Mastering Jujitsu

This is a book I couldn't put down. It is nice to come across a good martial arts book that one can actually READ, rather than just look at pictures and techniques. This book contains history which details the evolution of Judo and its descendant Jiu-jitsu in Brazil and beyond; it has strategy; it has techniques, self-defence concepts, and many other things. It is written by a Ph.D in philosophy, so its style is excellent. As a classicist, I enjoyed reading the quote from Herodotus at the start of the book, and the reference to the ancient Greek Pankration. Now, to be fair, I should relate some things to consider: 1. It is written by ground fighting specialists who have taken their preference for ground fighting into MMA and have had a great deal of success there. Others have taken their specialties in striking into MMA and have had a high degree of success also, as the book clearly points out. Thus, while this book attempts to be balanced in regards to the 'phases of combat' concepts that it presents, its area of specialty is in the ground phase: the sections covering the clinch and striking are good, but clearly not as sophisticated as might be ideal. 2. The statement that wrestlers have achieved their stunning successes in MMA primarily through being 'bigger and stronger' than their adversaries is an unfair comment to make. Wrestlers rather use their skills to stay on top of their adversaries from where they can beat them into submission. The kind of positional skills wrestlers exhibit are proving to be more and more important in MMA as their continued victories clearly point out. Since Jiu-jitsu itself promotes pinning, even if less so than wrestling, it seems quite illogical for the authors to discount the strategy wrestlers take with them into MMA. One weakness of Jiu-jitsu is that its rules over-emphasize the submission at the expense of the pin, encouraging one to sacrifice one's dominant position for an attempt at a submission that can be disastrous if the intended victim weasels out of it and even worse if he then ends up on top. Judo has at all times, even when the Fusen-ryu practitioners joined the Kodokan, counted pins as victories. Indeed, there is no evidence at all that the Fusen-ryu folks ONLY fought for submissions. Just as they brought their intricate ground chokes and joint locks, so too did they bring their expertise in pinning (osaekomi). Modern MMA is bearing out the combat validity of this form of training more and more. It is in many cases simply much safer to pin and strike than to sacrifice one's position for an attempted submission. In Judo, of which the Kosen style is most famous for its ground work, pinning and submitting go hand in hand as equally valid combat techniques. To be sure, pinning in an MMA situation in order to strike is not the same as pinning someone in a mere grappling match, but so too is submitting someone in MMA quite different than submitting someone in a grappling competition,

No, that's not a quote from Gichin Funakoshi or Moriei Uyeshiba.That's from Ian Fleming's "From Russia with Love."The Gracies agree. The bad news is that we're told that 'There is no Santa Claus' against multiple opponents, so wannabe James Bonds are out of luck.The good news is that when Royce Gracie entered the 'Ultimate Fighting Championship' he was able to do what most martial arts promised but could not deliver; consistently defeat much larger men.At 170 lbs soaking wet, Royce kept winning against Sumo, Greco-Roman wrestlers, Boxers and Karateka-- as did the rest of his family. Fleming would have approved of their methodology. The Gracies had tons of eperience, Brazilian law did not forbid no-holds barred challenges.A bit of a throwback to the 19th century catch wrestling matches, if not quite The Wild West . . .This book covers the beginning of the Gracie clan's ascencion to prominence. The authors make the point that martial arts which teach 'deadly moves' e.g; eye-gouging, shuto throat strikes and such are weaker than those which practise safe techniques--an easily explained paradox in their view, since the 'deadly' ones (Karate and Ryu-style Ju-Jitsu) have to remain theoretical--not too many students being willing to get their throats crushed in practise; whereas boxing and Judo spend most of their time in sparring safely against a training partner-that is not being cooperative. Thus they have nothing but the highest praise for Jigoro Kano, founder of Judo. Indeed their 'lineage'is traced back to him via Mitsuyo Maeda,(1871-1941) a Judoka who saw Judo lose to the Fusen-Ryu school of Jujitsu. This was the first time Kodokan Judo had EVER lost against the 'theoretical' schoolsFusen Ryu employed ground grappling. Kano added this to Judo and Fusen Ryu was 'incorporated' into Japan's official national sport--but not before Yukio Tani, a Fusen-Ryu stylist traveled to England around 1900 and defeated all comers, sometimes fighting as many as 50 a week. He only weighed 125 lbs.In any case Maeda moved to Brazil followed Yukio's example and quickly adapting to foreigners who wrestled without a gi, boxed, etc.He then met and befriended Carlos Gracie, and the rest, as they say is history. . .---------------------------------------This book shows some of the most basic (read effective) holds, takedowns and submissions in BJJ.It also treads on some toes by stating that the cherished concept in JKD about 'ranges of combat' (kicking, boxing, trapping and grappling) has proven to be false. A flying knee can be long range and a grappler who has his mind set on a clinch and takedown from 15 feet away, will indeed, take you down.A possible weakness is the dogma that 'all fights end up on the ground' which the authors sometimes amend to 'most fights between usnkilled opponents' etc. The reality is that BJJ confesses to having no defense against two or more opponents save running or looking around for 'improvised weapons'-- See chapter 10, JuJitsu for sel

If you want to learn Ju-Jitsu, it's best to take classes, and practice with real partners. But as for learning specific moves and combinations, as well as the theory behind the moves, this is the best book around. It also covers the history of Brazilian ju jitsu, and the Gracie family's envolvement in martial arts. Renzo is one of the best mixed martial arts fighters around, and he did a great job making this book. Also, it's a great buy at only 14 bucks. Get it now, you won't be disapointed.

