Submission Grappling on your iPhone / iPod

[chingythingy]

Stephen Kesting continues to deliver with DA BOMB iPhone app:

http://grapplearts.com/iphone/

- All no gi techniques
- 31 submission entries
- 10 subs with high level detail
- 47 minutes of HD technique

0.99 until March 27, 2009

- this is kind of an ad link, but because of who it is and how much of a unique helpful app it is, I say keep it here.

[Deadmeat]

Yeah I got it on my iphone. It's ok. I'm hoping that since I own it, I'll get free updates periodically, or that Stephan takes some suggestions for additional content.

It's a great idea, and I hope they continue to develop it.

[Diesel_tke]

So why do you say it is "OK" give a brief review of it. I was thinking about getting it, but I couldn't find many reviews that weren't propaganda.

[Deadmeat]

Ok will do mate.

A little later in the day (i.e. lunch break at work), I'll try to outline it in a bit more detail.

[Deadmeat]

Ok as promised here is a more descriptive outline of the "Step-by-Step Submission" Application for the iPhone.

I loaded the app up, eager to see what exactly is going greet me. My expectations are fairly high, as Stephan's emails are generally informative, and applicable. I was greeted by a fairly typical disclaimer that says "Tap Early, Tap Often, tap Always", followed by a brief statement that you should be responsible for the safety of your training partner and vice versa, and the usual warnings about the techniques being potentially dangerous and an admonition that you are practicing them at your own risk.

Eager to get on with the good stuff, I scrolled to the bottom of the page and tapped the "I have read the and accept the terms and conditions" button.

Next comes the application's main menu. A banner at the top, a list of positions, and four links at the bottom.


(I'll address the Key points thing in a minute)

tapping on a specific position brings up a brief but fairly comprehensive list of submissions from there:

Closed Guard:
Methodical Armbar
Swinging Armbar
Triangle Choke
Kimura Armlock
Guillotine Choke
Omo Plata Armlock
Ankle Lock (from top)

Open Guard:
Triangle Choke
Armbar
Ankle Lock (from top)
Ankle Lock (from bottom)
Kneebar (from top)
kneebar (from bottom)

Half Guard:
Kimura (from top)
Kimuray (from Bottom)
Kneebar (from top)
Kneebar (from bottom)
Ankle lock (from top)

Side Mount:
Americana / V-armlock
Kimura / Chickenwing
Armbar

Knee Mount:
Kimura / Chicken Wing
Spin Armbar

Full Mount:
Floating Armbar
S-Mount Armbar
Americana

Rear Mount:
rear naked Choke
Armbar

Turtle:
Straight Armbar vs Turtle
Armbar Using Legs vs Turtle
Rolling Kneebar from turtle

You click on one of the submissions at random, and Stephan explains the technique, demonstrates how to set up and apply it, utilising a couple of different camera angles in the process. At the end of the short clip, you are greeted by this menu:



You tap "keys to this Submission" and another brief video launches explaining the finer details of that submission - in this case a further explanation of the mechanics of the armbar. This same clip will come up if you select "Keys to this submission" from any other armbar tutorial in the application, regardless of the position. You can also access a list of all the submissions regardless of position by selecting key points from the bottom of the main menu.

The Free Book link on the main menu takes you to a page where you can sign up for the beginning bjj ebook, which most people considering buying this app already have anyway, and the "about bjj link provides a brief explanation of submission, BJJ, and a bio of Stephan Kesting.

All in all, the quality of instruction is good, and it's all no-gi which suits my preference, but the techniques are all quite basic. For a relatively early white belt, it could be a goldmine but for the majority of users with more than novice levels of grappling experience, you may luck out and see a slight variation of a technique you already do.

My hope is that as time goes on, updates will add an emphasis on positional strategy, sweeps and passes, and a wider range of submissions, in which case the program will be well worth it. I purchased it at $0.99c assuming that this would be the case - i.e. that it would be of pretty minimal benefit for now, but over time new content would increase it's worth, so I figured best to purchase it for the cheap introductory price.

Another benefit that I did get from it was that it helped me refine my approach to providing instruction to others. At my academy, I take a thursday night grappling session, where I help some of the lower level students work on their basic techniques, and help them start developing their games a bit. Seeing Stephan's approach to instructing gave me some little ideas about how I could modify my own approach a little to make the information I'm trying to get across a little more accessible to the guys I'm working with.

All in all, it's easily worth $1, but you won't find anything revolutionary on there. I'd give it 4 stars out of 5.