new renzo/royler gracie book

[drixx2]

i just bought the new gracie book. It rocks! Glossy pages and well done COLOR pictures with great descriptions. It was a little pricey ($30), but it gives all (i think) of the moves up to black belt. Each chapter is divided by belt level.

Oh and the first 25 pages are a description of the history and philosophy of GJJ. I found these 25 pages to be soooooo interesting.

Also, the book emphasizes on using the techiques 'as a whole' in a flowing manner (which i think is one of the most important things in a grappling match)

i read the book cover to cover and tommorrow i'm going to get my training partner to go over the moves we don't know.

[Karlinhos]

got mine for $24. barnes & noble.

yeah, it looks great and a nice size.

if you're an advanced blue (2-4 stripes), you'll probably know about 85-90% of the moves. but it's still a cool book to have, just because it's royler and renzo. kid peligro also took the pics.

it apparently was sheik tahoons (sp?) idea and i think he may have fronted the money for it.

my only complaint is that the binding is not the best quality. i can already see the serious potential for it to start coming apart.

[drixx2]

yea, i can see how that binding is going to be worn out after a couple of months of taking it with me to the mats.
I have no formal GJJ training...the school i'm at is really a GRAPPLE program at my college. After the class the instructor (a brown belt under Rickson) teaches for about 2hrs 'normal' Gjj. We don't wear gi's and we don't do a lot of cardo (besides sparring)

what i like about the instructor is he loooooves to roll. He will teach us 30min of techiques and then the rest of the time we are sparring.

Oh, but the book....i like it a lot and for all the moves, it's a good deal. (if all those moves were on a video set it would probally be $300)

I liked the sweeps from the guard the most....sweeps are on thing i really need to work on.

[MrPoopy]

After reading this post, i immediately called both Barnes & Noble stores where I live... they both said they had it but neither actually had it in stock.
My wife bought me a 25$ gift certificate for that store!!!

Screw you Barnes & Noble!

[drixx2]

i had to order my from B&N, it took 5 days.
It's worth it though....

[Bri Thai]

I have the book. It's good, as books go, but I would say that I was a little disappointed.

For a start surely its elementary that Renzo and Royler could have worn different colour Gi's, as it can be hard to see the detail amidst a sea of white clad limbs. The same tecnique is shown twice, and only one takedown is described.

I do like the way it is written, and the history and philosophy of GJJ was fascinating.

I think you have to be a certain standard to understand it, though. Why would a book tell you how to tie your belt, but them outline various ways to get out of the Mount or the Guard etc. without actually telling you how to implement those moves in the first place? A beginner would be lost.

No disrespect to the Gracies though. All Martial Artists owe them a great debt. They have made martial artists people who can actually fight which, before they came onto the world stage, was quite rare.

[MrPoopy]

I ordered the book. I'll get it in 7 days unless the guy at B&N was lying.

I read a review on this book and they mentioned something about a guard passing technique that is useless. Did anyone that owns the book notice a bogus looking guard pass?? The reviewer said that if anyong tried that guard pass against an advanced person or even a knowledgeable beginner, they would end up in a triangle.

And I have a question about guard passing. Is it true that brown belts always use standing guard passing techniques?

[MrPoopy]

Has anyone bought Gene Simco's BJJ - The Master Text?

If so, care to share your opinions on it?

[drixx2]

Originally posted by MrPoopy
I read a review on this book and they mentioned something about a guard passing technique that is useless. Did anyone that owns the book notice a bogus looking guard pass?? The reviewer said that if anyong tried that guard pass against an advanced person or even a knowledgeable beginner, they would end up in a triangle.

i don't know about this....they give the 'basic' way to pass the guard (ie one leg up, elbow on the ground, fish the other hand, sit back, then stack). This way COULD get you in a triangle if you didn't control the elbow with the arm...but they even point out this detail.
THe other guard pass is the stand-up, knee in the back, elbow escape....i use this one much more than the above mentioned one because for some weird reason....i'm a natural at it
(i've had my instructor once say "ok, ok, you can pass my guard if you are going to do THAT)
i don't know if brown belts prefer this, but i know that guard passes while standing are usually IMHO easier as long as you don't get swept (it's a trade off, easier..but more dangerous)

i don't think this guy knows what he's talking about, unless he's seen something i havent' (i've only had the book for a couple of days)

[drixx2]

Originally posted by Bri Thai
For a start surely its elementary that Renzo and Royler could have worn different colour Gi's, as it can be hard to see the detail amidst a sea of white clad limbs.

Yea, i see your point, but if you notice...one is wearing a gi with a gracie logo on it's back and the other isn't (a little detail if nothing else). But i found the quality of the pictures to be soooooo good that the fact that they are wearing the same color gi doesn't matter that much.

Originally posted by Bri Thai
think you have to be a certain standard to understand it, though. Why would a book tell you how to tie your belt, but them outline various ways to get out of the Mount or the Guard etc. without actually telling you how to implement those moves in the first place? A beginner would be lost.

yes, this i agree with totally. It's a book that for someone who has a good idea of the mount, guard, side-mount, ect. already. The only explaination of the mount is in the 'theory' section (which has no pics or anything)
but i thkn this is a minor detail and a beginner could pick these things up just by working with the escapes


i don't think the book is perfect by any means.....i would've liked some 'non-gi' moves...and some talk about strikes while in the guard (they say it's easy to defend against without explaining why or how)
but for $30, it's a steal (at least it's a steal compared to all the other gracie videos)
if you would take all the moves and put them in a video series, it would be $300

[Bri Thai]

I agree Jason. It certainly has much in it that raises my game. If they tried to do the definative GJJ book it would be too thick to get through the door, so they had to be selective.

I have a copy of some of the Gracie videos featuring Royce and Rorion. The problem is they are like copies of copies, so the quality of the pictures is appalling. But the technical detail shown in video is much more useful than anything in a book. If Martial Artists ever start asking reasonable prices for their instructional videos they'd probably sel alot more and make lots more money.

[MrPoopy]

Bri mentioned that the technical detail in videos is more useful than books.

While it's much easier to understand a technique viewed on a video, it's much easier to select techniques from a book. They should make DVD's instead of videos and make it so you could select techniques instead of having to watch techniques you already know to get to the ones you don't know.

[JIU-JITSU.NET]

Mr Poopy,


Black Belt Magazine – June 2002
“From a technical perspective, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, The Master Text, by Gene “Aranha” Simco, is the best book about the popular grappling art I’ve seen to date. The techniques the author chose to include are very functional and apply to numerous forms of grappling, including no holds barred fighting (vale tudo), sport jiu-jitsu and submission grappling. It has more than 320 pages of interviews, history and questions – and – answers. In addition, Simco provides easy to follow photographs and detailed descriptions of each techniques.”
- Lito Angeles

[MrPoopy]

I just got the book last night. It's a pretty cool book but I know a lot of the moves in it already.

I liked the theory section of the book very much. I was wondering what exactly was needed for a white belt to become a blue belt.

This book shows about 100 decent techniques in 200 or so pages. Anyone care to guess how many techniques and pages would be required to make a book that shows all the techniques of BJJ?

[Mr. Miyagi]

Royler Gracie passes the guard like this all the time against people that certainly know to apply the triangle and they never seem to get him....so I guess you just have to do it right.