Penny Thomas is a name that any BJJ enthusiast should know. She has only won every possible major title including the Mundials, ADCC and No-Gi Worlds. She is a black belt under Rickson’s student, Luis Heredia, and she has a great South African accent, which always makes listening to her that much better. So here we have her first app where she goes over the most important parts of the spider guard, that is apparently one of her favorite positions.

The greatest thing about the app is that Penny goes over all the different situations you can run into when using a spider guard. This ranges from entry to sweeps to submissions. By the time you are done with the app, there won’t be a situation in spider that you won’t be ready for. However, keep in mind that obviously these are not all the techniques available from this position, the possibilities are always endless, but you will have a solid spider guard if you really drill all of these techniques. The app sections are the following:

- Introduction
- Variations and Drills
- Drill 2
- Entry: Jump Guard
- Entry: Closed Guard 1
- Entry: Closed Guard 2
- Entry: Closed Guard 3
- Hip Block Sweep
- Scissor Sweep
- Star Sweep
- Standing Hip Block
- Spinning Back Take
- Ballerina Sweep
- Armbar
- Triangle
- Inverted Triangle
- Omoplata
- Omoplata Sweep
- Kneebar

That’s 18 very useful movements and techniques included in the app - an amazing deal for the $9.99 you pay in the app store. This is probably one of the higher value apps out there.

The first sections focus more on strategy and how to properly use the movements within the spider guard. This is important and I am always glad to see that teachers go through these explanations in their instructionals to place the techniques into context for the viewer.

My favorite technique of the bunch is the very basic, but always so useful, scissor sweep.  It’s simple and high percentage as long as you pay attention to the timing. The techniques do become fancier as you progress down the list, but with proper and ample drilling they can be mastered, just like anything else.

The app itself is great – it’s simple to use and clean in design. There is a repetitive stinger at the beginning of each video that is unnecessary but otherwise it’s a lot of fun to learn from Penny.

The other thing to keep in mind is that these techniques are limited by Penny’s own style, so the more advanced belts would want to seek several different styles and views on the spider guard. However for the intermediate belts or people who are not as familiar with the spider guard, this app is a real winner. It will help give you an overarching base of the spider guard.