Joe Moriera Attacking Guard DVD Review

Site Admin Joined: Apr 11, 2005 Posts: 1080

from: mma.tv
from: New2MMA

recently accepted the opportunity to review Master Joe Moreira's new DVD series called 'The Attacking Guard'. I really didn't know what to expect from the series as far as target skill level (beginner, intermediate, etc), or what material was covered on the DVD's (except through the titles).

The series is broken up into 3 DVD's, the first DVD covering armlocks from the guard, the second DVD covering chokes from the guard, and the third DVD covering sweeps from the guard.

The series is geared toward sport BJJ with the gi, and I would assume the target skill level to be blue belts and above. I will begin with a review of the content of each DVD, and then I will follow up with comments on the production quality, technical content, and some positives and negatives on the series.

Disk 1: Armlocks:

The armlocks DVD is broken into 7 'series'of techniques, each series beginning with an initial attacking technique and following with counters to your opponent's defenses.

One thing I really like about the entire DVD series is that the follow-ups are meant to be applied against someone who knows what they are doing. There are follow-ups to all of the common forms of resistance someone would give you when you are attacking him or her with a certain technique.

Series 1 is a follow-up to the straight armlock w/ another straight armlock.

Series 2 are several follow-ups to a straight armlock w/ armbars, straight armlocks and a bent armlock (sorry I cannot get too specific, a good number of these are not common or named techniques so for me to describe each of them is too wordy).

Series 3 covers follow-ups to armbar defenses.

Series 4 covers more on armbar defenses (smashing defenses).

Series 5 are follow-up techniques from a good kimura set-up (kimura-straight armlock-reverse shoulder lock).

Series 6 begins when an opponent is resting his head on your belly and pinning your hips (same starting position a series 5), with attacks including double armbar, kimura, and 'stretching' shoulder lock.

Series 7 is a follow-up to an omoplata with straight armlocks and elbow locks. The DVD covers a good deal of effective, intermediate-level material.

Disk 2: Chokes:

The DVD begins with Master Moreira talking about choke fundamentals. He talks about choke theory, using the bones of your forearms on the sides of his neck, wrist flexion, etc.

This DVD also has 7 'series' of techniques.

Series 1 techniques are 4-finger chokes: double palm-up-to a 'twisting' choke, p/u-p/u (palm-up/palm-up) to flattening him and choking, etc.

Series 2 techniques are 'thumb chokes': p/u-p/d (palm-up/palm down), p/u-p/d when he has his head down, follow-up to flattening him on his belly and choking him.

Series 3 begins when person is 'flattening' you in guard; choke.

Series 4 begins with p/u-p/d choke attempt and follows up with some good chokes with the skirt of the gi (very nice, very nasty).

Series 5 is a nice collection of lapel chokes from when the person begins a pass attempt or passes the guard (nice, somewhat advanced and a few details difficult to see here).

Series 6 begins with a sort of 'Ezekiel' choke variation, follows up with a p/u-p/d choke, and finishes with another funky gi choke.

The DVD finishes with Series 7, which are some chokes from you 'sprawling' out of the guard.

Site Admin Joined: Apr 11, 2005 Posts: 1080

Disk 3: Sweeps:

This DVD is not broken into groups of techniques like the other two but instead is a collection of 16 individual offensive guard sweeps.

Sweep #1 is a basic scissor sweep with some good technical advice on the sweep.

Sweep #2 is a scissor sweep variation.

Sweep #3 is a basic elevator sweep, and sweep #4 is a variation of the elevator sweep.

Sweep #5 can't be described without being too 'wordy'; it's basically a 'push-pull' sweep.

Sweep #6 is a very nice elevator sweep variation from him attempting a guard pass.

Sweep #7 is an elevator-ish sweep which I had trouble seeing all technical aspects of because of a difficult camera angle.

Sweep #8 is a sweep when he attempts a guard pass-it's intricate and nice.

Sweep #9 is another sweep from a guard pass attempt.

