so im home sick and decided to do a quick write up on this DVD
http://www.budovideos.com/shop/customer/product.php?productid=25115&cat=&page=1
Roberto Traven Submissions and Sweeps
Production is done well, good quality, camerawork was professional but they short changed themselves and the viewers by not using another camera angle, so there are times when you wish you could see another angle or zoom into a hand position or something. I wasn't a fan of the white gi's on the white mat with a white matted wall on the background. A little contrast would be nicer but overall that shouldn't matter too much. I'm almost positive this was filmed at Tinguinha's school. This isn't for white belts. I would say it's for students who are seasoned blue belts and up
Some DVD's out there make the mistake of using all this "filler" to make DVD's and sets longer. This one is the exact opposite. No filler at all and there is no way you should be watching this DVD for anymore than 10 minutes at a time, because its one technique after another, after another. Can you imagine he shows 35 techniques in 72 minutes? He shows each one twice, might be some moves he shows 3 but i think it's twice each. Even the part in between techniques where the writing comes on and music plays is really fast, sometimes so fast that you can't even read the title of the next move, no joke!
I really liked the sweeps section a lot. Just a lot of good quality sweeps, mostly from when your opponent is standing over you and you sit up and hug a leg, roll through, what to do if they step back with the free leg, there is butterfly where you pull the arm across in front of them, some x guard, sweeps that start with the hook sweep, some sweeps where you hug under the leg from butterfly/half guard...if you are at that blue belt level looking to expand your game, these sweeps are the ones you are DEFINTELY going to have to get familiar with if you want to make the jump to purple/brown one day. actually, there are a ton of purples who don't hit these moves regularly so i'd say it would be best for people in that blue/purple skill level
Not enough emphasis on little details, it was more like "you roll here like this" or "push here"...it doesn't mean you won't learn from it, but with the standards reset out there with other DVD's, this one falls short on the explanations. He literally says "so what am i gonna do" about 100 times, a lot of "hold this", "look"... if you've been at the game long enough, you should be able to get by without the greatest detailed instructions but you have to dock the DVD for it...
A lot of nice tricks with the gi in the submission section, this is actually where the DVD starts, but the sweeps part is fresher in my mind...This DVD had so much potential, just more detailed explantions coulda made this an EXCELLENT DVD...not to say you won't learn from it. It starts out where you have modified half mount where you drop and switch your hip and are facing your opponents legs...some brabo stuff, arm triangle variations..it jumps around to other positions but there are always a few moves from each position he teaches at...a lot of great "loop" chokes with the gi, he gets a little fancy here, but the loop chokes always look that way because of the nature of that particular gi choke..a lot of these come from when your opponent is in a sitting up guard/distant butterfly guard, and you end up going to the loop choke. every single move on the DVD is practical and nothing requires some mircale, so that's good...oh yeah, he goes into a foot lock/heel hook from when you are on top in the over/under passing situation.
budovideos has it for 50 bucks, overall impression is that it is pretty middle of the road as far as instructionals but there really are a TON of moves on here so that counts for something, just way too much "i gonna push him down here like this"..maybe I'm being a little picky about it, but I think most experienced students who are also experienced video watchers would agree...This isn't for white belts at all folks
But for $50, it's worth the price if you are really going to take 2 moves on this DVD per week and really practice them, you know, the way we're all supposed to learn from videos...if you do that, you would have enough good technique to learn that'll last you a whole 6 months...there is no way you're gonna watch this whole thing straight through in one sitting....hope this is useful to some of you.
I really like this DVD. It does have a lot of techniques in a short space, but it reminds me of the Bull Terrier dvds that are produced in Japan.
Great DVD. Very applicable technique to anyone's game. Definitely worth the money.