Rigan Machado Secrets of the Half Guard Review

Rigan Machado is certainly a specialist expert on the half-guard. I have bought this 3 dvd set and was very much impressed. Before I give a full review of the DVD itself, let me write a little about Rigan himself.

Rigan Machado is a jiu jitsu legend by all accounts. He is an 8th degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Carlos Gracie Jr. He is a former Jiu-Jitsu world champion and is considered one of the greatest grapplers of all time with an unbeatable record of eight consecutive years of winning every belt division from ages 14 to 21. He totaled 365 wins with no losses and performed 19 matches in one day with all of them finishing in submission — a record no one has achieved since.

Firstly what I liked about the instructional set is that it clearly explained the fundamentals of the half guard. I have always been fond of the half-guard especially after watching Saulo Ribeiro's Revolution Series but this set has really shown to me how much there is to the half-guard and that this truly is one of the most fundamental positions in jiu jitsu that every player has to know well.

Rigan's demonstrations are fantastic. His explanations are very well presented and each move is very clearly explained. Importantly in my opinion, Rigan shows no only the half-guard postion on the ground but also gives a good grounding on tactics and transitions i.e. how to move from stand up grappling to the half-guard, how to work on the ground from the half guard when you are on your back and the opponent is standing. He also shows some very nice submissions here, how to finish your opponents and this is done with perfection.

For one, I have particularly enjoyed the leg locks in the series. Rigan shows immaculate transitions into leg locks and I will be sure to build these into my game as I develop my jiu jitsu further.

10 out of 10 a must buy DVD set for intermediate and above. It is not the first DVD set you want to buy but if you are looking to further develop your half-guard game, you must get this!