Not sure what to put on your Christmas wish list?
Does your obsession with choking men leave your family unsure how to shop for you?
My holiday shopping guide will make finding the right gift easy.
Books
This year has seen a marked jump in the quality of BJJ books, both in terms of books themselves, and the depth and detail of instruction.
On the publishing end, the books getting bigger and longer; publishers are allowing the authors show the techniques with more pictures (even from multiple angles); and the glossy paper and full color photos make the reading experience much more enjoyable.
As for the rising quality of instruction, authors are beginning to go deeper games and positions, offering more solutions to counters; details or common mistakes that might have been left out before are getting shown; and the writing has improved, with more time and text spent explaining strategies in depth.
All in all, it’s been a good year for BJJ books.
Mastering the Rubber Guard
by Eddie Bravo, Erich Krauss and Glen Cordoza
With his latest book, Eddie Bravo sets a new standard for BJJ books on several fronts.
First and foremost, it is the most complete breakdown of a black belt’s game that I’ve ever seen. Every one of Eddie’s moves from half, butterfly and rubber guard are shown in explicit detail, with a lot of time spend on explaining the philosophy and strategy behind each part and the system as a whole. He also throws in chapters on stretching for BJJ and his escapes from bad position.
You may have already bought Jiu-jitsu Unleashed
While they shows many of the same moves, you can now see them in full color from multiple angles with in-depth explanations, as well as all of the moves that never made it into the first one. When Mastering the Twister
If you’re at all interested in Eddie Bravo’s system, this is the book to get.
Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu
by Dave Camarillo and Erich Krauss
As a black belt and successful competitor in both arts, Dave Camarillo offers incredible insight into blending judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. If your New Year’s Resolution is like mine and you want to improve your stand-up, this is a must-buy. The groundwork is also just as impressive as you’d expect from a BJJ black belt. The publisher, Victory Belt, is the same that put out Eddie Bravo’s book, and the quality is similarly high.
The Path to the Black Belt
by Rodrigo Gracie and Kid Peligro
Almost everything Kid Peligro puts out is a safe bet. He set the standard for BJJ books, at least in terms of production values, and with Rodrigo Gracie teaching, you can be sure that this is a very solid reference. Rodrigo covers all major positions with fundamental techniques and drills for each.
This is my recommendation for white belts and beginners, since it contains a wide range of fundamental material that is well presented. I was never a huge fan of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: Theory & Technique
The Essential Guard
by Rodrigo Medeiros and Kid Peligro
Kid Peligro’s books tend to be general in nature, covering a wide range of positions and situations, which makes The Essential Guard
The Guard
by Joe Moreira and Ed Beneville
This is another impressive offering by Ed Beneville, the author of my favorite BJJ book of all time, Passing the Guard
Joe Moeira teaches the drills and techniques. His style of guard seems lazy, but in a good way. The sections of this book that actually appealed to me the most were the ones that you might not expect in a book on guard, such as getting head and neck control by going to front headlocks and the crucifix.
Which guard book to get?
Finding yourself trying to pick between the last two books because you don’t want two on the same subject? Each is valuable in its own way, and they do not have any significant overlap of material (aside for a few basics), but I’ll help you decide:
- Get The Essential Guard
- Go with The Guard
If you still can’t decide, flip a coin and you’ll likely be happy either way. Or just get both.
More to Come
I will update this later with my video recommendations.
I hope I’ve helped make your Christmas shopping a little bit easier
Happy Holidays.
I was disappointed by Guerilla Jiu Jitsu…I like “Judo Unleashed” by Neil Ohlenkamp much better.
What disappointed you about Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu, and secondly, how do you even have enough experience to tell if you should be disappointed or not?
Another book I like to add…well more of a book/dvd combo. Is Rigan Machado’s “Triangle” Book/DVD excellent book. If you liked the stretches in Eddie’s book. Rigan goes more indepth with his stretches or there is more of them in his book. Also excellent set ups for the triangle choke from many diffrent postions, as well as how to secure it when the opponent is resiting. Along with the book is the DVD which is excellent. At the end of the DVD Rigan does commentry on diffrent World Jiu-Jitsu matches, of how people set up there triangle chokes. I would highly recommend it. -Jeff
I have Eddie book “Master the rubber guard” Outstanding book, with good systematic break down on what to practice first, and a good method to learn Eddie’s Game. His teaching style is outstanding!
Aesopian asked:
“What disappointed you about Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu, and secondly, how do you even have enough experience to tell if you should be disappointed or not?”
Imagine if Bravo’s books, Jiu Jitsu Unleashed and Mastering Rubber Guard, were principally a manifesto on the need to throw off the gi and introduce wrestling moves into bjj rather than (at least in the case of MRG) being complete tutorials…that’s a little of how Guerilla Jiu Jitsu strikes me – more of a cry to reintroduce standup judo throws into bjj than anything else. Not that this is bad – I totally support Camarillo in that respect. Judo could use more newaza and bjj could use more tachiwaza. But how much does Guerilla Jiu Jitsu actually help us do that? (Bravo’s books DO help us learn his “game”.) In this respect I think Guerilla Jiu Jitsu is “light” compared to Neal Ohlencamp’s Judo Unleashed book which I’ll bet you another $10 contribution to your blog expenses you’ll like better than Guerilla Jiu Jitsu if you take a look at it. The other major point that, imho, Camarillo makes is that the judoka/jiu jitsero (I like your term) should “land in the application” ready to submit or take a superior position but – does that point by itself justify the book? To me Guerilla Jiu Jitsu is like cotton candy, great fun but gone in minutes.
