Jiu-Jitsu University Paperback – November 17, 2008

As someone who's rolled BJJ for a few years and recently returned after a four-year break, I was looking for a resource to guide me as I got back on the mats. This book delivered.Honestly, I wish I had read it when I first started training. The first 10 pages alone are worth the price of the book—they're packed with valuable insights that apply to practitioners of all belt levels. The rest of the book serves as an excellent reference, but it's those opening chapters that really stand out.If you're serious about your progression, don’t just read this—study it. Highlight key points, take notes in the margins, and revisit it often. This isn’t just a casual read, it’s a tool that can elevate your training mindset.

The same day I opened this book I got my first stripe!

It's a great book, exactly as described. Has many pictures for learning purposes, so it's a big book.

If this is not the best book on Jiu-Jitsu then I want to buy whatever is better.Everyone has pretty much given the run-down on this superb book so I will just touch on a few points that are of particular importance to me:The breakdown by CHAPTER==BELT COLOR==GOAL, e.g., white=survival, blue=escape, is ESPECIALLY useful for those just starting jiu-jitsu or those teaching.The white belt "survival postures" and the blue belt escapes from those postures are worth the cost of the book alone. Saulo Ribeiro has managed to keep the survival postures to a minimum (even for side mount where there are numerous top pinning styles and arm positions) and they all seem to work off the same principals and even a similar pattern.Frequently, Ribeiro shows a better (according to him and his also multi-time world champion brother Xande [shandee]) way to do common techniques, and also shows the common mistakes including what is wrong with the usually given methods for that same technique.This book immediately made me almost happy to have my back taken (by a similarly experienced and sized opponent) since the very simple defenses and escapes to those positions worked on the first try even though I messed up some of the details. (Really! -- my training partner is a bit stronger, heavier, younger than I am and he has quite a bit of judo training, but he can no longer hold me FROM THE BACK.)Although the book stands alone, it is especially useful if you have any of Saulo Ribeiro's Jiu-Jitsu Revolution 1 or 2, or Freestyle Revolution DVD sets. Although you don't "need" one to benefit from the other, the text gives the few CRITICAL points which is good for memorizing the techniques, while the videos show the moving details in case you are having trouble or something doesn't make sense.Although the DVDs and book overlap, their is no sense of wasting time or money when using both.(BTW, he in no sense means that you must wait to become a purple belt to learn the guard, but rather that the FOCUS is on a particular goal or position for each belt level. In the case of a purple belt, he is saying this is where you focus on MASTERING the guard.)Is there anything wrong with it? No index, but the contents is so good this is not a deficiency and the book runs the content RIGHT to the last page wasting no space. Crappy font for cover title but how picky can I get? A VERY FEW mistakes in left-right or picture correspondence -- or maybe clarity and I misunderstood, but that isn't very detracting, although I would offer to edit the 2nd edition if they ever re-publish it.)The techniques WORKS right out of the box (i.e., book) and if you practice it then it is even more valuable.Much of it is SPECIFICS on HOW to grapple using the techniques as examples rather than as the only answers -- he is teaching grappling using techniques, not JUST a bunch of (useful) techniques. Saulo is teaching us to fish (do jiu-jitsu) WHILE he feeds us some very fine fish (techniques).If you are a low rank jiu-jitsu play you MUST buy this book if you buy anything.If you are teaching jiu-jitsu, you owe it to yourself and your students to have and understand this book.I am reasonably sure that anyone in between (i.e., teacher and low level) will find this book superb, and probably the best, as well.

I was recommended this book by my instructor, he read it many times and loved how it is broken down by belt color. It can be overwhelming initially if you go through to fast, and I think its good to take a few pages at a time and let it sink in. It clearly is a book that will be a superb reference on your journey and I imagine it'll be fun to look back in a few years at things in this book that seemed so confusing at the beginning but one day are clear to understand and perform. A truly awesome book. Highly recommended.

I've only been training BJJ for six weeks, so take this review for what it's worth. As a new student, the sheer amount of information that you're being given can be very overwhelming. There are two very important tools that I've found to be very valuable. A BJJ training journal (I purchased the Bighorn Athletics one, sold here on Amazon) and this very book.One thin to keep in mind is that this is a reference book and must be treated as such. In other words, you don't read this book from front to back. You look up specific information as you would with a dictionary or a thesaurus.The way I use this book is that when I log entries into my journal, I make sure to look up the recently trained technique in this book, and I reference the page number in the entry that I make.Here's why the Jiu-jitsu University only gets four stars: there are several techniques I've learned that are not in this book, so I've had to reference YouTube videos in the entries (for example, the arm triangle aka "head & arm choke"). There are also techniques I've learned that are in the book, but go by a different name from the one I was taught in the gym. This book was written in 2008, so it could be overdue for an updated or revised edition. Also, it would help if each technique in the book listed the other names that they're known by.Other than that, though, this book is definitely must-have for new BJJ students.

Nice and details are easy read and easily understandable