Cross grips and inverted guard sound awesome, how is Ryan as a guard passer? Does he have any special insights on that topic?
Short answer: Ryan is really good at passing the guard, and has some of the heaviest top pressure I've ever felt in my life. I use my experience as an example, not because I feel like I am qualified to measure the ability of a fighter far better than myself, but because I have had the opportunity to train with almost all of the top guys in the sport. More importantly, and what most people seem to like most about his videos, is how well he explains and analogizes the techniques. Again, I am by no objective standard good at jiu-jitsu, but what little I do know, I don't think I would have been able to learn had it not been explained to me in the way it was. Don't expect a string of moves and actions, expect concepts and fundamentals, and extensions of those core lessons.
And to answer your last question, I believe so. He has taught me details, especially regarding levers/hips that no one else has articulated to me personally.
Long answer: Ryan does two things to me when we are training as kind of a "tap on the shoulder" so he doesn't have to pause training to let me know something. One, is slowly simulating punches, and usually happens when I stop in a position where I would be particularly vulnerable, and it means I need to keep moving- escape or tilt him to a position where he isn't able to pin and strike me. The other is where he gets a disinterested look on his face and basically stops fighting, which indicates that I'm using a bunch of superfluous moves that are not threatening him enough to require a reaction. For example: If I am trying to sweep him and he isn't off balance, he might just sit and look at me, which lets me know there is something fundamentally wrong with what I am doing if he is able to just sit there and ignore it. Many, many times, he has just walked through my guard as if he were Daenyrs Targaryen strolling through a wall of flame. And I don't mean walk in a figurative sense; I am not referencing the ease in which he passes. He literally just walks in a straight line if I'm doing something wrong. I'm not stupid, and I don't suck to the degree in which that should be able to happen. I am fully capable of knocking people over, or at the least, off-balancing them. I am nowhere near good, but the fact that he is able to do that, and do it to people far better than myself is indicative of some serious knowledge of playing the top.
