Henry Akins · Combo

The Turtle System by Henry Akins reviews

The Turtle System by Henry Akins has 26 customer reviews in this archive, averaging 4.96 out of 5. 96% are five-star and 0 are one or two stars. Reviews run from April 22, 2020 to March 6, 2026. All of them are published below in full, unedited.

Who reviewed The Turtle System by Henry Akins

7 of these reviewers gave their belt rank when they submitted the review. BJJ Fanatics asks for rank, age and years training at the point of review, so this breakdown is self-reported by the customer.

Where to buy it

The Turtle System by Henry Akins is currently listed on the BJJ Fanatics storefront at $279.00 USD. View The Turtle System by Henry Akins on BJJ Fanatics

The reviews

• Awesome as always

  I like all of the materials from prof. Henry Akins. Regarding this course, you learn how to both attack and defend from the turtle ( bottom and top turtle ). Really great material!!!

  Gabriel K.March 6, 2026BulgariaVerified buyerBlue belt4-6 yrs training

• Well Worth the Money

  I have needed this for a long time. Definitely buy this if you want to be more confident in this position.

  Devin C.July 14, 2025United StatesVerified buyerPurple belt10-12 yrs training

• Turtle　System

  ALL　beautiful　learned a lot

  イケムラ テ.March 25, 2025JapanVerified buyer

• Great turtle system

  Henry Akins is one of the hidden treasures of the BJJ world. This is one of the best instructionals for the turtle I have seen, goes through both offense and defense. Akins teaches super specific details on these techniques that even advanced players miss. Highly recommended.

  Jukka S.January 18, 2025FinlandVerified buyerWhite belt1-3 yrs training

• Closes a big gap

  Turtle was always a very rarly discussed topic and here you get great concepts and dilemmas to work with!

  Fabian K.November 12, 2024GermanyVerified buyer4-6 yrs training

• The Turtle System

  This is useful because there are few instructional for turtle guards.

  masakazu s.September 10, 2024United StatesVerified buyerPurple belt4-6 yrs training

• The turtle system

  excellent for top and bottom turtle

  James M.August 26, 2024United StatesVerified buyerPurple belt4-6 yrs training

• great

  As one expects from Akins.

  Sirish P.July 29, 2024Verified buyerWhite belt1-3 yrs training

• henry akins is a boss

  turtle turtle turtle!

  Damian J.July 25, 2024United StatesVerified buyerPurple belt7-9 yrs training

• Great Course

  I really liked this course. It's so simple, yet so effective.

  Steven Q.May 19, 2024United StatesVerified buyer1-3 yrs training

• Good

  I have never been disappointed Henry's video

  Moosung S.January 23, 2024USVerified buyer

• Good Info On What to do in this Common Position

  Just getting started with this, but he has good info on how to reverse from bottom turtle so you come out on top!!

  AndrewDecember 29, 2023USVerified buyer

• Very Good

  I love Henry Akins' tutorial for the technics, the concepts and also that taste of taichi invisible details. This tutorial teaches us to make our turtle offensive.

  Response from BJJ Fanatics:hugging::hugging:

  phil c.November 24, 2023USVerified buyer

• Excellent as always

  Excellent as always

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

  John M.November 11, 2022CAVerified buyer

• Lots to digest, I purchased

  Lots to digest, I purchased this course because it’s a common middle position I found myself in so wanted some direction with it. As with all instructionals you’ll get most out of them if you have a handy willing training partner willing to let you drill over and over. I don’t have that luxury :( so…. I find myself watching chapter/move and write it down in phone notes. Otherwise it just goes into the part of my brain that holds mostly junk information. So writing it down and reading the breakdown few times a day and visualizing it seems to help me a lot. Get stuck/caught/reversed somewhere in turtle then go home and do more homework, the answers are in the instructional. Henry is my favorite instructor because of his clear speech and he repeats the important stuff often and really describes why, not just what.

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

  Jason P.November 10, 2022USVerified buyer

• Fantastic content, solid foundations

  This is a very good instructional especially about good placement and how to roll. The price tag is pretty hefty so I suggest waiting for a sale, but if you are new to the sport or want to be able to teach the position to beginners you will find a great syllabus here. Even just refreshing core details is good. There are more in depth instructionals about turtle like Eduado Telles' original masterpiece, and Gordon Ryan's escaping front headlock and turtle. Despite that, this still justifies its spot on the marketplace.

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

  EvanSeptember 3, 2022SKVerified buyer

• Great technique and detailed explanation

  Great technique and detailed explanation

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

  Obhiye U.June 29, 2022GBVerified buyer

• another gem

  another gem from Professor Akins. worth every penny.

