With the incredible success of current Alliance fighters like Marcelo Garcia, Tarsis Humphreys, and Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles, there has been an increased focus on the teaching skills of their instructors, Jacare Cavalcante and Fabio Gurgel. With only a few other instructionals from these great instructors, the time was right for some new material in the form of their recently released seminar DVDs.

Having more instructional material to compare to, we will begin by looking at Fabio Gurgel’s BJJ Summer Seminar in Atlanta. First and foremost, this DVD has zero overlap with Fabio’s previous DVD instructional, Fabio Gurgel’s Greatest Techniques (which I also recommend) and his Basic Jiu-Jitsu book. Whereas Greatest Techniques and Jiu-Jitsu Basics focus on a broad spectrum of favorite techniques or core moves, this seminar is incredibly focused on a very special area… attacking off the guard pass. Though there are a few caveat passes at the end that are more than worth it, the attacks from the guard that make up the bulk of the instruction are worth the price of admission alone.

The moves themselves are what only can be described as current. He has triangles where your use the heel off of the back of their collar to make space, armdrags to leg picks off of the pass, and it looks like Fabio can hit submissions off of almost any pass. This is content that is somewhat rare in the instructional market and it is good to see a focus on submissions from the pass prevention.

With that said, there are two glaring problems that severely impede the viewability of the seminar. The first problem is that Fabio’s audio track is set way too low throughout the seminar so expect to turn the volume way up. Fabio’s English has improved markedly over his Greatest Techniques interviews, so his instruction is more than sufficient. The second problem (combines with the first one to make a nightmare for the ears) is that there is no way to advance chapters or “Play All” on your DVD player. Basically, you have to select your move at the menu screen (all moves are well described so that is good) then turn your volume way up to listen to Fabio, after the technique is over it ejects you back to the menu screen where the menu start up music is blaring!! This means that when you watch it, you have to have your volume control in hand and have a quick twitch to ensure that you pick a new move before you lose some hearing. Unfortunately, this annoyance does get in the way of an otherwise good DVD. I would prefer to just hit play and chapter forward and back.

The Alliance 2004 Jacare Seminar in NY DVD was another one that I was looking forward to. Filmed entirely in NYC, I was excited to see some details from the head of one of the most successful schools in competition. As a comparison point, there is relatively little in the form of media instructionals by Jacare with the exception of his parts in Comprido Medeiros’ set, added details in the Leo Vieira Georgia seminars, and his recent BJJ Fighting Strategies book; none of which really compare to this seminar. In actuality, this only piqued my interest for the seminar and what he may show.

Personally, this was a really hard DVD to review. On the one hand, I thought the moves were good, high percentage stuff that you would expect to learn from a black belt of Jacare’s stature. On the other, the production is not very good- at all. The entire seminar was edited onto one entire timeline without breaks. Basically, you put the DVD in and press play and it goes from one end to the other. In itself, this is not the end of the world, but in the age of DVDs and easy editing software, this does become less than acceptable. The other problem is that the entire film was filmed using what must be a tripod-less handy cam. What does this mean to the viewer? Expect grainy footage and shaky movement from time to time. Unfortunately, with this less than stellar production, the opportunity was missed to capture what is otherwise a good seminar.

Getting off of the negativity bus, I should emphasize that Jacare does teach some very good pointers, especially on the pass. The gripping strategies and movements are basic, but don’t mistake that for low percentage or inadequately taught. One moment that I particularly enjoyed was seeing how Jacare starts a knee slide Margarida style pass and when the opponent slides his outside knee across the abdomen to defend, Jacare just loops the leg, pressures and passes off of their next reaction. This is good stuff - nothing fancy; most moves are well known by most intermediate players, and they are put together to create a logical game or drill. The xguard moves have been done before, but it still of value to get Jacare’s perspective and detail. In the end, it is these little details that make or break any DVD for me.

Would I recommend these DVDs? Yes and no. Content wise they are both good. Fabio teaches an area of the game that is really important and often missed in other instructionals. However, the structure of the DVD does make it somewhat annoying. The Jacare set has high level basics strung together to showcase good movement and fundamental BJJ, but the picture quality and lack of chapters also make it hard to watch. For me, yes I would buy them because I enjoyed the content (especially that of Fabio’s), but I do think the production and in particular DVD authoring and filming is subpar.

One thing is obvious after some later introspection on these DVDs. Both Jacare and Fabio are two of the best in the world at teaching and competing in jiu-jitsu. Hopefully as they tune things up on the production side, they will be able to create a DVD that is better suited to showcase their amazing skills.

Happy Training,
Kevin

When looking at the current crop of champion factories in the BJJ and MMA world, one cannot overlook the powerhouse Cesar Gracie Competition Team. With champions and fighters like Dave Terrell, Gil Castillo, Nick and Nate Diaz, Jake Shields, and Gilbert Melendez, it is clear that Cesar Gracie offers something important as an instructor. To discover what this special “something” is, we are going to be diving into Cesar Gracie’s DVD legacies, his 3 disc Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Instructional by Ultimate Imports as well as the self produced 6 volume Gi-Less Jiu-Jitsu set.

