DVD Review: Marcelo Garcia - Series 2 - Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
Although Marcelo Garcia is known more for his amazing performances in submission wrestling competition, he is also at the top of the class when fighting with the gi, with gold medals in the 2004 and 2006 Mundials (World Championship of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu). Fabio Gurgel, Marcelo's teacher says: "I don't think he is better without the gi than with it, but I think that without the gi it is harder to hold him. But his technical quality is the same."
With that said, we were curious to take a closer look at Marcelo's gi instructional series (series 2) to see what type of game he wanted to teach in comparison with his other sets [CLICK HERE for our Series 1 review] and [CLICK HERE for our Series 3 review].
If you are like most grapplers, you are likely wondering how many of the techniques in this six dvd set you can use in submission wrestling - the answer is that the majority of the techniques presented are immediately transferable to your nogi game, as we count 41 out of 94 techniques (44%) to be reliant on the kimono. Most of the discs are very balanced in this regard, except for the sweeps disc, which is about 80% gi.
Some of the technique highlights include: interesting gi-adapted techniques from the X-Guard, a very nice series of takedowns from the armdrag which are generally all usable in submission wrestling, a robust series of sweeps from the open butterfly, and really good back transitions and submissions from a variety of situations (which include a couple of Marcelo's guillotine variations which we call the French Guillotine).
Once again, for the readers here we have mapped out a chapter-by-chapter look at each DVD.
In this instance we have also indicated which techniques are presented with gi-dependency (yes, we understand that perhaps many gi-dependent techniques can be adapted to nogi, too). Have a look at the pdfs below - you should find them interesting if you are considering purchasing this set or if you already own it:
Chapter-by-Chapter Maps (Click on the Titles for the PDFs)
- Disc 1 - X-Guard
- Disc 2 - Armdrags
- Disc 3 - Sweeps
- Disc 4 - Passing the Guard
- Disc 5 - Taking the Back
- Disc 6 - Submissions
Despite the typical solid production from World Martial Arts (English translation) and a good variety of techniques, there was something lacking from this set. Perhaps Marcelo set the bar too high with the unmatched Series 1 dvds, which really explained much of his thinking and competition philosophy during each technique. We also would have liked to have seen more closed guard passes including how Marcelo fundamentally approaches that aspect of the game.
Don't misunderstand us - we do think this is a good dvd instructional set and recommend it as a valuable purchase - but somehow Series 2 did not leave as big of an impression on us as his other sets. It is still advocated as an instructional series that should add a significant amount to your brazilian jiu-jitsu game - keep in mind this criticism is only relative to his other dvds, because Series 2 stacks up very well in comparison with other instructionals in the marketplace.
For further information on purchasing this dvd instructional series, check out the product page on World Martial Art's website [click here for the link]
Enjoy it.
