Saulo RibeiroJiu-Jitsu University

I have been a wrestling coach for 25 years and started Jiu Jitsu with my son 6 months ago at the local Martial Arts School after the wrestling season ended. We train 6 days a week for 2-3 hours. I have several BJJ books and DVDs but this has become my go to reference book. I decided to write my first book review today when I bought a second copy of it to give to a frend - because I was unwilling to lend him my copy.The book is laid out by belts with White Belt learning survival on the bottom from back, mount, side control, etc. Blue belt learns escapes, Purple belt the guard, Brown belt the mount, and Black belt learns submissions. The layout makes it easy to find techniques in the book, even if your school does not follow a similar format.There are about 200 techniques covered in the book with most of the major techniques covered (though as you know, there are multiple different names for different moves and you still might need to figure out what your school calls a particular move). The photographs are well done with Saulo Ruberio in a blue Gi and his partner in a White Gi which makes the pictures easier to understand. The explanations are very thorough and well done(well edited by Kevin Howell)with only a few places difficult to understand.There are also drills for the techniques, combinations and set ups for many moves.Saulo also gives just enough anecdotes to make it personal without distracting from the purpose and flow of the book.This book has given me a strategy for learning, training and rolling with an emphasis on proper technique(rather than accumulation of a large number of moves).Highly recommended for beginners.Update: I have been training Jiujitsu now for 2 years (blue belt 1 stripe) and this is still my go to reference book. Good solid basics for Gi and no-Gi. I have not seen the survival techniques for white belts taught elsewhere and this strategy helped me more than anything to survive against bigger, stronger, younger and more experienced Jiu jitsu players. This book if studied and learned will give a good solid foundation for any school you train with. The only major hole I see is that no take downs are taught. This book also focuses on competition Jiu jitsu - not self defense or MMA. I read from it nearly daily to help refine my techniques. Best Jiujitsu book I have found yet for beginners.

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.