SP01 Review by Jon Thorarinsson

 

 

Some months ago, I purchased Nathan Leverton's 2 guard tapes from totalgrappling.com. I quickly realized that I'd gotten my hands on some of the best BJJ/Submission grappling instructional tapes ever made! I'm not the only one with this opinion, as the testimonies show on his web site and on various discussion threads on www.mma.tv. At that time I told myself that I had to get more of his stuff in the near future.

Fast forwards a few months and striiiike 2 for Nathan! His "Side and top position" tapes are great! I'm so happy with them! They are a total of 2 tapes and cover attacks from the side mount and the north & south hold down (he calls it "top" position). They also contain a few attacks from the bottom of the side mount, but not that many, since there aren't really that many good ones.

What sums these tapes up is the feeling I got when I was about half way through watching them for the first time: "Oh boy are my grappling friends going to be in trouble the next time I side mount them!". And THAT'S exactly what you want from an instructional.

As with his guard tapes, Nathan explains the moves very well. His teaching is simply in the elite league. He goes into more details of the moves than most instructors. But despite doing that, he somehow manages to teach every technique in such a way that you understand it immediately. So, the moves are "simple", but with all the details included. How he does this is both something to scratch your head and wonder about, but also something to try to imitate. The bar is being raised for grappling instructionals. The only thing that might bother some people is that he speaks with a British accent. Didn't bother me one bit, though.

Let's see what you should GET from purchasing these tapes:

You get 2, 3 or more attacks for just about EVERY way your opponent's near AND far arms are positioned. These are all high percentage moves and I'm already seeing what details are missing in some of MY attacks to make them work better for me in sparring.

Nathan has a GREAT section on how to deal with the NEAR arm, i.e. the annoying one that's usually pushing your hip away. Previously, I had been focusing mostly on either holding my opponent down, mounting him, or attacking his far arm, but had not been paying too much attention to the near arm. Boy, are there ways to screw up his near arm and boy are my fellow practitioners going to be pissed when I tie their arms up (and down and left and right) next time we roll . One of the better things your opponent can do to to defend his far arm is to put his/hers near arm on your hip to create the space to escape your pins and submissions. After seeing these moves your opponent might as well cut off his near arm, because he's not going to be using it too much to defend your attacks ;) Well, you get my drift.

There are some ways to alter some of the moves to work for the shorter people as well as longer people. You'll see that there is more than one way to skin a cat.

Nathan also explains that these tapes deal with attacks from the side mount and do not go into detail on how to hold down a person by switching between hold downs to break the bottom man's posture. That will be covered in future tapes.

You get your money's worth, and then some, is what I'm saying.

The first tape (of the two tapes) covers attacks from the 3 most common variations of the side mount. All of this is pure gold, even though there are really no "secret" new techniques shown. You'll see keylocks, kimuras, armlocks, armbars, triangles, neck cranks, side chokes, forearm chokes, a few wrist locks, taking the back, going to the "total hold down" (as described in the Fighter's Notebook and Mario Sperry's first Vale Tudo tape set) and more and more, AND you'll see several entries into most these techniques. There is nowhere your opponent can hide. There were lots of entries and details that I had never seen or thought of before.

The second tape shows attacks from the north & south position. Here you'll see arm attacks as well as leg attacks. Then, Nathan, shows some leg locks from the side mount. It's apparent that Nathan knows what he's talking about. I've already put some of his moves into action in my classes and they all work like a charm. ALL of them. Finally, combinations are covered. Great flow, here.

If you like to know more about these tapes, here's a link to them on his web site:

SP01 - Side & Top Positions: Submissions

Regards

Jon

Review taken from Atama BJJ Forum

 

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