Review: New Wave Jiu Jitsu: A New Philosophy Of Positional Escapes by John Danaher

 

I love my wife...  Let me say that again...  I LOVE my wife!

We just celebrated our anniversary.  16 years baby!  I still remember the first time I saw her.  It feels like it was just yesterday.  I lived on the second floor of an apartment building.  I happened to be looking out the window as she pulled up in her car.  She had one of those white lab coats on.  (She was going through the nursing program at the time.)  Her blonde hair reflecting the Florida sun made sort of a halo effect.  She literally looked like an angel... and then she smiled.  It was love at first sight.

But I digress.  The point is, my beautiful wife who must truly love me seeing as she's put up with my jiu jitsu obsession over the years, gave me John Danaher's new instructional as an anniversary present!  (Thank you Sweetheart!)  So I thought I'd review it here.

The new series is called New Wave Jiu Jitsu: A New Philosophy Of Positional Escapes.  The overall concept behind it is this.  Traditionally when we're trapped on the bottom of a pin, we're content to escape to a neutral position.  Think shrimp and recover guard.  

Danaher believes we can do better.  Instead of escaping to a neutral position, what if we could escape to a dominant position?  Or better yet, a position where we are threatening our opponent with a submission?

What if your opponent has worked hard to sweep you, get on top, pass your guard and mount you, only to end up on the receiving end of a leg entanglement with you threatening a leg lock?  Imagine doing all that work, winding up in what jiu jitsu law says is a dominant position, and getting not just bumped off, but submitted!

That is what Danaher aims to do with this set.  He lays out a game-plan to go from being pinned to being on the attack.  Then he gives you the specific techniques required to accomplish this from your usual pinning positions: mount, rear mount, side control, knee on belly, etc.

Like the rest of his instructionals, he starts out with theory.  He goes into his new philosophy of escapes, what the new game plan is and why.  I suppose you could skip it if you wanted to dive right into the actual techniques, but I've always found his thought process fascinating so I didn't.  There's some good info in there, and he demonstrates a fair bit of the system.  I feel like it primes your brain for what is to come.

The volumes that follow cover escapes from mount, rear mount, knee on belly, side control, turtle, and more.  As advertised, most of the escapes wind up with you in fine attacking position, usually attacking the legs Danaher Death Squad style! .  Others end attacking the arms or neck... but end attacking the legs when your opponent backs out in an attempt to defend their arms and/or neck.

If you already have his leg lock set, I feel like there's enough new material here to justify the purchase.  It is a bit pricey, but there always seems to be another BJJ Fanatics sale right around the corner.

I would say get this one if:

• You want to take your escapes to the next level
• You've been wanting to delve into leg locks, but hesitate to give up position to do so, or
• You're just a huge John Danaher fan.

Review: The Battle Tested Half Guard by Bernardo Faria

Back when I started training Jiu Jitsu in the late 1990's and early 2000's, everybody was playing closed guard. I was no exception. Most gyms (like many today) started on their knees, and since I wasn't a wrestler I'd just pull guard from the get go. 

It didn't take long before people got really good at stuffing that guard pull. Then any time I tried to pull guard, I'd end up in bottom side control. Which really sucked because I wasn't very good at escaping side control yet. 

While I couldn't pull guard anymore because people were too good at stopping it, I found I was able to pull half guard pretty easily. People didn't view half guard as an offensive position yet back then, at least not at our gym. It was also easy to get to from bad positions like bottom mount and side control.

At first all I could do with my half guard was stop the guard pass. But eventually (with the help of some books and instructional DVDs) I was able to off-balance my opponents, and even sweep once in awhile. While everyone else was playing closed guard, I was racking up hours spent in bottom half guard.

I got pretty good at half guard over the years. Eventually half guard became my go to guard, and a dangerous guard at that. It's a guard that is easy to pull, easy to recover, and easy to maintain

Then this deep half guard thing started becoming popular. I did some research on it and even picked up some DVDs on the subject, but nothing really clicked.  

Then I discovered Bernardo Faria's Battle Tested Half Guard instructional on BJJ Fanatics. My wife Robin got it for me some years back. It really is my favorite half guard instructional of all time. 

