At YourBJJGuide.com, our goal is to help you decide whether a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructional is worth your money and, just as importantly, your training time.
We do not use a rigid points-based scoring system for BJJ instructionals. Instructionals vary too much in subject, length, price, intended audience, and teaching style for us to believe that assigning points to individual categories would always produce a meaningful result.
Instead, we watch the instructional and evaluate it as a complete learning resource. We look at what is taught, how well the instructor teaches it, the depth of their knowledge on the subject, who the material is suitable for, how practical it is for real training, production quality, price, and overall value.
Most importantly, we approach instructionals from the perspective of BJJ practitioners. The question we keep coming back to is simple: will watching this actually help someone improve their Jiu-Jitsu?
We Watch the Instructionals We Review
The foundation of our review process is simple: we watch the instructional before reviewing it.
We do not write reviews based solely on sales pages, product descriptions, tables of contents, promotional material, or the reputation of the instructor.
Watching the actual instructional allows us to see what is really included, how the material is organized, how much detail the instructor provides, and whether the teaching is clear enough to turn information on a screen into something useful on the mats.
What Does the Instructional Actually Teach?
We start by looking closely at the content itself.
Depending on the subject, we consider:
- The techniques, positions, and concepts covered
- How deeply the instructor explores the subject
- Whether important situations and reactions are addressed
- How individual techniques connect together
- Whether the material develops into a usable system
- Whether important details are missing
- How much of the content provides genuinely useful information
- Whether there is unnecessary repetition or filler
We do not judge an instructional simply by its running time or the number of techniques included.
A focused two-hour instructional that teaches one position exceptionally well can be far more useful than eight hours of loosely connected techniques. What matters is the quality, depth, and usefulness of the material.
How Well Does the Instructor Teach?
This is one of the most important parts of our review process.
Being exceptionally good at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu does not automatically make someone an exceptional teacher. Likewise, an instructor does not need to be a multiple-time world champion to be capable of teaching a subject extremely well.
When watching an instructional, we pay close attention to the instructor’s ability to communicate what they know.
We look for things such as:
- Clear explanations
- Important technical details
- Logical progression from one technique or concept to the next
- Good demonstrations
- Explanation of common mistakes
- How the instructor deals with common reactions and counters
- Whether important details are explained rather than assumed
- Whether the instructor explains why something works
- Whether concepts can be applied beyond one specific technique
For us, the best instructionals do more than show a collection of moves. They help the viewer understand the position.
An instructor who can explain why a grip matters, what reaction they expect from an opponent, what happens when that reaction changes, and how several techniques connect together is providing something much more valuable than a simple demonstration of movements.
Teaching Ability Matters More Than Reputation
We consider an instructor’s background, but credentials are not a scoring category and they do not determine whether we recommend an instructional.
A major competition record can demonstrate that an instructor has successfully applied their BJJ at an elite level. A long coaching career can demonstrate extensive experience helping other people develop their skills. Some instructors are also particularly well known for specific positions or systems.
All of this provides useful context.
But when reviewing an instructional, we are primarily interested in how well that knowledge is transferred to the viewer.
An elite competitor may have an incredible understanding of a position but struggle to explain the details that make it work. Another instructor may have fewer major competition accomplishments but be exceptionally good at breaking down complicated positions into concepts that are easy to understand and practice.
That is why we look at credentials and experience as background information rather than treating medals, titles, or reputation as proof that an instructional must be good.
Does the Instructor Really Understand the Subject?
Teaching ability is important, but so is depth of knowledge.
As we work through an instructional, we look at whether the instructor appears to have a deep understanding of the specific subject being taught.
One indication is how well they explain what happens when things do not go according to plan.
Do they explain common defensive reactions? Can they connect one option to another? Do they explain how grips, positioning, weight distribution, timing, and movement affect the technique? Do they provide solutions when an opponent reacts differently?
These details often separate someone who knows how to perform a technique from someone who understands the position well enough to teach it as a system.
How Is the Instructional Structured?
Good information becomes much harder to learn when it is presented without a clear structure.
We therefore look at how the instructional progresses from beginning to end.
Ideally, the viewer should be able to understand how the different sections relate to each other rather than feeling as though they are watching an unrelated collection of techniques.
Depending on the subject, we may look for a progression from fundamental concepts and positions into attacks, reactions, counters, troubleshooting, and more advanced variations.
We also consider whether the organization makes it practical to return to the instructional later and study a specific part of the system again.
Who Is the Instructional For?
An instructional can be excellent and still be completely wrong for a particular grappler.
We therefore try to identify who is most likely to benefit from it.
This may include:
- Beginners
- Intermediate practitioners
- Advanced practitioners
- Competitors
- Recreational practitioners
- Gi practitioners
- No-Gi practitioners
We also consider how much previous knowledge is required.
