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Here is a review from the now defunct review www site called PlanetNHB. I was always a big fan of PlanetNHB. I have resurrected the reviews that I think have great merit. I hope this helps those looking for information on different tape sets. Here is my 2 cents on the Cesar Gracie set. I agree with most everything that PlanetNHB says in the review below. This is a great set that is worth picking up. The Basics DVD is mainly sport BJJ. This is not the place for an absolute beginner to start. It is however, a great place to go after you have the basics from a set like Pedro Carvalho 1. You will build on what Pedro teaches and gain more details that will improve your techniques. I was really surprised how much I learned from the basics DVD. I originally thought that I would be wasting my time on this DVD. I could not have been more wrong. Cesar Gracie's explanations of how to sit while in the guard are the best I have seen to date. All of his explanations are crystal clear and Cesar speaks the best English of all the Gracies. The basics DVD is kind of a finishing school for the basics. You have some of the best explanations of sweeps, chokes and armbars out there. I disagree with PlantNHB about the detail of the explanations. The explanations have lots of detail. What is missing is the whole overall game plan. The set is more a collection of moves than a Sperry type game plan. This is what prevents me from giving this set 5 stars. This is a short fall of most sets. Cesar gives you a great mini-game plan for a single position like the guard. He just does not spend much time tying it all together. I also liked the fact that on the Intermediate volumes Cesar does not fall into the trap of confusing Sport BJJ with Vale Tudo. He teaches each separately, as they should be. Passing the guard in a sport situation is very different from Vale Tudo passing the guard. It is easy to see this on this set. While the material taught is excellent, I would have rather seen Cesar spend all of his time on Sport BJJ or just Vale Tudo and not both. This set is predominantly a Sport BJJ set. The advance DVD has a wonderful treatment of passing guard. Instead of the usual passes, this material is devoted to what to do when your opponent tries to thwart your pass. Great stuff. PlanetNHB makes a very valid point about this DVD showing the guillotine. The guillotine is not generally thought of an advanced technique. This is kind of problem on all sets that divide their material by Basic, Intermediate and Advance (or by belt ranks). The question is "what is basic?" Once you get past things like, "What is the guard, mount, etc," most techniques are up for grabs. There are not too many "advanced" moves that I have every seen that are hard to do. This DVD is no exception. To really make the point, I often send beginners to Pedro Carvalho's tapes to start out. Pedro's tapes are marketed as "Advanced." At the time they came out, they were. Most people did not even know the "knee on chest" position existed (come on, admit it). It is, however, really a beginner to intermediate set. It covers all the basic positions and has no glaringly wrong info. If you are truly looking for "Advanced" moves and theory, get Sperry's Master Series and Mike Swain's Newaza tapes. Bottom line: You really get a lot for your money. For $60 you get 6 hours of top notch instruction. You get moves that range from basic to advance. You great instruction on both Vale Tudo and Sport BJJ. This is a no brainer tape set to buy. It's a great price. Bill Lewis
I had heard good things about this series before I had a chance to review it. If feel that it is indeed a good series, but not perfect. First, do not get this series expecting to learn a ton of moves. Caesar is a good teacher and frequently spends a large amount of time explaining and demonstrating the same move. While a good teacher, there are more than a few times where important details are left out of a pass, hold down, etc., and that will trouble beginners. For this reason, I would NOT recommend this set to those just starting out. Another gripe I have with the series is the format. The series is broken down into three section, basic, intermediate, and advanced. You would think that the material on each section would be different, and often it is. However, there are a good number of cases where the same material is presented on all three sections, just with more explanation and counters. For example, a guard pass might be shown in the basics section. The intermediate section might deal with how to counter your opponent's counter, and the advanced might just give more advice as to how to counter your opponent's next counters. This is not always the case, but it happens enough to make me wish the tapes were organized differently.