 

Let me start by saying what it is not. The Battle Tested Half Guard is not an exhaustive encyclopedia on all things half guard. Bernardo makes this clear up front. He's a big fan of specialization. The idea that you don't need to know every possible technique from every possible position. You just need to know a few techniques from any position you might find yourself in.

That's where this set really shines. Lots of folks these days film a collection of unrelated techniques, and slap a label on it with words like "system" or "blueprint" because they know it'll get people to buy it. Bernardo doesn't do that.

You can't tell from the title, but this is Bernardo Faria's complete half guard system.  And it's a complete system that you can use. Work through the modules. Memorize the techniques. Practice them on a partner. And you will have a fully functional guard that will give the toughest opponents all kinds of wonderful problems. 

He doesn't give you every technique ever invented for half guard. But rather gives you a handfull of techniques from a handfull of half guard positions that all work together like a well oiled machine. He essentially answers every possible what-if-my-opponent-does-this type question within the system.

I love instructional products like this because provided you take the time to memorize and practice the moves, you can snap an entire system onto your existing game in a relatively short period of time.

I watched the DVDs over a weekend and was able to implement the system on Monday. Was I perfect? No. But I was able to sweep most people. And the ones who gave me a harder time? I was able to go back to the DVDs that night and find answers to the problems they were giving me. The next day I was able to sweep the more difficult guys too.

The crux of Bernardo's system revolves around deep half guard and what he calls single leg half guard. He shows you how to get there, what to do from each one of those positions, and how to go back and forth between the two. He shows you what your opponents are going to try to do to beat your half guard, and how to counter each one of those techniques. 

He also has an entire volume full of him sparring from the half guard position. It's narrated by the man himself. So not only do you get to see all of the techniques in action, but you get a glimpse into his thought process. It's also interesting to note that he uses no techniques during the sparring matches that aren't covered in the earlier volumes. It really is everything you need to be successful from half guard.

Once you've digested Bernardo's instruction, it's like you're a mind reader. You know what your opponent is going to try before he trys it. And when he does, you know exactly how to counter it. If you're a blue belt, and you internalize this stuff, you won't make you a black belt in BJJ. But it will make you a feel like a black belt when someone is in your half guard.

Another thing I like about Bernardo's style is you don't have to move like a Marcelo Garcia or anything to pull it off. Bernardo says his style is really good for older guys and I agree. You can be really clunky with it, and it just works. You really don't have to be fast, or strong, or graceful. It's just really simple Jiu-Jitsu that works really well. 

If you've ever been interested in developing a half guard game and didn't know where to look, do yourself a favor. Head on over to BJJ Fanatics and pick up The Battle Tested Half Guard by Bernardo Faria today. It just might make the half guard your new favorite position!

Review: Feet To Floor Volume 1 (Fundamental Standing Skills) by John Danaher

Awhile ago I wrote about my frustrations regarding fact that the last installment of John Danaher's Go Further Faster Series had no takedowns.  I was really looking forward to seeing Danaher's take on takedowns, and was consequently disappointed when it didn't come to fruition in the final installment of the series.

I was pleasantly surprised when they announced he was coming out with a whole new series on takedowns. I of course bought Danaher's Feet To Floor: Volume 1 the day it was released.  But as you may have heard, Danaher's material is rather dense.  It takes me a while to watch and digest all of it.  

Let's talk packaging

I bought the digital version.  I used to shun the digital online versions of these things.  I liked having the physical DVD.  I'd make an MP4 version so that I could have a backup and play it on my laptop when I was traveling.  But I finally jumped on the bandwagon with the whole digital thing.  

I think the chapter breaks are what did it for me. The chapter breaks allow you to quickly find the section you're looking for.  Although in a Danaher DVD, one chapter can be 30 minutes long. And no, I'm not exaggerating.

I also like the fact that I can download a copy, save it to a thumb drive, plug it into my big screen TV and watch it in style.  Unfortunately there are not chapter breaks on the thumb drive version.  If BJJ Fanatics could figure that one out, I'd be in Jiu Jitsu Instructional Heaven.

Like most BJJ Fanatics products, this one is professional quality.  Great resolution.  Great camera work. Great audio.  No issues there.

How about the content

The first time through, I will say I felt a little disappointed.  It felt like just another collection of unrelated takedown techniques to me.  They weren't bad techniques mind you.  Just seemingly unrelated.  I was hoping to get a unified takedown system.  

