Kenny Florian Seminar DVD.
I don't know if anyone has done a review of this dvd, so I figured I would do it before finishing up on the Saulo's it's been a hectic week and I was kind of tired of viewing the Saulo's over and over again and needed a breadth of fresh air.
This DVD was filmed at Boston BJJ, the seminar starts out with a quick view of warm ups and then gets started.
This is a no gi semiar.
Technique 1 - opens with takedowns Kenny, starts with what type of grip to use for an over/under greco takedown. Kenny's attention to detail on this is very nice. He explains the details as good as any wrestling takedown instructional I have seen (I have seen all 3 Gohlars as well as Couture's and Gable's and a couple of others) He also shows you clips of him using this takedown in two mma fights. He also shows the mistakes that are commonly made while using this takedown and not to do them.
Technique 2 - The single leg snapdown is covered here, Kenny continues from the over under technique from Tech. 1, Kenny shows how to deal with an opponent who is defending the under/over takedown and then explains how to give proper pressure to keep your opponent moving to set him up for the single leg. Kenny shows clips of him performing this against a live opponent as well. He also walks around and corrects the students mistakes and addresses the biggest common mistakes.
Technique 3 - Is a guillotine that uses the second arm over the back, this is a technique used when your opponent shoots in on your and you defend with a slight sprawl back. It's a nice variation on the regular guillotine. Again Kenny walks around and you see him correcting some mistakes which would be common to people not knowing the moves.
side note, after every technique Kenny walks around correcting and addressing mistakes and questions so I will not repeat this anymore after each move.
Technique 4 - is a sprawl to an arm in Guillotine, we have all seen this technique when an opponent shoots in and goes for a double leg, you sprawl and fall back to guard going for a guillotine. Kenny adds some nice positional details.
Technique 5 - is when your opponent again goes for a double leg, you sprawl out and get one underhook in and lock it down, you fall back and hook the leg for a half guard sweep, this leaves you with a very nice neckcrank. However, if you are not allowed to use this move in a comp or if you opponent goes for the escape Kenny, shows a beautiful way to take the back. This is one of my favorite moves and I have used the first part many times and now look forward to the taking the back stage that I can add as well.
Technique 6 - is a half guard sweep bending the leg back, Kenny explains different pressures and how to deal with them etc. He then goes into the move, this is a typical 1/2 guard pass with the arm hooking under the leg, the difference here is what Kenny does to the trapped leg of your opponent. A small but very nice detail I wil be adding to make this sweep a little more effective.
Technique 7 - kenny deals with how to stand back up when your opponent is holding you down while in your closed guard, by pushing on the head and creating space, Kenny makes reference to how the chute boxe team likes to use this technique. A nice solid way to create some space and get away and get back to your feet. This would be more for mma than for submission grappling, but does have its place in that as well.
Technique 8 - deals with the MMA guard, Kenny expalins how staying in the closed guard isn't the best position to defend when your opponent is attacking, Kenny uses an mma style spider guard, using your shins on their biceps and grabbing the back of the biceps with your hands. Anyone who has seen SBG's florida seminars or their vale tudo stuff have seen this style of guard for mma, Nogueria uses this in pride very often, it sets up a lot of different submissions and makes it very difficult for your opponent to strike. This is one of the most solid mma guards I have ever seen and love to use it and I even use it in no gi submission wrestling as well. A very nice spider guard variation when you don't have sleeves to grab. Kenny adds some nice details to this position for catching the punching arms and stopping you from taking clean hard shots.
Technique 9 - is a double ankle pick sweep when your opponent is standing, we have all seen this move and we all know it works. A solid move, Kenny adds in a detail of how to deal with hand pressure when your opponent wants to start to torreando.
Technique 10 - continues from the prior position and again deals with pressure to the legs for the torreando pass, Kenny slides into a modified half guard/X guard position, we have seen this move used by Marcelo Garcia many times, but Kenny doesn't X his legs in using this move and starts it straight from your oppoent standing. I really like this set up and will be looking to use it next time my opponent stands in my guard and I have my hooks in.
Technique 11 - Is a great way to go from the half guard top position to taking the back, this is a transition that I have not seen on any other instructionals but did find it once on subgrappler.com in their clips section. But this is a great half guard pass to take the back. This is a technique that you can add to your game right away and make you very deadly simply because this is not shown on any other instructional and I have used this many times and always get the same reaction and it's where did you learn that move?
Technique 12 - this is a regular straight leg ankle lock, however the details that kenny adds are just INCREDIBLE! period! I will never do my achilles lock any other way than the way Kenny explains every again. The details he adds to make this such a tight and painful position is just incredible, this and technique 11 make this dvd worth owning all by itself.
Technique 13 - deals with the heel hook and sit out counters, from the achilles lock, these are nice counters and the heel hook is a dangerous one and should be applied slowly and not to be cranked, Kennys partner does this and feels it in the live portion demo. Kenny then shows the sit out from the achilles and explains that you use this to get out of the submission and if you dont get a better position that is okay the move is designed to escape the submission.