I recently received my copy of Eddie Bravo’s new book, Mastering the Rubber Guard: Jiu-jitsu for Mixed Martial Arts Competition
While I have read the entire book and my initial impressions are positive, I don’t plan on writing a review until I’ve had a chance to try out more of the new material. I want to see how well the moves stand up over time, and I know my feelings about the worth of a book change with time and experience (for the better and worse).
That said, Bravo’s book does have one section I feel I can review at this point: stretching.
Eddie feels that too many jiu-jiteiros complain about their flexibility while few of them actually work to improve it. He thinks stretching should be done to improve one’s range of motion (particularly for rubber guard, which can be demanding) but also to prevent injuries and strengthen the core, lower back and hips, which take abuse from playing guard.
I agree with him on all of these points, though I’m not sure everyone needs to reach the extremes that he has (as you’ll see in the book). I’ve had the same concerns about injury to my hips and back since I was first getting into BJJ, so I’ve have always made a point of focusing my stretches on these areas. Having already put together my own stretching routine for guard, I was interested to see what Eddie does.
I was familiar with several of the more basic stretches, and felt he taught them in good detail. I had even been doing stretches similar to the more innovative ones, but he found his variations to be a nice addition to my normal routine.
Where I feel this chapter offers the most is in the isometric stretches that like come from yoga. These involve moving through ranges of motion or holding positions to warm up the areas. I haven’t learned much yoga so these drew my attention the most.
I have been incorporating these stretches into my training, before and after classes. They are good for getting loosened up to train, but I felt they benefited me most as cool down stretches. I often get lower back and hip pain from BJJ, but it has been bothering me much less when I make sure to end my night (at the end of class and before bed).
Pros
Clear descriptions and photos; sport-specific conditioning; innovative stretches for guard.
Cons
You’ll probably know a few of the stretches already, but that’s to be expected.
Overall
Eddie’s stretches make a great addition to any BJJ training regimen, rubber guard or not.
Rating
[rate 4.5]
I’ll defer to Aesopian to patiently work through the individual moves and comment on the effectiveness/practicality of individual techniques and whether Mastering Rubber Guard, as a whole, offers up an effective, comprehensive “no gi” SYSTEM, as Eddie claims, or is just an interesting subsystem or offshoot of Jean Jacques Machado’s more traditional “gid’d” Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
However, I’d like to take the “kid in a candy store” approach and boldly comment on the presentation of materials in the new book – compared with Eddie’s first book, “Jiu Jitsu Unleashed,” and also with other jiu jitsu books like Royce Gracie’s “Ultimate Fighting Techniques” and David Camarillo’s “Guerilla Jiu Jitsu.”
First, if you’ve seen Eddie’s first book – “Jiu Jitsu Unleashed” or JJU for short – in a bookstore or own it, you should know that this new book – “Mastering Rubber Guard” or MRG for short – is MUCH higher quality, in all respects. The photos are all in color, they are printed on high quality coated stock for clarity, and moves are broken down into more detailed steps with side-bar photos showing critical details from another angle. No more guessing where arms, legs, and feet are. There’s even a master flow chart at the front of the book showing how Rubber Guard, Half Guard, Butterfly Guard, etc. and the applications from each position link together. The way the book lays out is the closest you can get to the flow of a DVD. This is a far cry from the books I mentioned above, Ultimate Fighting Techniques and Guerilla Jiu Jitsu, which are simply not broken down into the same level of instructional detail.
Second, the title of this new book is misleading – the book should probably be called “basic no-gi grappling by Eddie Bravo, based on the Brazilian jiu-jitsu taught by Jean Jacque Machado.” Of course that wouldn’t sell, since “Rubber Guard” is the “hot” (or infamous, if you’re a detractor) term. But the reality is that Eddie includes basic posture (T-rex, which he says even experienced bjj practitioners seem to forget these days), a lot of nifty escapes and transitions(in the back of the book), plus Half Guard and Butterfly Guard in addition to Rubber Guard. Rubber Guard gets the most detailed treatment, but Half Guard is MUCH more complete than in the first book, while Twister and Twister Side Control are both deferred to the next book in the series.
I originally got interested in 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu – I guess the name most applicable to Eddie’s system – when I started reading Bullshido around the same time Aesopian was writing up notes from an Eddie Bravo seminar he had recently attended. So Aesopian can take the credit/blame for my interest. I was probably interested originally for all the wrong reasons – it’s new so it must be good; Aesopian is talking about it; maybe I can use it to catch my classmates by surprise; I think it might work for smaller, weaker people like me – but in fact when I attended a local Bravo seminar I was just very impressed by Eddie Bravo’s clear instruction, clear thinking, and by the cleanness of his techniques. Today I am interested in 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu for different reasons – because my regular academy doesn’t have much no-gi training, and I want more balance in my training; because occasionally using no-gi techniques in regular gi-training reduces the stress on my hands (fewer death grips); and just because its fun to try something different, which helps me to understand both the strengths and limitations of “traditional” teaching and practice. Since that seminar, I have learned the Lockdown, and continue to work on the 10th Planet half guard game – which strikes me as more complete and technical than, say, Stephan Kesting’s Dynamic Half Guard (but also helpful, in its own way). I work on the stretches, and try to get a foot on the hip and work for Mission Control during open mat. Not any further than that, just move into it and out of it. Above all I am learning to focus a lot more on over and under hooks, and less on gi grips, and if I got nothing else from no-gi grappling that would be valuable by itself. (At the same time, fwiw, I love the gi and can’t see ever giving it up…and it appears that while Eddie is “half” gi-less, in MRG he also argues in favor of retaining the gi pants – go figure!)
Listen to this interview and tell me what you think:
http://www.onthemat.com/video_search.php?search=Phil+Migliarese
BJJ & Yoga: Phil Migliarese Interview Many of us got our first glimpse of the intersection of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and yoga seeing Rickson Gracie in certain exercises on the beach in the movie Choke years ago. BJJ blackbelt Phil Migliarese joins us on The FightWorks Podcast to explain how yoga can increase flexibility, your ability to relax while on defense, and even improve some of your attacks.
Also from Grapplearts:
“Many of the top competitors and teachers in Brazilian jiu-jitsu practice some form of yoga to give them an edge over their opponents. Rickson and Royler Gracie, Murilo Bustamante, Vitor Belfort, Fernando “Margarida” Pontes, Ricardo Liborio, Wallid Ismael, and Roger Machado have all included yoga in their training.
Even non-Brazilians have realized that there is something to yoga, especially when it comes to grappling. BJ Penn, UFC prodigy and the first non-Brazilian to win the world championships at the black belt level practises some form of yoga daily”