Mastering Jujitsu (Mastering Martial Arts)

Best Jujitsu book on the planet. Gracie provides a solid plan.

To many, this book was "Renzo's long awaited No-Gi book" If you're looking for a list of a 200 gi-less technqiues, you'll be disappointed - that book is coming later. But this book is much much more... The book starts with a history of ju jitsu. It places Brazilian jiu jitsu in the context of Judo, Japanese JuJitsu and other martial arts. It then covers the theory of jujitsu, including the various phases of fighting. This background provides a great context or framework to understand techniques. (This is analogous to the economic framework behind financial technqiues) After providing the broad context, the book delves into deeper theory on each general position, along with a few specific techniques. Again, the focus is on frameworks and how to think about positions more than a listing of techniques. The book also contains case studies on various fighters who have learned certain aspects of fighting. Although the book has a jujitsu focus, fighters from other arts such as Mark Coleman and Vanderlei Silva are highlighted. This demonstrates the broad landscape of ideas covered. In summary, this has proven to be a uniquely informative book. The authors use the medium (book versus the common tape format) to convey history and theory that is more difficult to convey in class or on a tape. It's about time that someone wrote it!

This book really lays down the groundwork for MMA, and explains what to focus on for bjj in combat

The history portion of the book was the most interesting.

Full Disclosure: I am a student of Paul Creighton who is one of Renzo Gracie's former students and is one of the models for the technique photos. This is one of my favorite BJJ books because it explains the origins of the system and how it fits into an overall strategy for sport style jiu-jitsu, MMA, and self defense. You are taught the basic techniques and, more importantly, what you are trying to accomplish and a few variations if your opponent forces you to change the plan. All phases of fighting are covered with ground fighting the obvious focus. Striking and the clinch are not glossed over because you may find it difficult to get some opponents to the ground. The techniques are solid and you would expect that from a Gracie book on jiu-jitsu. Where this book really shines for me is the theory presented with the technical aspects that give insight into the overall strategy and how to take the fight in a direction that you are comfortable with.

This book has a lot of history that I never knew. For a subject that I’m very interested in, I was surprised that I learned so much about where it came from. Completely did not expect that. Happy, I bought it.

This is a great book to read to get a very broad understanding of how the art of Ju Jitsu/ Jiu Jitsu has evolved and continues to grow and develop. The book offers examples of different techniques for take downs, control positions, transitions, sweeps, escapes, and submissions. I feel the techniques they show are very solid and pretty close to what I have been taught by my instructor. The most helpful thing I took from reading this book is the over-all philosophy the authors convey. I feel it has helped me look at certain situations in my training differently, and help me explain ideas/theories to lower belts in my gym. There is no book out there that will make you proficient in any martial art simply by reading it, you MUST train it on the mat.

If you want to get a super deep history of Jiu Jitsu from its origins up to present day, you must have this book. Additionally, it is filled with tons of case studies broken out to isolate different athletes and different attributes that are very helpful. If you are serious about learning Jiu Jitsu and getting better context for NoGi and MMA, this book is a must. I’ve had it since the original publication and given it as a gift as well!