I LOVE THIS BOOK! This is one of the most comprehensive works on the principles behind one-on-one, unarmed combat that I've read. We're not talking one of those "every move in the world" books here, though some are included. No, this is more on principles and theories which reallity fighting, specifically jujitsu, embrace. The book starts out with a rather extensive history of BJJ, going all the way back to ancient Japan. Briefly covered are the different theories of how martial arts developed around the world, which was interesting to read. The book then goes into the different stages of combat; the clinch, the free-movement phase, and groundfighting. I have to admit, I've never really been satisfied with "long, medium, short" or "kicking, punching, trapping, grappling", and I'm a little jealous that I didn't think of Gracie's stages of a fight on my own. His division is based on the different skills needed for each stage of a fight. Further chapters cover the stages by themselves. The free-movement chapter covers basic strikes, blocks, and long-range "shooting" takedowns. The section on the clinch actually goes over the most common clinch possitions (over-under, front headlock, double-underhook, etc.), and includes brief strategy for both. The authors give insights into strikes, takedowns, and submissions from the various clinch possitions. Groundfighting is covered in the next chapter. The focus is on the different possitions/pins, and is covered in a hierarchical manner, from most desirable to least desirable. Two chapters are then devoted to specific aspects of grounfighting; winning from the bottom, and winning from the top. These are probably the most technique-rich sections. Escapes from bad possitions, transitional movements to different possitions, and common submissions are shown. After that is a short chapter on training in general, and competitions that attract BJJ stylists are given a little detail (sport BJJ, submission wrestling, and MMA events). The last chapter is on using the theories of BJJ that have been presented in the book for self-defense. This one chapter is what Royce and Charles Gracie's self-defense book should have covered. Among other things, this chapter goes into the "prayer stance", a seemingly benign possition that enables you to defend yourself efficiently; six general catagories of violent encounters, and how their dynamics might effect the techniques used; and how to deal with common attacks, including a very pragmatic look at group attack. A nice feature of this book is that the authors look to present all views and theories of a situation, even if it doesn't really jive with BJJ's main tenents. I can also see how the style keeps evolving with exposure to different arts; many of the clinch moves are taken directly from amature wrestling, and the only kick presented is the Thai-style roundhouse kick. As I mentioned earlier, this book isn't a mega-technique book, but the techniques that

This is a notable contribution to the martial arts literature, particularly from the standpoint of theory. There have been several recent books capitalizing on the popularity of Brazilian Jujutsu (BJJ) such as those presenting basic techniques, a training syllabus, and self-defense applications. This book is distinguished clearly from those by its more systematic coverage of the general principles and their origin, allowing more advanced martial artists of all styles to learn what makes Brazilian Jujutsu so effective under the submission fighting and "no holds barred" conditions where it excels. This book also takes on unarmed fighting strategy in general, and so does not limit its coverage to the traditional methods of BJJ.The book has several remarkable strengths, especially for a martial arts technical book. It treats cultural evolution of martial arts in an unusually serious and competent manner, it is relatively free of stylistic bias despite being written from within the perspective of Brazilian Jujutsu, it is very well written, and it has a logical structure with clear, useful, well-chosen examples. The book also has a couple of minor but notable problems. First, the authors chose a completely non-scholarly format, and so they have some difficulty making serious historical and technical points with a very bare minimum of sources. Second, the authors treat principles as if all principles were strategic, thus largely missing technical (e.g. biomechanical) principles.Third, the authors avoid an important central issue, the classification of strategies based on the degree of risk and commitment. An important distinction should be made between strategies that minimize the damage an opponent can do to us ("minimax"), and strategies that create the maximum opportunity to do damage to an opponent ("maximax"). Without this distinction, Japanese Judo and Jujutsu seem to the authors to be 'without a systematic strategy," when in fact they have a consistent systematic strategy but it is based upon the Japanese aesthetic and strategic principle of the "sudden death" finish. The goal is to use first opportunity to execute a devastating finishing move rather than to accumulate positional advantage in a series of phases. The difference is one of the logical relation between preconditions and commitments in strategy. Just as in chess strategy (e.g. see Vukovic, "The Art of Attack in Chess", ch. 11) there are in general a set of preconditions that make a commitment to an attack sound, and missing those preconditions the attack is unsound and can be countered devastatingly by a skilled opponent. Knowing the preconditions that will make the risk of a move worth taking is an extremely complex and error-prone matter that in most fighting strategies has to be done through experience and intuition. Since an attack necessarily requires a commitment and therefore produces vulnerability, it is important at high levels of skill that the attack (finish