Learn jiu jitsu by yourself with Gracie Combatives
What Gracie Combatives gets right:
- Good overview of individual moves and strategy
- Excellent drills for moves and strategy
- Jiu jitsu for self-defence focus
- Extensive and comprehensive
- Excellent production values
- Gives a jiu jitsu core to work from
- Learn the high percentage moves
Jiu jitsu, as I first learned it, only taught techniques. Most of these were taught from standing. Yes, it was stated that this isn't what you would do in a real fight - getting an armbar from a punch say - but that it was about teaching the principles. Gracie Combatives teaches the core principles in the way that they'll be used from the start and better than that it teaches a proven strategy to win the fight.
This goes a stage further as Rener and Ryron, grandsons of the creator of Brazilian jiu jitsu, don't just give drills for the moves that they teach but also drill the strategy. Drilling like this is an excellent addition and shows an awareness of successful sports science approaches. Often, in other systems, moves and strategy may be taught but only individual moves drilled. Then the trainee is expected to fit them naturally into sparring, which is hard to do.
The Gracie Combatives approach of drilling a whole fight also helps tie in moves from previous classes, as the strategy is a fluid combination of past moves. This makes sure moves aren't forgotten between lessons, helps get a feel for the flow of a jiu jitsu fight and, as it's complex, challenges the mind in a fun and productive way, building muscle memory to flow from move to move.
One of the benefits over other instructional videos is the time it takes and the detail it gives on each move and strategy. The moves fit well into individual lessons and the lessons have a good flow building your understanding in a logical manner and working very well together. It's hard to see how a curriculum could be better planned. That's the benefit of the Gracie family having taught their system for so long.
It's said that the Gracie's original program of jiu jitsu training consisted of 6 weeks of jiu jitsu self-defence. It was important to learn the core of self-defence first and that's basically what Gracie Combatives teaches. Sports Jiu jitsu ignores the possibility that you could be punched on the ground - as that's against the rules in a sport setting - but Gracie Comabatives is about preparing you for the worst and only teaches moves that are applicable to real life situations. Therefore, if you're interested in jiu jitsu for self-defence, sport, or MMA it's relevant to you.
Gracie Combatives has the best production values of any instructional videos. The setting is excellent, multiple camera angles are used, the presenters are good at using the different angles and are natural in front of camera making them entertaining to watch. Rener and Ryron have spent their lives coaching jiu jitsu and it shows: They are excellent teachers. In their Gracie Breakdowns on youtube you can see that they've even perfected all of this further.
The system presented gives a solid core of fundamental jiujitsu techniques and understanding. Within this core there are only really high percentage moves: the moves that are the most successful in actual fights and that will last you a lifetime. There's no time wasted on learning irrelevant moves like defending a standing hair pull from behind, which is a legitimate technique but only after you've learned the core to give you the basic skills to win a fight. Basically, the program teaches the most useful 36 techniques from a possible 600 contained in the full Gracie jiu jitsu curriculum.
The original series did offer a blue belt if the user sent a video of themselves performing the techniques competently. This was - rightly - controversial and seen as watering down jiu jitsu standards. Rener and Ryron were quick to respond and changed this to a new Gracie Combatives belt that can be earned. This doesn't change the fact that these are the best beginner instructional videos that there are.
The series could really do with a slightly better introduction. The one Rener filmed for The Art of Manliness was excellent and is worth watching before starting Gracie Combatives and would be worth the Gracie Academy including it as a supplemental DVD with the Gracie Combatives DVD package. The Gracie Breakdown videos are worth watching too, once you get started.
It could also do with a Blu-ray / HD release. The computer files might have been better as I had to import the DVDs. Also, I just generally prefer computer files as there's no fiddling with disks or storing of disks. However, I wasn't sure how restrictive the use of the computer files was going to be or whether I'd be able to play them on my TV easily through my android (Amazon Fire) player.
This DVD / video collection gives the best introduction to jiu jitsu moves, strategy and philosophy. It's also worth combining with the book Jiu-jitsu University.
Once you are more advanced you might want to check out the Jiu jitsu Academy's other DVDs, Ryan Hall's DVDs and John Danaher's DVD on leg locks (which at the time of writing is soon to be released).
It's worth remembering that jiu jitsu is best learned in a class but if there isn't one available you can learn jiu jitsu by yourself with Gracie Combatives.
 |
 |
 |