing both the risks and advantages of playing guard seated and supine and how they relate to posture.

The larger part of the instructional builds off of this foundation, moving on to explore what makes pins tick, and the best practices for keeping your opponent down. As promised, the instructional focuses on showing you how to engage with an opponent from the top, mainly by recognizing and dominating the grip fight game.

Part 2 – Using Movements & Game Design

The second, and regrettably, last part of the Engaging Without Regrets Jozef Chen DVD is another 1-hour long volume with lots of content. In it, Chen covers how to deal with different guards, such as the shin-on-shin, sit-up guard, and modern inverted and leg lock guards.

Half of the volume dissects the guards and covers specific movements, such as the cross step and back step as means of engaging while simultaneously conquering space. As a backup in case passing engagements fail, Chen offers what I believe to be the best top-game strategy: how to prevent the opponent from standing up.

The DVD concludes with nearly 30 minutes of footage demonstrating games to help integrate the concepts above. I appreciate that Chen uses games with both partners active, rather than boring old drills, as I find them to be the perfect tool for learning. grappling.

Engagement Tactics

At the end of the day, you’re only going to be as good as you connect to your opponent. While grips have a major role to play in this area of grappling, they are most definitely not the only thing to consider as you try to outsmart your opponent.

Managing distance, timing, and direction are key concepts that allow you to fold your opponent, breaking their posture from both top and bottom, as you get yourself to dominant positions and/or submissions. The problem is, not many schools teach this.

It is true that most of the “feel” for distance and engagements is going to happen as you put time on the mats, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t plan your engagement tactics as part of your game plan. How you move is going to dictate what you and your opponent can grip, which later sets the tone, and often the outcome of the entire match.

Conclusion

I am pretty careful with conceptual framework BJJ DVDs as they can leave you more confused than when you started. This Jozef Chen DVD, fortunately, is not such an example. In fact, I appreciate the efficient order and format in which he delivers the info, not wasting any time.

it is safe to say that I can’t wait for more material from the young prodigy, and I expect nothing but fireworks if Engaging Without Regrets DVD is the standard. Finally, an instructional I can use as a coach to help make my students better at getting the first grips!

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The post Jozef Chen DVD Review: Engaging Without Regrets appeared first on BJJ World.

Since there’s hardly anyone better then knee cutting than Ffion Davies, her  Basic Bitch Knee Cuts BJJ DVD makes sense as your resource of choice. To be honest, Ffion is one of the rare competitors who are as great at teaching as they are at breaking limbs. So, fan of the knee cut or not, the information in this Ffion Davies Knee Cut DVD is going to make you better at BJJ for sure. You want that, right?

Key Takeaways

• Gi DVD instructional, containing around two and a half hours of knee cut passes.
• Organized to start from inside the closed guard, all the way to pass combos.    
• A Ffion Davies masterclass on pinning opponents even before you pass them. 
• BJJ World Expert Rating: 9 out of 10.

GRAB THE BASIC BITCH KNEE CUTS FFION DAVIES DVD HERE!!!

The Art of Guard Passing in BJJ

One of the absolute most difficult things to do in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is deal with the guard. There are so many different guards available to bottom players, and so many different types of attachments that trying to make sense of it all is just overwhelming.

The thing that I find perplexes grapplers more than anything else is how to approach the bottom person’s guard. Do you stand, kneel, half kneel, move freely, or pressure closely? All these are valid questions, but the answers to each and all of them are, unfortunately, constantly changing.

Apart from the chaos of standing and takedowns, passing a guard in Jiu-Jitsu is truly an art form, as you have to adapt to the environment and what the bottom person is doing and find creative ways to remove their legs from the equation. to that extent, passing offers several distinct directions in which you can move:

1. 1. Through the legs
   2. Around the legs
   3. Under the legs, and
   4. Over the legs.

Each of these methods of passing has its strong sides and drawbacks. However, if I had to choose only one direction to use for the rest of my grappling days, I’d go for passing through the legs. Understandably, I was very excited to take an in-depth look at the BFFion Davies’ DVD dubbed “Basic Bitch Knee Cuts”.

It’s Ffion, not Fiona

There is nothing much I can do to portray Ffion Davies to someone who has not seen her grapple, although I doubt many of those are reading this particular review. One of the top European grappling competitors of all time, the best female UK competitor, and Welsh Judo Champion Ffion is a black belt under the now legendary Darragh O’Conaill,  one of the best coaches in the UK.

