Review of "Guillotine Mastery" by Tyler Spangler

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This was the first instructional to really hit my radar. I've been having some success with guillotines lately (especially in no-gi) and I've long been a fan of Tyler Spangler's YouTube channel. I know he really likes guillotines, and so this seemed like a great video to watch.

It was a little bit tougher to find and access than the instructionals from BJJ Fanatics. First, you order the instructional on Tyler's website. Then you have to create an account on a training site called Thinkific. It had me confused for a bit because it left my order on "Confirmed" instead of "Completed". I figured I'd wait...until eventually I read the FAQ and realized I needed to go to another website to actually watch the instructional.

Everything after that was great. This instructional uses a technique that none of the others do: editing. It's edited very similar to some of the best Youtube technique videos. Which makes sense, because Tyler is one of the best technique video Youtubers. This leads to a number of benefits as he goes through the series:

• He's able to show better angles because he has an actual camera person instead of just using a tripod the whole time.
• He's able to use voiceover to explain things that are difficult to explain while doing the technique.
• He's able to cut in B roll (there's a hidden pun there, because some of the B roll is with B team) of him using these techniques and variations in live rolls.
• He's able to use slow motion to demonstrate at full speed but show the details step-by-step.
• He's able to add in text commentary in addition to what is said.
• He can seamlessly add in additional information if he updates the series over time.

He mainly focuses on five specific versions of the guillotine, although he hints at a few others:

1. Shallow-grip, no-arm
2. Shallow-grip, arm-in
3. Chinstrap, no-arm
4. Chinstrap, arm-in
5. Deep grip, no-arm

He does mention the deep grip with arm in and that it's a different choke, but doesn't mention how it's a different choke or how to use it. I struggle a lot with the arm-in guillotines, and so I wish more time was spent on those. (He only includes the arm-in versions of the shallow grip and chinstrap because it's the same finishing mechanic). He also mentions (but doesn't get into) the shotgun-style guillotines, which can either take the form of an upside-down RNC or Ezekiel choke. These are my personal favorites, and so I also wish more time was spent on these.

With Bernardo Faria's submission defense video, I also noticed a lot of techniques were not included in the course. However, in that course, I feel there was a better explanation of how to build escapes based on deconstructing the submission, and if he included the other techniques he would have doubled the runtime of the instructional while only increasing the value by a small amount. In this video, I feel like quickly covering how to finish arm-in guillotines and shotgun guillotines would have added a 5-10 minutes, but doubled the value of the product.

Tyler organized the instructional very well. He starts by showing the basic finishing mechanics of the guillotine chokes he's covering, then shows setups from a number of positions, and then goes into some specific topics such as how to use guillotines as part of various traps and dilemmas, as well as guillotine defense. For the specific variations of the guillotine techniques covered, this is a comprehensive and very-well put together guide on the technique.

My overall score for this instructional is S-tier.
Tiers are F, D, C, B, A, S, and SS.

I think at this point in my reviews, I should explain my scoring criteria.

• If an instructional feels just meh, I'd give it a B. If I feel like the instructional had as many good qualities as bad, or was just overall mediocre, then this is where it would go.
• If an instructional is absolutely perfect or if I get absolutely nothing out of it, then it gets an SS or F.
• If an instructional is mostly positive or mostly negative, it gets an S or a D.
• If an instructional leans slightly positive or slightly negative, it gets an A or a C.
• I'm not grading on a curve.

 

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I forgot to add: he also only mentions Anaconda once and I don't think D'arce isn't even mentioned. I consider those in the same category as an arm-in guillotine, and like the arm-in guillotine I'm not as good with those, and so I was hoping for more information there.