"How practical is the stuff in the Street Defense Series? Is it too
dangerous to use when rolling during practice?"
Some people say its not practical at all, but I've trained with a
number of law enforcement and military officers who like it. I like
a lot of the moves, but to each his own. Most of it is standup
reactions to typical barfighting attacks -- ie, the guy tries to
choke you with both hands on your windpipe, headlocks you
against a wall and tries to wail on you, etc. A lot of it will not be
useful at all in a sport grappling or MMA situation.
the moves are stand-up jiujitsu moves not on the ground. Great to defend against guiltines, a variety of different standing headlock attacks, bearhugs from front and back, etc.. (basically all the situations that just rolling on the ground doesn't cover)
BJJ: THis is easy, the Feitosa dvd set with documentary. RUNNERS UP are Medeiros Closed Guard and some of the Saulo stuff (my only thing is that I do not know if Saulo actually fights this way after reviewing his tapes). Reason for Feitosa, it is simple and easy to use and adopt.
NO-GI: tie, Marcelo Garcia set and Feitosa no-gi dvds. These are the only that I have seen and they are both awesome.
JUDO: Anything by Fighting Films, Koga was mentioned and that dvd is amazing for any grappler. I think dvd companies can take a lesson from them. RUNNER UP is Mike Swain Newaza a very good dvd that is easily better than many bjj dvds.
SAMBO: Not really sambo, but Russian Judo by Yakimov is great as is Leg Locks by Yakimov (too expensive though).
I still need to see Jen stuff and Shaolin dvd, maybe if it ever gets very cheap.
OVERHYPED: Saulo set, I like it, but come on the set does get pretty dull at times and not all of the moves seem very practical. Id like it more if I thought he used all of these moves in comp (but to play devils advocate, his students say this is how he fights, so I guess i will have to take that). Roy Harris set, Ive said it before, these dvds have a lot of info, but I just don't like harris' teaching style and I find the dvd very dull. Call me a brandnamer, but Id prob rather watch someone that I know has credibility in teaching bjj (Sperry, Margarida, Saulo, Rigan, etc). Basically, if im going to be lectured to, id rather be lectured by someone who has atleast attained the highest levels of the sport. Not to say Mr. Harris isn't good, just not my style.
No Gi, hands down Barret Yoshida's set just shows you how to attack like there is no tomorrow. Second place goes to the KenFlos no Gi Seminar, I loved this DVD. Third to the Garcia's
For Gi it was difficult to call but, I went with a tie of Saulo's and the Feitosa's differnt approaches but great stuff in both places. KenFLos Gi semian is in there as well again.
For positional I would say.
Luis Gutierrez's SoFlo for taking the back
Rodrigo Merieros's open and closed guards are insane
Kestings butterfly and X guard
Jens stuff rocks too many to name
There's more but that's it off the top of my head.