Even on a superficial level, there are very few pictures per page in Guerilla Jiu Jitsu. So the sequence of moves is naturally left much more to your imagination.
In one respect Guerilla Jiu Jitsu is “must have,” albeit for pretty advanced practitioners (purple or above?), and that is for the chapter on Flying Arm Locks. Clearly Camarillo has excelled at this move, which he says has been neglected (too easy to counter?) until he perfected it.
With respect to your query “do I have enough experience to tell if [I] should be disappointed or not” I’d say the answer to that question is obvious – yes and no.
My comment was addressed to the quality of the book, not to the quality of the techniques. I’m very impressed, for example, with the quality of Neil Ohlenkamp’s Judo Unleashed book and with Eddie Bravo’s Mastering Rubber Guard – but an experienced judoka might find fault or argue alternatives on Judo Unleashed, and clearly a lot of people who are more advanced than me feel that Rubber Guard is easy to stack or pass – but basically I think you’ll agree with me that it’s not hard for even a newbie to tell that both Ohlenkamp’s and Eddie’s books are well organized, compelling, and detailed. So no, I don’t have enough experience to say that “this technique is a winner, that’s a loser, this one you have to modify” but for heaven’s sake, I do have enough experience to comment on the quality of the book as an instructional.
OK, here’s my bet/bargain. Setting aside flying armlocks, once you get a chance to read/review Ohlenkamp’s Judo Unleashed, just answer one question for me: which book, Guerilla Jiu Jitsu or Judo Unleashed, would you recommend to a jiu jitsero seeking to add some standup judo moves to their game? If you still think GJJ, I’ll make the donation. If you think Judo Unleashed, then I’d like you to consider defending my interest in, and studying, MRG on my training blog…both from the standpoint of adding to my gi game and from the standpoint of starting to learn how to roll gi-less.
BTW, I had a lot of lockdowns thrown AT me last night by a blue belt, so it looks like even in my “traditional” academy Lockdown is getting assimilated….
I’ll do a head-to-head comparison if you get me a copy.
Aesopian said:
“I’ll do a head-to-head comparison if you get me a copy.”
Didn’t see an option for using my Amazon account to send you a copy, so I am Donating $16 to your account now via PayPal (which works pretty well). That will cover the price of the book plus all or some shipping – or you can find another book to get the total up to $25 and get free shipping.
Will look forward to your review.
The correct term is jiu-jiteiro. It’s the Brazilian term for someone who does BJJ, i.e. someone that wrestles is a wrestler.
I assume all of those are intended for intermediate to advanced students, so are there any books you’d recommend for a beginner? Or are BJJ books in general something to be avoided until later in training? ‘Mastering Jujitsu’ looked interesting, but I’m not sure if thats an introductory text or not – I’d quite like a book that went through the history of BJJ too, which is another reason that one appealed to me.
Mastering Jujitsu
by Renzo Gracie is a great book for beginners. I lost my copy since by lending it to a white belt who never returned. It is more of a MMA fundamentals book, covering stand up, clich and ground, but the emphasis is on grappling.
What I like about it for beginners is that is has a greater emphasis on explaining the theory and strategy of each range and position, using basic techniques to illustrate each. There is less chance of white belts getting technique overload and doing goofy moves out of books.
The section on the history of BJJ (also covering JJJ and judo) is the best I’ve read thus far, and it also has an excellent essay on self defense.
Garbanzo Bean said:
“The correct term is jiu-jiteiro. It’s the Brazilian term for someone who does BJJ, i.e. someone that wrestles is a wrestler.”
Thanks, G.B. I didn’t realize it was an actual Brazilian term…good to know….
You’ve got your head-to-head judo book review here.
I just got Mastering Jiu Jitsu, which you recommended in a comment above, and find it very interesting. It seems to be basically all the stuff our instructor should tell us by way of background, except we are all too busy having a good time rolling. :-)
Have you considered updating the main article in this topic to include a review of MJJ?
I have a question about your personal review on these books:
1) Ultimate Fighting Techniques (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu series) (Paperback)
by Royce Gracie
2) Ultimate Fighting Techniques Volume 2: Fighting from the Bottom (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu series) (Paperback)
by Royce Gracie
3)Gracie Submission Essentials: Grandmaster and Master Secrets of Finishing a Fight (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu series) (Paperback)
by Helio Gracie
4)Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Submission Grappling Techniques (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu series) (Paperback)
by Royler Gracie
Can you let me know your opinions on each or if there are better books than these? or if you have time give a review? thanks in advance