Enough with the griping. These are a good set of tapes. I would say that these fall roughly into an intermediate category, and are not the best for beginners. (I feel that as a beginner, you cannot beat Roy Harris's BJJ 101 and Pedro C.'s first series.) Both vale tudo and sport material is shown throughout the series, with, I would say, about 60-65% of the material being sport. Many have wondered how the vale tudo material compares to Sperry. I think there is some useful advice and moves that Caesar shows, but no way would I say that is better than Sperry's two series.
Bottom line, this is a good series with plenty to learn, but I think that there are a few better ones out there. Get these if you have a grasp of the basics and want to learn both some sport and vale tudo material.
DVD 1 - The Basics (Approx. 120 Min.)Tape one starts with Caesar teaching how to clinch. The advice is basic, but good. After teaching how to get in Caesar shows a few takedowns such as a tackle and leg trip. This material is vale tudo, because he comes in on strikes, but could easily be used for sport. After showing how to take the opponent down, he shows how to pass the guard in a sport situation. Caesar does, perhaps, the best job I have seen explaining how to achieve posture in the guard. He shows the basic grips on the lapel and belt; this is where most stop. He continues by showing how to adjust and where to grab if your opponent counters your grip. Not stopping there, Gracie explains WHY you are grabbing the way you are and how to avoid being armbarred if you are using the correct grips.
After showing grips and establishing posture, Caesar shows how to stand correctly in the guard. This is all good material. Now, once standing, he shows how to pass the guard. Here is where we get into some trouble. Caesar spends a great deal of time showing how to make posture, stand, etc., but he spends almost no time explaining the actual pass. A beginner, whom this tape is targeting, will not be able to pick up on all of the important points of actually passing the guard. Likewise, Caesar never explains what to do if your opponent tries several basic sweeps.
Tape two deals with fighting from the guard in a sport situation. This is a pretty decent tape. Now, don't expect to find anything new here, but most of the basics are covered, triangle, kimura, armbar, collar choke, and a variety of sweeps such as hands on heels, elevator, scissor, etc.. I do wish that a little more material had been devoted to actually controlling your opponent; however, as a huge plus, Caesar is an excellent teacher.
We move on to top control in a sportive situation in tape three. There have been some excellent tapes on top control theory put out by Roy Harris, Mario Sperry, and Ricardo De La Riva. Needless to say, I had high expectations for this tape. Basically, if you were to quickly take a few of the positions from those tapes and explain them quickly, then you would have this tape. A beginner, as in De La Riva's series, will be lost, as many of the important details are missing, and a more advanced practioner would have already seen all of the material Caesar presents. This tape just cannot hang with the material put your by Sperry, Harris, or De La Riva.
DVD 2 - Intermediate (Approx. 120 Min.)Further elaborating how to shoot, Caesar goes into greater detail as to how to avoid strikes and clinch. Next, passing the guard in a vale tudo situation is shown. This is one of my most favorite tapes on passing the vale tudo guard I have seen. Caesar shows how to strike from inside the guard. After showing how to strike, he shows two different ways to break the guard and two ways to pass. Gracie does a good job explaining how to counter your opponent's attempts at countering your strikes.
Caesar moves on in tape five showing attacks from the guard in a sport situation. The tape starts dealing with the situation where you have one of your opponent's arms, say right, trapped in your left armpit. He shows how you can execute a collar choke or armbar from this situation. If your opponent counters, Caesar shows how you can execute a kimura to the opposite arm. Likewise, if your opponent counters, you can simply switch arms to attack. Caesar further demonstrates how you can achieve a triangle from this position. Once he shows the triangle, he performs a drill for switching between the triangle, armbar, and back to the triangle.
The next portion of the tape features some sweeps, such as the flower, and sweep where your opponent stands in your closed guard and you grab an ankle and buckle his knee to take him down. After a few other sweeps, Caesar shows how to properly hold someone in your guard in a vale tudo situation. If you are unable get hold of your opponent because of his posture, Caesar shows how you can easily scoot away and kick him ala Mario Sperry. Gracie demonstrates a few more methods of controlling and striking your opponent from the guard. Caesar assumes that your opponent is able to stand and shows how to fight and stand from the butt scoot. Jumping back to the closed guard, the tape ends with Caesar showing how to execute an elevator in a real fight situation.
