Thoughts on Instructional DVDs

Instructional DVDs put me to sleep.

For the first 3-4 years of my BJJ/MMA training I never really bothered looking much at instructional DVDs – I wasn’t generally without good instruction and plenty of training partners, so I figured that I was better off focusing on trying out the stuff that we learned in class than worrying about trying to pick stuff out of a DVD, especially since I don’t really have anyone to drill the moves on while I’m watching. For players newer to the sport, this is probably still the best thing to do early on. There is no substitute for a good instructor – not even a killer DVD selection. So get outta here with that “self-training” boshit – there’s a lot that you learn with formal instruction besides just a list of techniques. DVDs alone are better than nothing, I suppose, but that’s not saying much.

Once I came to Japan I started toying around with instructional DVD, for a few reasons. First, they don’t show techniques every day at Alive, and after training long enough at any place you’ll notice a certain amount of repetition in the techniques they teach, especially if you’re going virtually every day. Second, I had to deal with a language barrier, which kept me from understanding some of the finer points of the moves, so I thought DVDs could help supplement. Third, I’ve basically got this time completely set aside to work on my BJJ (well, and “research”…) so I figured that I ought to find things to do when I’m not in practice that could help. Adding instructional DVDs to my training “diet” lets me make the most of my free time, and more importantly, it gives me some control over what I learn. See, learning BJJ in a class environment has its downsides, too; the instructor has to tailor a lesson for multiple skill levels, and it might so happen that the theme of the day/week/month isn’t addressing a tremendous hole in your game that you’d like to patch up. Spending an hour or so with a worthwhile instructional, however, gives you a fairly in-depth, concise look at whatever position it is you want to work on, and the additional benefit of a different instructor’s perspective and experience. I think pretty much any DVD I have that includes the words “sweep” and “guard” in the title includes the butterfly-guard hook sweep in one of the first few techniques shown, but everyone always does it just a little bit differently. Especially once you’re out of the young impressionable white belt years and into the doldrums of blue belt-hood (which is where I’m at right now) it helps to watch someone else do moves and positions you might even already know, just to see the little things they do different. I’ve made three “breakthroughs” in the past few months, and two of them have come from DVDs. Here they are:

1. When on the bottom in half guard, do your best to keep your top leg/knee and hands active enough to prevent you from getting smashed down before you worry about the underhook or anything like that. (Rigan Machado’s half guard DVD)
2. When shooting the triangle from spider guard, emphasize that you just kind of “slip” off their bicep and over their head. I had been making a slightly wasteful movement that made it easier to escape from. (This was with help from Hosokawa-san.)
3. When playing a seated/open guard and looking to move to butterfly guard or X-guard, your first priority is to prevent them from controlling your legs with their hands. If they start trying to do so, you’ll probably want to use your arms AND legs to break those grips and get them where you want them. (Marcelo Garcia’s submission grappling X-guard DVD)

All of those are things that someone could have taught me, sure. But it’s the little details that other people might not notice when they try to help me develop my game, and I might not even know how to ask for, that can make all the difference. If you get lucky, people will help you out – but you might not always be so lucky. In my case, if I had learned those first two bits after the Rickson Gracie Cup, I probably wouldn’t have gotten second, since my wins required a whole lot of half-guard and triangles. This is also the kind of stuff that you can build upon yourself, the small points that just require little adjustments here and there, in how you think more than anything else, and not necessarily something that requires a whole hell of a lot of drilling before you get it down.

Perhaps one of the most rewarding feelings in BJJ is that “I got it!” moment, when things just kind of fall into place for a particular move. Watching Marcelo scoot around on his butt and prevent the other guy from controlling his legs gave me an “I got it!” moment the other day, and as fine a point as it might have been, it made other aspects of my game, like arm drags, considerably more dangerous now that I had a better idea of what I was doing wrong.

But they still put me to sleep. Naptime.

pat m.