IGX

I give it a 10/10, but it is designed for the sports competitor who uses a Gi.

An extremely comprehensive, 368 page book that breaks the game into 5 levels.

White Belt -- survival. He shows what to do to keep from getting submitted, where to put your hands, how to turn your body, etc.

Blue Belt -- escapes. Builds upon the info from the white belt section, using the same fundamentals but then adding the steps necessary to escape.

Purple Belt -- guard. How to retain guard, subs.

Brown Belt -- passing the guard.

Black Belt -- submissions.

The breadth of information contained in here is quite large. Many, many details and a variety of moves that deal with a lot of stuff that you would encounter in a Jiu-Jitsu match, more than any book I've seen. It's produced by Victory Belt, which is one of my few gripes, because I feel their presentation is kind of "bleh". Lots of pictures, but just a bit of a dull look to it.

Other than that, it's definitely for sports Jiu-Jitsu. Some of the stuff looks like it would be bad news for the street or MMA, but the book is written by one of the most successful BJJ competitors out there, so if you want it for that purpose it's gold.

Up until this point I've always recommended Rodrigo Gracie's excellent "The Path to the Black Belt" as the best BJJ book out there, but I would have to put Saulo's new book in the top spot.

http://www.amazon.com/Jiu-Jitsu-Univers ... roduct_top

It's very good, I gave it a look over before it was entombed in Christmas wrap.

Fack...more goodies to spend my money on.

Thanks for the review.

Very excited about this. Mine's in the mail. I'm hearing there's little overlap with his DVD sets but I don't see how that's possible if the book is so comprehensive. Can anyone offer an opinion on the book vs. the DVDs? Same material or different?

Bought mine last Sunday at Barnes & Noble. I also think it's the best one out there with Rodrigo's books a close second (Path to Black Belt, and Guide to Gracie Jiujutsu).

Love the layout and presentation. Really like the progression he takes...starting with survival, then escaping, etc. The verbiage is also very concise...no long-winded introduction...text is only there to hammer home his central philosophies and concepts.

Just got mine too. Even if you never learn anything from it, you could just hit an assailant with it. This book is heavy! Agreed that it is no-nonsense. The intro is short and there's a ton of meat in it. The layout is nice, although i think Passing the Guard by Beneville and Cartmell is still better. It's the one-stop resource for BJJ that everyone said it is so I'm very happy with it.

Sounds awesome except I find JJ books that demonstrate techniques through pictures very hard to see, especially gi stuff. I like video much better from demostration of techniques. How much of this book is text and how much is techniques?

Herv100 wrote:Sounds awesome except I find JJ books that demonstrate techniques through pictures very hard to see, especially gi stuff. I like video much better from demostration of techniques. How much of this book is text and how much is techniques?

It's very picture based IMO, but still not at the level of Passing the Guard, etc.

See these samples:
http://www.grapplingarts.net/strategic% ... mples.html

Passing the Guard IMO is even better than video. They used a high speed camera to capture the move and show it frame by frame so you can follow it. With the excellent text, it combines the best of books and video into one package.

Saulo's book is very good illustration-wise but not quite up to Psssing IMO. But then Saulo's book seems to cover nearly everything. And that's a big plus.

Jiujitsu is conceptual. Individual techniques are a matter of preference.

.....

Fat Cat wrote:Jiujitsu is conceptual. Individual techniques are a matter of preference.

Exactly. That's why I was wondering if this book is more conceptual with lots of text, or more of an index of step by step technique demo pictures, like say Marcello Garcia's book.