hey guys! i'm wondering if you could recommend some good grappling (no-gi preferred, but bjj is also fine) instructional dvds for beginners where they teach the basics? like escaping from mount/triangle/armbar, keeping position, passing the guard and stuff like that. thanks for your help!
It's blatantly self-serving of me to point this out, but I'm releasing something right along these lines in a just a few days. Stay posted to this forum for more information.
In the meantime you can download my free eBook on Beginning Brazilian Jiu-jitsu at www.beginningBJJ.com
Sincerely
Stephan Kesting
tinguinha put out a basic guard dvd, havent seen it but all of his stuff has been great and getting better
Demian Maia science of jiu jitsu vol 1 is great for beginners. Teaches good principles that will be great to form habits around. www.groundfighter.com (world martials arts)
Carlos Machado's set is excellent for beginners, imo. If I was starting out and could have one set that would be it. Saulo's first set is good and there are a lot of other really good sets but Carlos Machado's is my top pick. I would also recommend the original Gracie Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced sets. They seem simple and useless to most people but they are great for beginners and excellent to review from time to time for details and leverage principles.
Roy Dean's Blue Belt Curriculum DVD is also excellent.
I would reccomend the Roy Harris BJJ101 and BJJ102. You put that together with something like the Margarida 101 and you have a perfect beginner package. The Roy Harris is one of the few sets that cover positional escapes in the first vid (101), and positional dominance in the second (102). The Margarida teaches all the basic subs, guard passes, and sweeps in great detail.
Machado, Saulo, and Maia are great vids, but far from beginner level. They are mid-late blue/purple and up IMO...
I too was going to recommend Roy Harris' BJJ 101 volumes 1 and 2. He also has a new series on the way that will be aimed at building a good foundation.
As far as a reference for all the beginner/basic moves a white belt "should" know, I still recommend the old Renzo and Craig Kukuk series.
Matt Serra's was a nice beginners thing.
Functional JKD2 is the best.
Throw in Michael Jen's Pin Escapes. The discussion of good posture when in bad positions is something I've seen very rarely anywhere else....
I'm a little surprised folks recommend Carlos Machado's set - I'll admit I saw only one disc, but it was the first one, and it started off with defending a guard pass and stack by using an omoplata - hardly the kind of thing a beginner should be spending time on....
I gotta throw my vote in for the Gracie Basics set. The mount control is golden. Its a long stretch to find someone who explains things better than Rorion. Aside from that, most of the others mentioned are good as well, except Carlos Machado. The dvd is plagued with organization issues that I don't think a beginner can get around very easily. On a side note, look into books as well. I recommend Saulo's. Dvd's often don't give you enough of the thought process that is involved in jiujitsu. They give you the details of moves.
sometimes I think that, jiujitsu isn't about the moves that you know, its about the thought process in your head and connecting that with your body. One should strive for a healthy balance of the two. So, buy books and dvds. Get the widest view of the world that you can.
Cesar gracie set, covers a lot of basics, roy harris 101 and margarida 101.
saved.
Matt Serra's 6 disc dvd set is no-gi. Very basic,very good
TTT
thank you very much for all your contributions!!! it is much appreciated. i'm doing this for my future wife's (hopefully future!) lil brother, so you can pride yourself in helping a fellow ug'er getting laid! haha!
i'm currently searching for some video clips of the mentioned dvds, already found maia, tinguinha, sauer, machado, dean and serra. what i've seen so far looks very good, it's gonna be a hard one to decide.
stephan, i already got your ebook a while ago to extend my personal "library", it's great and i'm looking forward to your dvds, should be terrific. hopefully you're gonna do some advance stuff too!
Why don't you check out craigslist. There's plenty for sale there.
Good luck
g2010
I liked the Roy Harris BJJ stuff. His BJJ 201 was really good.
Waiting for my Kesting "How to Learn BJJ" in the mail as we speak
3t