App Review/Study Guide: BJJ Escapes by Marcos Torregrosa
My introduction to Marcos Torregrosa was early this year at the IBJJF Chicago Open. As I was watching random matches one of his matches caught my eye. Thankfully, it was pretty early in the match because for that tournament he absolutely tore thru the other lightweights in route to a gold before collecting a silver in the Absolute. Marcos ended the year as the top-ranked Masters black belt at both lightweight and absolute. This review is going to cover his BJJ Escapes App, available for $9.99 from iTunes. The app consists of 20 chapters covering the following positions: mount, side mount, back control, 50/50 and the following submission defenses: triangle, armbar and ankle lock. Don't forget to download the PDF of the map at the bottom of the article for your reference.
DVD Review and Mindmap: Lucas Lepri No-Gi Master Series
"Talking about Lucas is always a pleasure for me. I have never seen an athlete with so many skills like him. He is one of the most complete athletes that I have had the opportunity to train.” Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles
Lucas Lepri has followed up with his guard passing DVD with another 2 volume set. This set is a nogi (but the techniques are easily adapted to gi BJJ) and focused mainly on the reverse De la Riva, De la Riva, Butterfly and Side Control. Lucas also covers some material on the half-guard, back control and turtle. Most of the techniques are sweeps and attacks making it a solid complement to his passing DVD.
Lucas Lepri’s DVD set consists of 2 DVDs and covers ~3 hours of instruction in total. In this article you’ll find mindmaps for both DVDs and some commonalities that I noticed as I broke down the instruction.
Modern Jiu Jitsu: Full Set Breakdown
Overview
In the words of the man himself, “Modern Jiu Jitsu, as my DVD illustrates, isn’t new jiu jitsu just a better way to do the things we have always been doing. We aren’t reinventing the wheel, we are using better application of technique to make the wheel better.” Caio Terra
Caio Terra’s Modern Jiu Jitsu series was released in early 2012 to almost universal praise (also here). The set is available as 4 DVDs or 8 apps from iTunes and is available at Mobile Black Belt. This set has already gained the reputation as a go to instructional for beginner to intermediate practitioners. The combination of stunning visuals, first-rate audio and expert instruction ensures that this set will stand the test of time. In this article, I’ll be covering the entire set. Included will be my easy to follow mindmaps (flow charts) that can be downloaded from a link at the end of the article.
Review/Study Guide: Lucas Lepri Championship Guard Passing
"Lucas Lepri is one of the most dynamic and creative competitors in action today his techniques are smooth and easy to learn I strongly recommend his DVDs to anyone interested in learning the real jiu jitsu." - Master Romero "Jacare" Cavalcanti
Lucas Lepri has been one of the top lightweights in the world since 2007. In that time the Alliance black belt has won numerous World & Pan Am titles while teaching at Alliance Atlanta. Lucas’ newest DVD release focuses solely on passed the guard and spends a lot of time on the De la Riva guard and other open guards. With the rise of the Berimbolo and successful open guard players this DVD set comes at an auspicious time. Lucas Lepri’s DVD set consists of 2 DVDs and covers ~3 hours of instruction in total. In this article you’ll find mindmaps for both DVDs and some commonalities that I noticed as I broke down the instruction.
Study Guide: Dan Fagella's Heel Hook Secrets
Dan Fagella, of The Science of Skill, has recently begun to offer what he calls Micro BJJ videos and articles. If you're not familiar with Dan he's a brown belt in the Rooster/under 130lb division. Dan has been competing at the highest levels most recently winning the NoGi Pans as a brown belt in 2011. Outside of BJJ he is working on his PhD at Univ of Penn with a focus in psychology.
In the MicroBJJ series Dan takes a fairly specific technique or situation and breaks it down to a very high level of detail. Many of these articles and videos focus on leg locks, an area of intense interest to him. Dan was kind enough to provide a copy of his Heel Hook Secrets video and as part of the review I'll be breaking it down into a handy-dandy map for your easy reference.
Review/Mindmap: Gracie Barra Fundamentals 2.0 App Weeks 5 thru 8
Gracie Barra has updated their Fundamentals Curriculum to the new version 2.0. If you missed it please check our breakdown of weeks 1 thru 4. This program is intended to provide a solid foundation for the beginner as he moves towards obtaining his blue belt. Their release video can be found here for those interested.
In this articles we’ll be breaking down the second App in the series, which covers week 5 thru 8. The content is available from iTunes and on-demand for all mobile devices, tablets and PCs. The Fundamentals set consists of 4 apps, each covering 4 weeks of their fundamentals curriculum for a total of 16 weeks of lessons. The apps range in price from $9.99 to $14.99. If you’re using the on-demand feature the instruction is broken down by the week and is available for $2.99 each with unlimited viewing for the year. Don't forget to download the maps in PDFs for reference, link is at the bottom of the review.
Why and How to Keep a BJJ Notebook
A technique notebook is one of the most powerful Brazilian jiu-jitsu training aids. I’ve been keeping one on and off since my first judo class and have found that my rate of progression is directly proportional to my diligence with updating my BJJ notebook. Jiu-jitsu isn’t something that’s easy to describe using words alone and a couple of people at my gym have asked to see my notes, so I figured I’d put together an article explaining why and how I do it.
Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a complex martial art. For every technique – takedowns, sweeps, guard passes, submissions, escapes… – there are multiple counters. And multiple recounters for every counter. Need a visual on that? Check out some BJJ flow charts. How is a person supposed to remember all of this? Keeping a jiu-jitsu notebook helps.
[Editor's Note: This article appeared originally at Jeff's blog www.jiujitsuvortex.com and can be found here.]
Study Guide/Mindmap: Modern Jiu Jitsu: Butterfly Guard, Standing Passes and Takedowns
In this part of our series exploring and charting Caio Terra’s Modern Jiu Jitsu series we will be focusing on his instruction regarding the Butterfly guard, standing passes and takedowns. These sections are available as Apps (Butterfly guard and Guard Pass/Takedowns) directly from ITunes for all your Apple devices. This information is also contained in the 3rd DVD in the Modern Jiu Jitsu set. If you haven’t already seen them please take a few minutes to check out our breakdowns for the Closed Guard, the Mount and Turtle/Back series.
I won’t go into too much detail on the quality of instruction (excellent), the audience (white/blue belts) or production value (excellent) because those aspects of the set have been covered in our previous reviews. So, straight to the meat of it…