The Secrets to Gracie Fighter’s Success…
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
Tags: Jiu-Jitsu DVD Instructionals, Submission Grappling DVD Instructionals
