Top 5 Gordon Ryan Instructionals You Should Watch

Gordon Ryan instructionals are awesome. You learn a lot from Gordon’s long, detailed explanations of every position you might be interested in. Literally every position, because Gordon makes lots of instructionals. In this article I guide you through which Gordon Ryan instructionals are good, bad, the best, outdated, and so on. Let’s start!

How does Gordon Ryan teach?

In detail. Gordon Ryan gives more details than anyone else, because he knows more than anyone else. He lets you know that too. He always says things like “so-called high level black belts always do this wrong, so I’ll show how you should do it instead”. And his intructionals are long, because he has so much information to share.

Also read: The 7 Best BJJ Instructors: Choose wisely who to learn from

Which are the best Gordon Ryan instructionals?

As a general rule of thumb, his new instructionals are the best. Gordon Ryan keeps getting better at teaching, so his newer dvd’s are generally the best. And the production quality also keeps getting better (there was a big jump in 2021 when BJJ Fanatics switched to their new recording studio).

Also read: The Essential Guide to BJJ Instructionals in 2023

All Gordon Ryan instructionals

Here’s a list of all Gordon Ryan instructionals, what they’re about, when they were published and how long they are. They’re sorted from new to old.

Title	Topic	Publish date	Duration
The Pillars Of Defense: Leg Locks To Guard Passing	Leg locks & Guard Passing	Jul. 2023	4 hours and 20 minutes
The Pillars Of Defense: Leg Lock Escapes And Counter Locks	Leg locks	May. 2023	5 hours and 49 minutes
High Percentage Gi Passes	Guard passing (gi)	Mar. 2023	39 minutes
Systematically Attacking the Legs	Leg locks	Feb. 2023	8 hours and 46 minutes
The Pillars of Defense: Strangle Escapes	Submission escapes	Jan. 2023	8 hours and 7 minutes
My evolution your Revolution: ADCC 2022	Match analysis	Nov. 2022	4 hours and 13 minutes
Pillars Of Defense: Upper Body Joint Lock Escapes	Submission escapes	Okt. 2022	8 hours and 10 minutes
The Pillars Of Defense: Pin Escapes – Defensive To Offensive Cycles	Pin escapes	Aug. 2022	8 hours and 23 minutes
Systematically Attacking The Guard 2.0	Guard passing (high steps & toreandos)	Jun. 2022	6 hours and 22 minutes
Systematically Attacking From Top Pins: Mount	Mount	Apr. 2022	4 hours and 31 minutes
Systematically Attacking The Guard Body Lock Study	Guard passing	Feb. 2022	9 hours and 24 minutes
The Pillars Of Defense: Turtle & Front Headlock Escapes	Turtle escapes	Dec. 2021	8 hours and 2 minutes
The Pillars of Defense: Back Escapes	Back escapes	Okt. 2021	6 hours and 38 minutes
Systematically attacking From Top Pins: Side Control & North South	Side control	Jun. 2021	8 hours and 11 minutes
They Shall Not Pass: World Championship Guard Retention	Guard retention	Apr. 2021	11 hours and 47 minutes
Systematically Attacking From Half Guard	Half guard	Feb. 2021	9 hours and 59 minutes
The Sport of Kings: High Performance Mindset For Grappling	Mindset	Dec. 2020	3 hours and 11 minutes
Systematically Attacking From Open Guard Supine Position	Open guard	Sep. 2020	6 hours and 39 minutes
Systematically Attacking From Open Guard Seated Position	Open guard	Jul. 2020	9 hours and 44 minutes
Systematically Attacking The Back	Finishing from the back	May. 2020	7 hours and 31 minutes
Systematically Attacking the Turtle Position	Back takes & more	Feb. 2020	8 hours and 21 minutes
My Evolution Your Revolution: ADCC 2019 Analysis	Match analysis	Nov. 2019	6 hours and 17 minutes
Systematically Attacking From Closed Guard	Closed guard	Aug. 2019	5 hours and 39 minutes
Getting Swole As A Grappler	Diet & exercise	Jun. 2019	1 hour and 48 minutes
Systematically Attacking The Guard	Guard passing	Feb. 2019	10 hours and 18 minutes
My Evolution Your Evolution: ADCC 2017 Analysis	Match analysis	N/A	5 hours and 43 minutes

Also read: BJJ Fanatics Review: Top 10 best BJJ Fanatics Instructionals

The best Gordon Ryan instructionals I watched

Let me share which Gordon Ryan instructionals had the biggest impact on my game.

