Matt Thornton · Combo

The Closed Guard Compendium by Matt Thornton reviews, page 2

The Closed Guard Compendium by Matt Thornton has 28 customer reviews in this archive, averaging 5.0 out of 5. 100% are five-star and 0 are one or two stars. Reviews run from May 14, 2020 to July 27, 2026. All of them are published below in full, unedited.

Reviews 26–28

• Essential for Understanding Closed Guard

  This series is so well thought out and put together. Closed Guard has always been something that I struggled with and yet the lessons and drills taught and demonstrated by the guys radically transformed my CG. To boot, the principles taught transcend Closed Guard and apply to nearly every aspect of BJJ.

  Response from BJJ Fanatics:hugging::call_me_hand::skin-tone-2:

  Jason L.October 24, 2021USVerified buyer

• A personal closed guard seminar

  The aim of this instructional is to teach the most important elements of close guard - bottom. It is presented as a training course of 45 lessons of varying length and is targeted primarily at white and blue belts. The instructional is 3 hours and 38 minutes long. Some of the lessons are taught in Gi and some in No-Gi. Unfortunately, each lesson is described by a lesson number only. I think a short lesson description would be useful, particularly when you want to find and revise a technique or concept. The instructional covers maintaining good posture and base in the closed guard; the importance of connecting your body to your opponent’s body (e.g. closed guard - hip connection); applying your weight from the bottom; posture – connection – pressure; the concept of breaking the line – opponent’s point of balance; positioning your hips, heels (plus pinching) or body (i.e. angles) to make it difficult for the opponent to bring a leg up; moving the opponent within the guard using your legs to break posture; clearing grips to remove frames, sitting up after clearing frames to take advantage of the opportunity for a hip bump sweep; the hug & roll sweep; being able to control your opponent so they can’t stand up; cutting & maintaining an angle; hand fighting; taking the back while being stacked; the elevator hook sweep; defending the can opener; arm triangle from a stack; stripping grips in the GI; back take in the GI; some examples of wristlocks from the bottom; cross lapel chokes; arm bars – a methodical approach & a faster entry/more aggressive approach; breaking posture using your arms – climbing the Gi & combined with pulling with your legs; pulling technique using your arms; defending opening the guard, when the opponent is attempting to open your knees; a simple sweep from repositioning your hips & twisting your body; a strong sweep when the opponent is in combat base within your closed guard & a variant combining an armbar; using flower sweeps when the opponent is trying to pass your guard, with an option to take an armbar; and a triangle from same side collar. In addition, there is a lesson on how to properly position your body in middle mount. Importantly throughout the instructional there are useful observations to improve your techniques e.g. controlling your opponent who is in a supine position while applying an armbar. The instructional is presented by Matt Thornton in a seminar format and he uses two black belt uke to assist with performing the techniques and drills. He speaks clearly, is engaging and his directions are easily understood. Importantly he coaches as he discusses the techniques and concepts. The techniques are repeated and there is some live training of the material by the two uke to help consolidate your learning. Sound and picture quality are good, however there are some minor sound imperfections in the first couple of lessons. The angles of the technique displayed are appropriate. I like the style of this instructional and for me it feels similar to attending a private lesson. Naturally, you are expected to follow and drill the lessons. I think that if you wish to improve your understanding of the closed guard from the bottom and make your closed guard technique stronger then this instructional will definitely help.

  Response from BJJ Fanatics:hugging::+1::skin-tone-2:

  Peter H.July 19, 2020AUVerified buyer

• Matt Thornton guard

  Best instructional I’ve ever had. Worth every penny!

  Response from BJJ Fanatics:hugging::+1::skin-tone-2:

  MikeMay 14, 2020USVerified buyer

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Every number on this page is computed from the 28 reviews above at build time, out of 87,673 in the full archive. See the methodology for how the corpus is collected and what is excluded.