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

  Rick G.June 9, 2022IEVerified buyer

• just amazing

  no more to say, this is a real piece of art

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

  DanteApril 10, 2022ITVerified buyer

• Henry Akins presentational style is

  Henry Akins presentational style is articulate, precise and clear. making for an enjoyable educational video.

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

  Travis F.February 8, 2022AUVerified buyer

• Great instructions on the turtle.

  Great instructions on the turtle.

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

  Yves R.December 8, 2021CAVerified buyer

• Clear instructions and well paced

  Clear instructions and well paced

  Vin S.July 16, 2021SGVerified buyer

• Great Instructional

  Very great instructional... Henry doesn't show moves that require strength or flexibility, concepts that the average Joe can do. I have a lot of instructionals and this is the first one that inspired me to comment. Great stuff.

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

  Chris P.February 17, 2021USVerified buyer

• If you find yourself in the turtle bottom, then this instructional is likely to be a game changer

  Objective of this instructional To provide the details for the turtle position including “how to get out from the bottom; how to take the top position; how to attack from the top; and how to transition to a dominant position.” Content Volume 1 (1 hour 6 minutes long) covers techniques from the bottom position when the opponent is in front of you including: taking them down by driving into them with the aim to connect your shoulders to their hips in situations where they have their knees on the ground; dealing with a sprawling opponent with heavy hips by quickly backing out; how to deal with the guillotine, chin strap, darce (x2 techniques) and anaconda (x2 techniques) chokes; and dealing with situations where the opponent locks their arms around your chest (x2 techniques). Volume 2 (1 hour 9 minutes long) continues to cover techniques from the bottom position including a technique dealing with a situation where the opponent is front of you in a heavy sprawl and is holding you around your chest; a technique when the opponent has transitioned to your side and using your elbow you are able to swim onto the opponent’s back; two techniques suitable for situations where the opponent has moved to your side and involves trapping their arm and rolling and a sitting back technique where it has not been possible to trap their arm; a re-guarding technique when the opponent has moved behind you; an approach to clear hooks and unbalance your opponent leading to you moving to a dominant position; a number of techniques in situations when you are next to your opponent (i.e. on hands and knees/feet) with an underhook and the opponent has an overhook; several techniques similar to the previous position, but instead you have an overhook and they an underhook; and a technique to roll a person who is in the turtle position to enable you to take their back and also how to defend this technique. Volume 3 (58 minutes long) covers techniques from the top position with an emphasis on submissions from the top. Techniques include: an inverted bow and arrow, which is a simple Gi submission and is done when you are directly in front of your opponent; a chinstrap choke, which is a No-Gi choke and is also done from a front on position; Henry teaches how to best transition from a front position (where the opponent has good access to your legs) to the safer side position and to isolate the opponent’s arm, including a simple and quick armlock; he then covers several submissions from the crucifix position; two versions of the clock choke; a technique to put the opponent into side control bottom by collapsing the opponent’s hips; how to get your hooks in when you are on the opponent’s side or towards their back; and finally there is some additional material on attacking an opponent’s arm with your legs. Volume 4 (29 minutes long) and is described as a bonus volume. This volume includes how to deal with an opponent’s wizzer through movement when you come up from the bottom (e.g. side control) with an underhook in a turtle position next to your opponent and in response the opponent applies a wizzer; again same position where the opponent has a wizzer and you move position to take them down using a low single leg technique; and a counter to the chinstrap and underhook control. Volume 4 also includes footage (of very average quality) of two historic fights involving the clock choke – Wald Ismail vs Royce Gracie and Royler Gracie vs Mario Sperry. Henry provides clear instructions for his techniques. A great example of this is on volume 3, technique 1 - an inverted bow and arrow where for demonstration purposes he sits up his opponent and facing his back to the camera clearly shows the placement of his hands. The instructional has a good pace and in my opinion, it is easy to stay engaged while watching. Sound and picture quality are good. The angles of the technique displayed are appropriate. The total length of the instructional is 3 hours and 42 minutes long including the bonus competition footage. In my opinion this is a great instructional and I would have purchased it just for the turtle bottom position section. The techniques are excellent. I tend to find myself underneath more, so perhaps this reflects my interests and needs. The top section is also good with a number of very effective and efficient submission techniques.

  Peter H.January 28, 2021AUVerified buyer

• Very good concepts. A must

  Very good concepts. A must have!

  Response from BJJ Fanatics:hugging:

  Bill F.September 24, 2020USVerified buyer

More reviewed titles from Henry Akins

Every number on this page is computed from the 26 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.