Tape six addresses fighting from the top in a sportive situation. Caesar starts with explaining how you can achieve a kimura or straight armbar from the 100 kilos position. He moves on to the scarf hold, explaining how to maintain the position and achieve either a keylock or straight armbar with your legs. Caesar explains that if these fail, you can go to an arm triangle. To finish the scarf hold, Caesar shows a move that even he calls risky. Basically, if you are not extremely careful, then you will end up in a crucifix.
Moving on to the mount, Gracie explains how to transition to the side mount and choke, armbar, or take your opponent's back; this is the standard triple attack stuff. Caesar shows a choke and armbar from the knee on chest; he then shows how to counter your opponent's attempts to counter a straight armbar. The moves he shows are good and range from methods to finish the armbar, get a choke, take your opponent's back, or even armbar the opposite arm.
DVD 3 - Advanced (Approx. 120 Min. Each)Tape seven starts with sport guard passes. While these are more detailed passes than before, they really are not new moves per se. Basically, Caesar just takes the moves he shows in the beginner and intermediate sections and shows how to continually counter your opponent's counters. This is both good and bad. Good in the sense that you are learning how to continually defeat your opponent's attempts to thwart your pass, but bad in the sense that you are not actually being shown much new material, just previous material being explained in more detail.
After the sport section, Caesar moves on to vale tudo passes. Now, the material Caesar shows is good, you really run the risk of getting kicked. One move, he runs in and secures both of the opponent's legs near the knees. This is OK, but he is somewhat bent over. If he is not able to grab both legs, or if one leg slips, then he would be kicked, easily, ala Renzo v. Oleg.
Moving on, Caesar shows the guillotine, both standing and in the guard, and some headlock escapes. Now, he does do a good job teaching the moves and shows a few subtleties to finishing a guillotine on a taller opponent, but my question is "Why did he save a guillotine for the 'Advanced' section?"
Gracie begins tape eight with the homo plata in a sport guard situation. Caesar shows how to achieve the lock if your opponent is laying in the guard or defending a triangle. Caesar does a good job explaining how to transition between a triangle, homo plata, and straight armbar. Taking your opponent's back from the guard is shown as well as showing how to move your opponent's arm to one side, so you can begin the movements. In addition, several counters to your opponent's counters to your taking his back are shown. An interesting short arm scissor with the leg is demonstrated. If the move does not work, Gracie shows how you can use the move to sweep your opponent and finish him. You might want to check this out. Ending tape eight are a couple of good escapes from the mount and 100 kilos position.
The series ends on a high note in tape nine, which might be the best tape of the series. Caesar starts with sport material and assumes that you are mounted and your opponent has both hands up around his neck defending a collar choke. From here, Caesar shows how to sit on your opponent in a way I have never seen, other than on some of Tony Cecchine's material. Basically, you sit up on the balls of your feet with your knees barely touching the ground, or not at all. This sounds weird, but Gracie shows several ways that you can achieve a straight armbar or keylock. I will definitely try this soon. Moving on the knee on chest, he shows a gi choke called the spin choke. Basically, you set it up in the knee on chest and spin to the north/south position to finish it.
The vale tudo material is great as well. Caesar shows numerous ways to strike from the mount, side control, and knee on chest. Many of the methods shown are quite tricky. For instance, you might strike an opponent's sternum when mounted to get him to move his hands, knee an opponent's thigh from a reverse scarf hold, or knee the back of the opponent's head from knee on chest. Gracie concludes the series with some more knee on chest work, including a choke, I believe, called the Hawaiian Choke. Hawaiian or not, it looks like a pretty cool choke/crank that I'm going to try.
Bill Lewis BJJ33@aol.com
© Copyright Bill Lewis and PlanetNHB 2004 all rights reserved.