Cesar’s Base: It really looks like Cesar’s base or foundation of instruction can be found in his first GJJ 3 disc instructional. Throughout the nine volumes on three discs, Cesar outlines what could be considered a complete BJJ game, ripe with clinchwork, escape mechanics, takedowns, passing, guardwork, and positional dominance with submissions. The moves themselves are a mixture of Gracie basics, rich detail in movement, and competition variants that build off of the intelligent opponent hypothesis. In this regard, we can see the first indicator to Cesar’s teaching success.

Immediately, it is apparent that Cesar Gracie is offering something different with GJJ in terms of the Gracie instructional market. While other sets have been successful in showing move collections, Cesar not only repeats the same thing, but adds details and variations that are missing in sets like Renzo and Kukuk. For example, Cesar not only shows a classic windmill sweep, but he shows what the opponent is likely to do and how this leads you towards your options as an attacker. His opponents, Dave Terrell and Gil Castillo, offer very real defense and this is great when seeing how a move is more likely to be executed.

However, for as much as it is important to show resistance in instruction, this is not the secret to Cesar’s teaching success. I feel that his real success is in his communication. On both of these DVD series’, Cesar speaks perfect accent free English as only a native speaker can. While other Gracie sets have their moments of greatness, they can often be bogged down as the instructor either A. hunts for the right word to use or verb tense or B. uses an interpretator that may miss some of the key points. For Cesar, he really is a double threat. He has an incredible amount of detail in his core, advanced, MMA, and gi-less jiu-jitsu and he has the ability to easily communicate this knowledge. With this said, let’s discuss the high and low points to Cesar’s instructionals.

Where the GJJ 3 disc set succeeds in content, instructional quality (especially in teaching proper body movement for the technique), and diversity; it fails in organization and DVD production. Regarding organization, this set is divided into basics, intermediate, and advanced. Like the BJJ Theory book, this structure lends itself to some scrutiny when some moves seem too basic for intermediate, too advanced for basic, etc. On top of that, a few volumes seem to randomly jump between BJJ, submission wrestling, and MMA theory- this also creates some issues in terms of continuity. In Cesar’s defense, this set is a bit older now and at the time, the distinction between no-gi and MMA may have been less pronounced. With the organizational issues put to rest, I really feel that my biggest bone pick with the series is with the DVD production. As a remastered from VHS set, I do not expect Hollywood visuals, but I do wish that Ultimate Imports could have chaptered each volume. There is a ton of information on here and having to use the fast forward and rewind exclusively makes me feel like I am watching VHS all over again. Regularly, I have the bad luck of wanting to watch the last move on a volume and it is a pain in the neck to get there.

Cesar’s present and future: If the 3 Disc GJJ set represents Cesar’s foundation, the 6 Disc Gi-Less Jiu-Jitsu set has to be his present and future. I say this for one primary reason… Although Cesar’s guys are great with the gi in competition, they exhibit some truly technical BJJ without the gi and in MMA. In the same teaching style as his 3 Disc set, Cesar goes really in depth into the submission grappling game and the details are definitely present. In addition, Cesar shows you all of the grips and controls that you will utilize if you are a straight jiu-jitsu player trying to adapt to the faster pace of submission wrestling; the way he covers the slip factor and body control is very smart.

An example of the technical nature of this set is when Cesar introduces the basic foot lock game off of the pass. I would think that most grapplers have seen, know, or are aware of this move, but Cesar shows everything from your partners expectations (they think you may pass still due to your pressure), how the inside arm controls the knee turn instead of simply grabbing, and the turning feel with pressure to get the tap. I really think Cesar covers all of the bases or why’s of the position - this is invaluable teaching. The result of this style: technical fighters that can adapt their BJJ to the gi, MMA, or submission wrestling.

In terms of complaints, I thought the production and content was great; the video quality is on a much higher level than his previous set. However, there were some areas I thought that Cesar could have spent a little more time with. Although all of his volumes were interesting, I really did not like his section on flying attacks. Do not get me wrong, the instruction was good, I just thought the time could have been better utilized showcasing more guard pass prevention without the gi or some more high percentage attacks like his other material. Truth be told, this is a very minor complaint - I think the Gi-Less set has some great information, especially the leg attacks, attacks, and defense.

Having now spent way too much time viewing Cesar, I think I have an understanding as to why he has become a marquee instructor. Really, in terms of teaching Gracie Jiu-Jitsu he has a great advantage. Combining his depth of knowledge and detail with his high level of communication, Cesar is a great place to start to learn the details that may otherwise be missed.

Would I recommend these? Definitely. I would go with either, but actually the GJJ set is a better deal in terms of content for your dollar. This set is as long as some of the $150.00 sets and just as worth looking into. If you are solely no gi or MMA focused, go with his newer Gi-Less set. This set is also a great companion to his online Gracie Fighter E-Lessons. Whether its gi, submission wrestling, or MMA, it looks like Cesar is a great asset to becoming a technical fighter.

Happy training,
Kevin