Some instructionals provide an excellent introduction to a position, while others assume that the viewer already understands the fundamentals and immediately move into advanced details, reactions, and combinations.
Our reviews aim to make that distinction clear so you can decide whether the instructional matches where you currently are in your training.
Can You Apply the Material in Training?
Ultimately, an instructional should give you something you can take back to the mats.
We consider how practical it is to begin experimenting with the techniques, concepts, or systems during regular training.
We particularly value instructionals that give the viewer a clear starting point rather than overwhelming them with dozens of techniques without explaining which ones should form the foundation of the position.
Good instruction should help you understand what you are trying to accomplish, what reactions to expect, and where to go next when your first option does not work.
Not every technique will suit every grappler, but we want to see whether the instructional gives its intended audience a realistic path toward incorporating the material into their own game.
Production Quality
Production quality matters, but we deliberately give the quality of the BJJ instruction more importance than polished presentation.
We may consider:
- Video quality
- Audio quality
- Camera angles
- Visibility of important technical details
- Chapter organization
- Navigation
- Overall presentation
An instructional does not need expensive production to be excellent. If the instructor teaches outstanding material clearly, we are not going to dismiss it because the video does not look like a professional television production.
However, poor audio, bad camera angles, or inadequate organization can make otherwise valuable information unnecessarily difficult to learn.
Price & Overall Value
Price is always considered in relation to what the instructional delivers.
We do not automatically consider a cheaper instructional better value, nor do we assume that an expensive instructional is worth the money simply because it contains many hours of content.
Instead, we consider the usefulness and depth of the material, quality of teaching, amount of meaningful content, production quality, and how much we believe the intended viewer can realistically get from it.
A relatively expensive instructional can represent excellent value if it teaches a system that someone can study and use for years. Conversely, a cheaper instructional can still represent poor value if it contains little useful information.
We may also mention sales and commonly available discounts when they significantly change the value proposition. Because prices and promotions change, readers should always verify the current price before purchasing.
We Look for Weaknesses Too
Our job is not to convince you to buy every instructional we review.
We actively look for both strengths and weaknesses.
An instructional might contain excellent information but move too quickly for beginners. Another might explain the fundamentals exceptionally well but offer little to experienced practitioners. An instructor might have outstanding technical knowledge but repeat the same points too often, or an excellent instructional might simply be difficult to recommend at its regular price.
Pointing out these limitations does not necessarily mean an instructional is bad. Often, identifying them is what helps determine who should buy it and who should skip it.
Why We Don’t Use a Fixed Scoring Formula
We do not believe every BJJ instructional can be fairly evaluated using the same numerical formula.
A two-hour instructional devoted to a specific submission has a completely different purpose from an eight-volume system covering an entire guard. A fundamentals instructional designed for white belts should not be penalized because it lacks advanced techniques, just as an advanced instructional should not necessarily lose points because it is unsuitable for beginners.
A rigid formula based on video length, number of techniques, instructor credentials, production quality, or similar measurements could therefore produce a score that does not reflect how useful the instructional actually is.
Instead, we evaluate each instructional according to what it is trying to accomplish.
Our final assessment comes down to a few fundamental questions:
- What will you learn?
- How well is it taught?
- How deeply does the instructor understand and explain the subject?
- Who will benefit from it?
- Can you realistically apply the material in training?
- Does it provide good value for the price?
Our Editorial Independence
Some BJJ instructionals and products featured on YourBJJGuide.com may be linked through affiliate programs. If you purchase something through one of these links, we may receive a commission at no additional cost to you.
Affiliate relationships do not determine our review conclusions or recommendations.
We may review instructionals regardless of whether an affiliate program is available, and the availability of a commission does not guarantee a positive review or recommendation.
For more information about how the site is funded, please read our Affiliate Disclosure.
Reviews Can Change
Our opinion of an instructional is based on the material available when we review it, but BJJ and the instructional market continue to evolve.
We may update reviews when new information becomes available, prices change significantly, additional material is released, or we believe an older review no longer represents our current assessment.
If you believe we have made a factual error in a review, please contact us and include the URL of the review and the information you believe should be corrected.
Our Goal
There is no single best BJJ instructional for every practitioner.
Your belt level, experience, game, physical attributes, training environment, and goals all influence which material will be useful to you.
That is why our job is not simply to tell you whether we liked an instructional.
We want to show you what is inside it, how well the instructor teaches the material, how much depth they provide, what its strengths and weaknesses are, who we think will benefit from it, and whether we believe it is worth the time and money required to study it.
From there, you can decide whether it deserves a place in your own BJJ study and training.
Learn More About Your BJJ Guide
Last Updated: August 2026