DefensiveBJJ is a new video based BJJ online learning website founded and run by Priit Mihkelson. The website is a new variation on the ever expanding online instructional industry. There are already several other sites such as MGinaction, Estimainaction and lesser well known websites with video content. These run alongside other industry formats such as BJJfanatics where you will pay more money for a singular detailed concept video.
Table of Contents
Visuals & Function Of The Website
The site is modern and has a nice color scheme. It is broken down into easily locatable sub-menus. It’s very easy to use and the video player is also pretty good. Whilst it’s not the standard of youtube, you wouldn’t expect it to be. To summarise, it has a lot better layout and functionality compared with the older pay-per month BJJ websites. For instance, some of these sites can actually be quite laggy and slow to load due to being dated. This is not an issue here, everything runs smoothly.
The various categories are all videos, video categories, members forum, sparring analysis and homework area (don’t worry we will explain later). You can also favorite videos in case you need to look back over something in a day or two.
It takes only a couple of minutes to sign up and you can pay by either paypal or credit card.
The Style Of Teaching
You basically get what the name says, defensive BJJ. If you’re looking for attacks you are probably better off watching youtube or buying instructionals.
For the most part you will be shown the importance of defensive structures and what NOT to do. One set of videos will show things like elbow positioning from turtle, then go on to knees, head position, how to get rid of hooks. So you get a complete breakdown of everything you should be doing from a specific BJJ position.
DefensiveBJJ often shows how to turn defense in to attack. As an example, you generally won’t be shown negative tactics, as the instructionals show more progressive defense. You would be shown what to do once you’re swept from butterfly guard and the details behind it. Each video will be in a series of relevant techniques too, so you won’t jump from closed guard to side control. The system is quite methodical.
What’s New?
Probably the biggest selling point of the website is having Priit Mihkelson himself analyse your sparring footage. You are able to upload a video to the forum style area of the website and Priit will look over it and tell you what is wrong. Obviously this may change if there are 5000 members, but as the website is still very new, you’re able to take full advantage of this.
This is done by his somewhat revolutionary “homework” area. Each month you will receive a homework email (it’s not as bad as it sounds). You will not be given 2 pages of questions from a chemistry textbook, instead you will be told to practice something such as turtle escapes. After you have uploaded your footage you will be told what you’ve done wrong, much like a normal offline BJJ class.
Video Library
As of today the video library is no where near as big as some other websites, however, it is still very new and there is already a lot to get through.
If we compare it to other websites mentioned such as Estima or MG in action. These two websites actually have too many videos to sort through – you literally would not be able to watch them all.
I don’t want to estimate how many hours of footage are available on the website right now, but there are definitely more than enough videos to keep you going. This doesn’t include the homework/analysis part of the website either.
Value For Money
Overall the value for money is great. At only $14.99 per month (you can cancel any time) you are saving quite a lot compared for BJJFanatics. For example, if you were to get a fanatics sale video, this would probably cost you $38.50 if it was discounted. If you signed up with DefensiveBJJ for only 2 months, you would still save yourself $8.52.
Yes, the syllabus is not quite as detailed as a backtake video by Gordon Ryan, but it is not meant to be. DefensiveBJJ is more of a conceptual learning website focussed on defending yourself (hence the name).
You could probably find some of the information for free on youtube shown in the videos. However, when you add in the above features such as Priit’s analysis and structure, it is a good deal for $15. Yes, you would save money if you got the videos for free on youtube. You would also waste a lot of time looking for exactly what you want from a decent teacher and have no analysis either.
Link to the website www.defensivebjj.com
