Ryan Hall - The Open Elbow DVD Series

I own all other of Ryan's DVDs and I like them because he explains things in depth. If you do jiu jitsu I would say buy his entire series.Here he explains the open elbow, its importance, then the kimura & omaplata position. He goes in depth on how to get your opponent to open the elbow, maintain the position via true positional control (not brute force), and a little only on the final finish. What really stands out from the multiple other jiu jitsu dvds I own is his explanation on controlling the position. He is better at this than any of the other experts I've seen.But I will still point out just a couple of negatives because I feel I must: 1. Faulty explanation of the open elbow explanation. 2. Cursing. Stop reading the review here if you don't need in detail explanation of these 2.Ryan's explanations on the mechanics of a strong arm in versus weak arm out is a little off. I say this as a physician (and proud to be one of the best, I worked hard for it)... expert in the human body, not in jiu jitsu. Though honestly most people won't notice the explanation is off. I believe Ryan did not study how the human body works before coming up with his explanation. He is a very smart guy & used his logic. Unfortunately one cannot arrive at all conclusions correctly with just logic.For example, Seth tries to pull open Ryan's closed elbow and Ryan shows Seth can't do it. Then with his arms out stretched he shows they are easy to push into his body. Then his conclusion, "So see....bringing my elbow in makes me stronger and bring them out make me weaker." But he used the uncorrelating examples: comparing muscles that move in opposite directions.To fight the opening of your elbow you are using very strong muscles for adduction (back & chest muscles). The muscle for holding up you stretched out arms are the relatively weak deltoids. Bringing in your arm will always be stronger than bringing out your arm whether your elbow is in or out.A better example follows. Try to bring your arm in and then try bringing your arm out from this starting position: 10 degrees & 110 degrees away from your body. This would show that in both directions it is harder to move the arm at 110 degrees as compared to 10 degrees. Instead he compared strength of moving in (stronger muscles) versus moving out (weaker muscles).The next negative is the cursing. It takes away from the professional atmosphere and cheapens jiu jitsu. For example: "if you push me to the left you can predict my arm will extend out, but don't strike me to the left because if you strike me to the left them I am going to F*&K you up!!!" It is bully, unprofessional behavior. I know Ryan Hall practices boxing. If Mike Tyson threatened you in a similar fashion, my conclusion would be the same.I take away 1 stars for the unprofessional and for the open elbow explanation being off a bit. The explanation quality on controlling your opponent is excellent though. Buy the dvd. You won't regret it.

Like the majority of his DVD sets, there is a lot of talking; however that does NOT take away from the quality of instruction. I'm an advance purple under a reputable camp and I have to say that the details on the kimura are invaluable. He goes into kimura grip breaks, hand positions, tranaitions from kimura to other attacks and of course the theory. He doesn't just teach the technique, he also teaches the theory and principles on why it works. I haven't watched the Omaplata DVD set yet but when I do I will post a review. Look, get the set. Ryan Hall and Saulo have the BEST DVD sets out there. 4 stars because there is some profanity and my 6 year old does BJJ but unable to watch these vids with me.

Great series with great info. If you're a BJJ or Submission Grappling practitioner you should get this series. Took a star off, though, because Ryan Hall tends to rant a little bit too much, wasting valuable teaching time.

Again, another home run for Ryan. I download all his instructional series from dvd to my computer so I can put them on my tablet and use these for the base of my training. The open elbow is one of my new favorite. The details have helped me go from never really using the kimura to regularly hitting it in training.

good product, fast delivery

Goes through a lot of principles that were pretty cool. But seems like a "filler" compared to the other DVDs.

Amazing DVD. A concept that really runs true for many positions. Helped my game tremendously.

Great Price. Quick Shipping. I loved the instructional. Well worth the money. I'd buy from here again.