Sweep #10, an elevator variation when he attempts to pass the guard, and #11 is a follow-up to #10, lifting him and rolling.

Sweep #12 is a basic turn and roll sweep (kind of like the bicycle sweep without the bicycling motion).

Sweep #13 is a very nice 'walking' hip-bump sweep with some nice key points.

Sweep #14 is another hip-bump variation (also very nice).

Sweep #15 is a sweep that's too wordy to describe, basically he smashes your outer thigh and you grab his lat and roll him.

Sweep #16 is a scissor-sweep follow-up to completion. Some excellent basics here even for beginners.

This concludes the technical content section.

Some comments on the technical aspects of the series: foremost, it's an excellent collection of techniques. The material is all well explained and is all high percentage. The techniques themselves are not advanced, per se, but the set-ups are more intricate and depend you your opponent having some level of skill.

I would gauge the videos more toward mid- to-upper level blue belts and above, although white belts could get a lot of insight into the direction their game should be going by watching these videos.

The 'armlocks' video was the most advanced out of the three. For the 'armlocks' video it was very difficult to list all of the techniques as: 1) most of them are unnamed, 2) there are tons of them and 3) they are mostly variations of the straight armlock, but the video was an excellent assessment of using straight and bent armlocks offensively in the guard.

The other two were less advanced, but still had a good amount of effective, high-percentage material that would make your game shoot way up if you learned and applied them. I'd recommend the series for anyone wanting to make their guard game a lot tougher for the person inside the guard.

Some comments on the production quality: I suppose 5 years ago the production quality of a martial arts video would not have mattered as it does today, as there are some pretty 'heavy hitters' (read 'very high-level black belts and competitors') coming out with some DVD's with outstanding production quality.

That being said, I cannot offer a complete review without touching on the production quality. Foremost, the lighting was adequate but not great. When I say adequate I mean that there was never a point where I didn't see what was happening, but other videos I have seen offer a more 'professional' look.

They did wear two different colored gis against a black mat, so there was no confusion as to whose arm was who's etc.

There were a few difficult camera angles; it was hard to see some points. One other thing I noticed is that once or twice they seemed to fade out of one scene before it was complete or fade into another scene after the scene started, but I didn't feel like I missed anything.

Overall the production quality was a bit sub par but not enough to inhibit your ability to learn from the series.

A comment on Master Moreira's accent: I think this is a common thread with Master Moreira's videos. His accent is VERY heavy and his English is broken. At times I had to listen for key words that he was using and at times I felt as if I missed some of what he had to say.

Admittedly, there were a few occasions where I missed everything he had to say and had to rely on watching what he was doing. I believe that anyone who is producing a series with him should have freeze frames with voice-overs from a translator, or bullet points, or subtitles, or something to compensate.

I feel bad saying this as I revere him and his accomplishments and would love to train with someone of his caliber, but in all honesty I did have some difficulty with some of what he was saying.

That being said, I do not believe that it would hinder most people's learning from the DVDs, because the techniques are demonstrated as they are explained and all of the key technical points are visual as well as spoken.

Unless you are a completely auditory learner (you have to have someone talk you through things) this will not be too much of an issue.

Final thoughts on the series:

Strengths: You have a 7th degree black belt teaching you BJJ in your living room. The techniques are excellent, high percentage, and will certainly help you up the ladder in BJJ.

The price is good, the production quality is adequate for its goal, and it's a DVD series that focuses on an aspect of BJJ that is almost infinite in its application, the guard.

Weaknesses: The production quality of the videos is lacking relative to the quality of many of the videos out there. I already mentioned the weaknesses in the section about production quality so I don't want to sound like I am 'hammering away' at the same thing over and over.

In short, the weaknesses will not interfere with your learning from this video. If I were to reproduce this series I would choose different lighting with varied camera angles and would have some visual or other method of complementing or reinforcing what Master Moreira is saying about the techniques.

In closing, if you would like to tremendously improve your guard game with the gi, get this series.