Telles Turtle & Octopus Guard DVD Set (Review)

**Zankou** · 06-18-2006, 07:47 PM

I've now watched through Telles' new DVD set and tried some of the moves out while rolling. As promised, here is a review of the Turtle God's work product.

The turtle is becoming a more popular guard these days because it is a very natural transition from several otherwise difficult positions. It is highly defensible, and in sport competition allows you to avoid having points scored. Since having your guard passed to side control can often spell the end of a match on points, having a strong turtle makes you a very difficult opponent.

The Telles set contains five DVDs -- (1) turtle guard basics; (2) sweeps; (3) ankle control sweeps; (4) submissions; and (5) octopus guard. The production values are not particularly great. In an opening sequence reminiscent of the beginning of "Team America," we are treated to fiery explosion after fiery explosion to thundering techno-rap. The film quality is not the best, and the graphics are a bit weak. In any event, once you get past that point things improve markedly. The DVD menus are clear and well-labeled. The DVD is almost entirely a voice over with a Brazilian accent; you can hear Telles barely in the background. Although I was disappointed that it was not live, you soon forget, and it works well. Overall, the production quality can be characterized as serviceable. But who cares, right? What about the content? The first thing that becomes apparent is that the turtle guard is very complicated. Telles holds nothing back.

The first DVD, basics, describes how to pull the turtle (not as well as I might like), some turtle drills, and defending the chokes and hooks. All of this pretty decent, but not anything spectacular. Most of it is pretty common sense.

The second DVD, sweeps, is the heart of the set. There are essentially two basic sweeps, going forward and back. The turtle game consists primarily of working between these two. Telles' versions of these sweeps are a bit different than normal, however. To sweep backwards, he does a move reminiscent of a wrestler's sit out. You don't need to secure the far arm; he penetrates, puts his hips behind his opponent, and swims backwards. The forward sweep involves more "trapping" the arm and simply hopping over your opponent than actively rolling them.

This DVD is brilliant. He covers every detail and every angle of the sweeps. Once you get a few of the variations and see the game, it is *very* hard for your opponent to avoid getting swept, regardless of their grips, if they are coming at the turtle from the side. Clock choke, lapel grips, it all doesn't matter much. Your opponent is going sailing. I tried some of these sweeps out rolling, and they worked like a charm. I swept a couple guys with 20-40 pounds on me without any problems at all, and without them having overcommitted either.

The third DVD covers "ankle control" sweeps. I was very surprised to see that these are not really turtle-specific, and if anything, belong more in the sitting guard category. Telles' game fuses the sitting guard and the turtle, so that's how these approaches work naturally together. Telles explained that many of his opponents had stopped attacking his turtle from the side, and stalled in front of him for points, trying to deal with his game. He has adapted by mastering the sweeping principle of controlling the ankle and pushing the knee *outward*, away from the other leg. These sweeps are incredibly practical, and can be used in a myriad of ways. For example, the turtle ride that consists of putting your shin, but not foot, on the turtling guy's calf is an easy sweep by just grabbing the ankle. This DVD would be very useful for any sitting guard player, or indeed open guard player.

Fourth is submissions. More useful than I thought it would be; there are a couple interesting americana/kimura variations you can get on the arm going for the clock choke. Most useful was his approach to getting a rolling omoplata on an arm grabbing your far ankle, a common way of trying to smash the turtle. He also includes a dizzying barrage of leg submissions, but I don't really go for anything other than the kneebar, so I didn't pay much attention to that.

Fifth is the octopus guard. This is a weird no-gi position he developed that can be described as an armdrag going to the back, where he uses the transition as a guard. It wouldn't work well in gi, because it's so hard to get such a deep armdrag, and if you do, you can easily take the back. I didn't pay much attention to this dvd, since I don't really roll no-gi, and since the octopus guard seems like a work in progress at best.

Overall grades on a 10 point scale:

Production values: 5
Content: 8
Value: 7

The two dvds that focus on turtle sweeps are fantastic, and would get a 10 from me. The sweeps are terrific, and you are pretty much guaranteed to develop a fearsome turtle with them. I subtracted a bit from content grade because the first dvd on the basics is just "good," and the octopus guard dvd is a little random. The value is also dropped a bit, since too much chaff is included with the wheat; it could easily have been cut down to a three dvd set, and the price is quite high.

Overall, if you are interested in the turtle guard this set holds nothing back and is a good buy. Nothing else comes close in the area. There are few things in bjj that will make your opponents despair quite so much as your developing a tremendous turtle guard as a barrier against side control/mount. The downside is that it takes considerable study and practice to learn Telles game, and as the complexity of this dvd set makes clear, it actually is probably one of the harder guards to truly master.

TTrent · 06-18-2006, 08:05 PM

very nice review! i've been really curious about this set because my turtle game sucks.

Aesopian · 06-18-2006, 08:07 PM

Good review. I doubt I care enough about turtle to get this though.

Trivia: I train with a guy who ran scoring tables at two Pan Ams and got to score Telles' matches for two years in a row. He said the first year Telles played more of a sitting guard, but that he was very slumped over, almost face down. The next year he started using turtle instead.

**Zankou** · 06-18-2006, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aesopian

Good review. I doubt I care enough about turtle to get this though.

Trivia: I train with a guy who ran scoring tables at two Pan Ams and got to score Telles' matches for two years in a row. He said the first year Telles played more of a sitting guard, but that he was very slumped over, almost face down. The next year he started using turtle instead.

Interesting, and not surprising. He plays a hybrid between the two, and treats the positions almost as the same thing, with the turtle just being with your "flat" leg back, rather than forward.

One of the strange omissions in the set (which I would've expected to see in basics) was how to pull guard from turtle. Apparently Telles would not even consider such a thing, which seems odd ... but when you consider that for him sitting guard and turtle are basically the same thing, it makes more sense. For him to pull guard, he simply brings his far leg under him as he rotates into sitting guard.

I would highly recommend the set to sitting guard guys, because it adds a tremendous range of new depth and options to that position, without detracting at all. Less so to the more pure "butterfly" guys, who stay closer and use both hooks.