Ffion only got her black belt a few years ago in 2018, and has since conquered the ADCC, the IBJJF Worlds in Gi and No-Gi, as well as the European and Brazilian Nationals. Quite the pedigree in a very short time at black belt, and I haven’t even mentioned all the superfights she’s won recently.

The one thing missing from Ffion’s rising grappling legacy, at least until recently, were BJJ DVD instructionals covering some of the best aspects of her game (like guard passing). While busy competing constantly, and with CJI in her sights come August 20204, she still managed to issue a few recent Ffion Davies DVD instructional that are as high-quality as her performances on the mats.

Detailed Basic Bitch Knee Cuts Ffion Davies Review

The Basic Bitch Knee Cuts Ffion Davies DVD is a four-part BJJ instructional that lasts over two and a half hours. Davies demonstrates the techniques in the Gi, but almost everything is directly transferrable to No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu as well:

Part 1 – Opening the Closed Guard

Unlike most other BJJ instructionals out there, Ffion does not care for skipping over the hardest parts. In fact, she starts her DVD in one of the toughest sports in BJJ – the closed guard.

Before the Basic Bitch Knee Cuts DVD goes into actual knee cuts, Davies addresses different ways to deal with the closed guard by focusing on opening it up. She covers how opponents tend to react, and how you can use those reactions to immediately set up a knee cut pass position.

The best part of the first volume? Ffion’s chapter on how to avoid getting trapped in the closed guard in the first place.

Part 2 – Flying Knee Cuts

Yes, you read it right. While not immediately, this part of the Ffion Davies DVD does contain flying versions of the knee cut pass. Before getting airborne, though, Ffion talks about setting up the knee cut as you raise from a kneeling/half-kneeling position.

The flying portions of the DVD appear as part of combos, with either a back take or armbar, and involve spinning motions. Davies does a great job of making them seem simple enough, though, and they’re not risky at all, given that they are flying moves.

She warps this part of the DVD up with a section covering how to render the underhook half guard useless using knee cuts.

Part 3 – Switch Knee Cuts

Past the halfway of this Ffion Davies Knee Cut instructional,  FfiFfi from the Bronx goes into the art of switching your knee cuts side-to-side, which was a fairly recent revelation of mine. The cross knee cut has never been my forte, but it is a very powerful pass, especially when you combine it with the straight knee cut.

I really enjoyed the part about beating the lasso guard using a knee cut to fortify your base and put tons of tension on the bottom person’s grips. Ffion shares a lot of smash pass variations and follow-ups all resulting from a strong starting knee cut position.

Part 4 – Combo Passes

As the Basic Bitch Knee Cuts comes to a close, Davies goes over some more advanced passing sequences, putting together not just different knee cuts, but blending different passing directions into one as well.

Even more lasso passing options appear here, as well as interesting integrations of Lovato’s headquarters passing system. Finally, Ffion shows how she frustrates leg lockers by showing a very effective way of destroying the Single-leg X guard by using a knee cut.

Passing Through the Legs

The one skill you absolutely have to master as a grappler, Gi or No-Gi is the passing direction that goes through the opponent’s legs. Slicing the legs open is a great way of immediately cutting the guard dangers in half, which allows for more time and options to get past the knees and into effective pins.

Personally, I prefer this manner of passing because it creates a problem that the bottom person has to address if they want to be dangerous with sweeps and submissions – the existence of a bottom leg.

Pinning one leg to the mats, in any manner that appeals to you is a great way of reducing the entire guard arsenal the boot player has to a handful of guards. Now, you won’t be overwhelmed by the potential threats and passing options, as you know that the opponents can’t sweep or submit you without being able to get their leg off the mats.

The knee cut pass achieves exactly this, and in the most effective, and often painful, way possible. As you can see throughout this Ffion Davies DVD the knee cut is not just a speedy way past an opponent’s guard, but rather a pressure position that can break even the most stubborn grapplers.

FFION DAVIES KNEE CUT DVD AVAILABLE HERE!!!

Cut Your Way Through Any Guard!

The Basic Bitch Knee Cuts Ffion Davies DVD is a goldmine of information on introducing and using the knee cut as your main option for breaking down the guard game of opponents much bigger and more skilled than yourself.

Davies made this instructional the perfect resource for beginners who struggle to make sense of the closed guard, to advanced competitors who are looking for ways to chain different passes together.

Since you need one of each passing direction in your game to be creating you can deal with BJJ guards, why not make this Ffion Davies Knee Cut instructional the centerpiece of your ‘through the legs’ game?

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