The second time through, his gripping strategy made more sense to me.  What grips to go for and why they are advantageous. I know, I know.  It's not like he doesn't spell it out for you in the instructional... over and over and over and over again. It's just that I didn't fully appreciate it the first time through I guess. The second time through it clicked into place for me.

I decided to play some grip-fighting games in the gym after that.  It turns out the grips Danaher recommends are relatively easy to get once you take the time to understand and memorize his grip-fighting strategies.

One of the things I really like about this set is that the first two takedown techniques aren't just limited to the stand-up game.  You can hit the collar drag and ankle pick from the seated guard.  So if you like these two, you can practice your takedowns even if nobody starts standing in your gym.

After connecting all of that, the section on off-balancing started to make more sense.  He takes some techniques that could be used as throws or takedowns in and of themselves, but demonstrates how to use them to set up the collar drag and ankle pick.  So you're not expecting to get the first technique, but rather the second or the third. Kind of like a... wait for it... a system!

Here's a breakdown of what's covered:

• In Part 1 he gives an overview of the series.  He talks about his criteria for takedown selection for Jiu Jitsu.  Then he gets into the first two essential skills of the standing position, Stance and Grip Fighting. (2 hours, 30 minutes)
• Part 2 - Just when you thought you knew everything about standing grips, Danaher spends another two hours on the subject. (that's 2 hours)
• Part 3 - Skills 3-5 of his 6 Essential Skills (Motion, Kuzushi, and Position).  Then he gives an overview of his 5 Minimum Requirements.  (1 hour, 21 min)
• Part 4 - Now we finally get to the first takedown! This one is all about the Collar Drag Takedown.  How to do it and how to set it up. (2 hours and 21 minutes)
• Part 5 - This one spends a fair amount of time on the Ankle Pick (over 2 hours), but eventually moves into other takedowns as well. Namely the Knee Pick, the Double Leg, and Single Leg Takedowns. (3 hours, 18 minutes in all)
• Part 6 - Danaher spends an hour on a wide variety of snap downs.  My favorite is the Seoi Snap.  It's low risk, works really well for me, and sets up the collar drag beautifully for me when the guy manages to remain on his feet.  After snap downs he moves into takedowns from the rear body lock. He spends an inordinate amount of time warning you not to sit on your opponent's knee, but I have to say I agree with him.  I've seen folks doing this in Judo class.  And it seems like no matter how many times the instructor tells people not to do it, there's always that one guy who just doesn't get it.  And then the ambulance gets called... but I digress. (2 hours, 40 minutes)
• Part 7 - Here he talks about Takedowns for Self Defense, including his 9 Golden Rules for Self Defense Takedowns.  Essentially these are his Takedown selection criteria for Self Defense.  (1 hour, 14 minutes)
• Part 8 - Finally you get to learn Takedowns for Self Defense.  Danaher's favorite of which is the High Single Leg.  (2 hours, 13 minutes in all)

Usability

This isn't something you can just pick up, watch, and hit in class the next day.  Like most of Danaher's material, this stuff is very dense and there's a whole lot of it.

The downside is that's over 17 hours and 30 minutes of excruciatingly detailed instruction.    I'm going to be working on this for awhile.  He says in the videos that his goal is to get you to the point where you can take down opponents of your own size and skill level within three to six months.  While I haven't nearly mastered all of the material yet, I do feel more confident in my stand-up game.  

If you're the type of person who can patiently watch and sift through 17+ hours of material with explanations that are laid out like a college nuclear physics/quantum mechanics textbook on video, then this set will absolutely be worth it to you in the long run.  Pretty much just like every other Danaher product.

If however you're one of those guys who've tried to watch some of Danaher's material, but just couldn't make it 15 minutes without screaming at your television/computer monitor for him to just get to the point, then you might want to skip this one.  Perhaps you could buy it as a gift for one of your more patient, cerebral friends, and then ask them to translate the Cliff Notes version for you.

Conclusion

For me this set was definitely worth it. I've got more than enough material to work with for awhile. I've already seen some improvements from incorporating some of the ideas contained therein.  And I'm confident with enough time and hard work that this will be of great benefit to my stand-up game. If you've been on the fence about this one, I hope this review helps. Head on over to BJJ Fanatics and check it out!

Take care, and happy training!

- Big Mike