Jiu-Jitsu University

Really easy to follow with colour pictures showing a step by step break down of particular techniques photographed from two different angles. It illustrates some really useful tips & also highlights common mistakes & what you should not do when you find yourself in certain situations. The book is neatly separated into different sections starting with white belt through to black belt - each section of the book is dedicated to each particular coloured belt. The chapters explain what is expected of each belt & the progress & milestones that you generally should be aiming towards within an approximate timeframe. As a relatively new white belt practitioner, I find this book a really useful tool to reinforce what my Instructor has taught me on the mat. It is a great complement to what I learn in class. I can highly recommend this book.

I'm on a beginner on Brazilian Ju-Jitsu, but a dan grade on traditional Ju-Jitsu. Great book. Highly detailed. Very accurate and includes plenty of helpful tips. Great detailed photos, clear and big, clearly illustrating the text. As for the text, seems its my intructor talking at some points! Get something out of the way: the only one issue i've found: from the closed book you can see where white/blue/brown/black belt areas are, which is great. However, the purple belt area is within the blue (seems it was an editorial mistake), still, its blue and then purple chapters :) and as each page has the chapter indication on the top corner, its easy to see the given area. The books seems to aim at helping you learn the lessons at the various levels, in fact it brings you down to 'learn the misson lessons for each belt and let time do the rest'. It won't have all the techniques under the sun, it does a good job of what it wants to transmit and certainly has enough to keep you interested and busy I think. Very pleased indeed. If all authors/publisers wouldbring material of this quality!!... Certainly, one of the best books I've ever bought.

I have been practicing JJ intensively for 4 years (blue belt), and own several other books mainly from Royce / Renzo / Royler Gracie (all very good) and a few JJ dvds. What I can say is that this book is very very well put together. The system / structure in terms of main focus of each belt is different but it does makes sense and meets my own demands to improve and evolve in certain areas and techniques. I can say that I think that if you follow this book closely and train hard following this system and approach you can't go wrong. You'll have a proper JJ base. This is exactly what I was looking for, no point in learning very advanced techniques as whit/blue belt, what you need is to have a solid base and work from there, and this is exactly the philosophy behind this book and Saulo's teaching methods. Having said that, this book does contain advanced techniques, but for upper belts. The main focus however is for you to prioritize your learning, and focus on the most important areas according to each belt and your experience along your JJ journey. Brilliant book and Saulo is a brilliant insructor. The only fault I have is that I can't go back in time and start training JJ with Saulo 4 or 5 years ago and build a solid base. Great buy, recommend it for every one from novice to black belt.

The book describes the techniques clearly however, I whish they made it clear it's about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and not classic Jiu-Jitsu. I was looking for the later so 4 stars only because it's not what I was required.

Don't be fooled by the drab cover. Inside it's packed with full colour, clear photos that very adequately describe the moves, often using two camera angles. Having the opponents in different coloured gi's helps too. It's slightly oddly organised with the belt system since you couldn't really stick to just the white-belt content as a white belt. But that doesn't matter at all and the author points out that it's not a linear course in that respect. What you get is Saulo's battle-proven insights into the positions and moves that make up good BJJ. It's packed with subtleties that prove to be very important and powerful. Just the slight change in weight, a little hip movement, an elbow tucked in and so on make the difference between survival and being submitted. This is where a book falls down of course because it's hard to remember this stuff between reading it and trying it. That is true for all such books. Overall - it's a must buy for BJJ fans at any level.

Book arrived today. I'm not new to grappling, but it's certainly not my strong suit having spent most of my time training in striking arts. I've recently gotten heavily into Bjj to polish up those holes in my game and been thoroughly enjoying it. I bought this book to learn some new techniques for at the gym, but within 20 minutes of reading I feel I need to put it down. Not because it's bad, but because each lesson, over every page or 2 deserves to be processed properly. It makes sense. It's legitimate. It cements the good pieces I already knew, and gives me many many more tools and tiny tidbits to strengthen my game. I honestly don't want to read much more, and read the whole thing front to back simultaneously. I feel I need to get back to the gym now and practice the basics again. Don't think just buy it

Brilliant book . Illustrations don’t disappoint. Easy step by step instructions. Can’t wait to start my studies.

Perfect book to take your Jiu Jitsu to the next level, understanding the fine details.

Viele Bilder, Schritt für Schritt erklärt und auch inkl. der Fehler die man machen kann und inkl. der bebilderten Auswirkungen. Um nach dem Training dem Gehirn nochmal klar zu machen was es beim nächsten Mal tun soll ist es super. Achtung: komplett in englischer Sprache.

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.

Beginner in BJJ?? Regular studying of this book WILL help you get your strips sooner. This book talks a lot about mindframe and the BJJ learning journey as well as being heavy on technique break downs and sequences. Every sequences has a write up. I've read the first 1/4 of this book 4 times. Learned something new everytime, especially while acquiring more experience in class. There are critical lessons layed out in a specific order. The pictures and descriptions offer a lot of insight. This is not an all-encompassing technique book. If an all encompassing technique book existed, it would basically be an encyclopedia set. This majority of this book covers A LOT of positions, defenses, escapes and attacks. It is meant to be learned in a specific order and a specific mind frame. For begginer, novice, intermediate, if you are looking to improve faster and learn outside of class, it would be STUPID to NOT have this book. I am not an expert, nor am I intermediate at BJJ so I can't speak for higher level practitioners. 6 stars.

Packed with information for the new practitioner or to tighten your technique if you’ve been around for a while.

Lástima que no esté traducido al español, pero si te manejas con el inglés, un pedazo de libro muy educativo que cubre gran parte de los aspectos del aprendizaje del Jiu Jitsu con muchas fotos acompañadas de los elementos clave necesarios para pulir las distintas técnicas, y todo ello bien organizado por objetivos y cinturones.