Keep in mind that instructionals land differently for different people, depending on what you already know, and what you want to learn. So if your favorite Gordon Ryan instructional isn’t in this list, it doesn’t mean that it can’t be the best instructional for you.

1. Pin escapes

Gordon Ryan’s pin escapes instructional is way better than that of Garry Tonon and John Danaher in my opinion. The big idea of the dvd is that escapes always start with a big full body extension, and end with a full body contraction. That’s how you clear crossfaces from bottom mount and side control for example, but also underhooks, and anything else too.

My pin escapes got 10 times better after only watching the first 15 minutes of this instructional. Now I’m still not even halfway through the entire instructional, because Gordon shows many escapes to positions that I’m almost never in. But my mount and side control escapes are so much better now, I love it.

2. Upper body joint lock escapes

Gordon Ryan’s upper body joint lock escapes instructional is wild. He explains how he escapes Craig Jones’ arm bar at EBI, and the concept is fascintating.

Try this out at your own risk: when you’re in an arm bar, relax your arm completely. Why? Because if your arm is tense, your opponent knows exactly where your wrist is. But if your arm is relaxed, your wrist could be anywhere. (I tried this and it really works – I still don’t dare to do it in sparring though :p.)

I love this instructional because it’s very clear that Gordon Ryan knows waaayyyyy more about submission escapes than anyone else. Where other people have 2 layers of defense, Gordon has 50.

3 & 4. Top pins: mount, side control & north south

Both Gordon Ryan’s Top Pins instructionals are fantastic. Gordon’s systems are different from what your normally learn but also simple, so I think anyone can pick these up.

After I became a purple belt I got frustrated that I couldn’t necessarily submit lower ranked people if they just try to stall, especially from mount. So I picked up these dvd’s, and I learned how to force submissions. Gordon’s systems work great for me.

5. ADCC 2019 analysis

Fighters that analyse their own matches is great content. Especially when the matches are against other high level opponents. There’s an interesting detail every microsecond of the match, that you normally just don’t see.

And what’s cool that Gordon actually gives credit to his opponents a lot. That’s kind of out of character for ‘The King’ of jiu jitsu. But he’s happy to share things like ‘here Lachlan Giles was very sticky on my foot so I couldn’t do my normal escape’, and ‘here Lucas Barbosa could have scored on me if he grabbed my knee instead of my hip’. It’s all very interesting to me.

Also read: Strangle escapes by Gordon Ryan (review)

FAQ

Are any Gordon Ryan instructionals free?

Unfortunately Gordon Ryan doesn’t offer any free BJJ instructionals – he’s got to think about his net worth!

Fortunately, some other instructors do offer free instructionals. Including John Danaher and Craig Jones. You can read about them in the article below (scroll down to the last section). But keep in mind that free BJJ instructionals are always much smaller in scope than paid ones.

Also read: BJJ Fanatics Review: Top 10 Best BJJ Fanatics Instructionals

Systematically attacking the guard VS Attacking the guard 2.0

Systematically attacking the guard is an older instructional, and it’s much broader. It covers passing basics such as passing closed guard, knee shield half guard, de la riva, and so forth. Attacking the guard 2.0 is a deep dive on Gordon’s most used passes now, Toreando’s and high steps. I recommend you start with 1.0, and get 2.0 afterwards.

Gordon Ryan vs John Danaher instructionals

Gordon Ryan and John Danaher teach similar things on their instructionals, but Gordon Ryan goes into much more detail. Some people say that John Danaher is like getting a bachelor degree and Gordon Ryan is like doing a PhD. I generally like Gordon Ryan better than John Danaher, but it’s a matter of taste.

Also read: Danaher instructionals Guide: Best, what order, Free & More

Gordon Ryan half guard vs Lachlan Giles half guard instructional

Gordon Ryan’s half guard instructional is great, but I think Lachlan’s is even better. Lachlan covers more half guard positions, most notably a flattened out half guard. Gordon Ryan only covers offensive half guard positions: deep half, half butterfly and knee shield half guard.

Also read: Top 5 Best Half Guard Instructionals You’ll ever Watch