Customer Reviews

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: The Closed Guard (Book of Knowledge)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
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I was hoping it would be more exhaustive / detailed, since it deals with one particular -- albeit very important -- aspect of BJJ. One example is in the posture-breaking section: how hard would it have been to show options when your opponent's hands are on your biceps, or else if he's postured up with both hands on your belt? Instead, all of only several posture-breaking techniques assume your opponent is using a staggered grip on your belt and lapel. It's a little thing, but BJJ is all little things.

What this book had going for it, potentially, was to provide a really inclusive roadmap of the closed guard, and I think it's lazy in that regard. You can find all the stuff in this book plenty of other places.

This is everything you could ask from an instructional manual about the guard. Just like most Victory Belt books, this one has awesome pictures and very clear written explanations. BJ Penn does a masterful job going through a whole array of closed guard techniques: from armbars to chokes and sweeps. One of the great things about it is that it covers the basics very well but at the same time it throws in there some more advanced-yet high percentage moves. There's not a single technique in the whole book that doesn't have a good chance of working in competition. Great work! Probably better than BJ's first book.

So, I can honestly say that I have a great BJJ Instructor who has done a great job at teaching me the basics... but while I was reading this book, I felt as though I was learning a NEW VERSION of the closed guard. The amount of detail that goes into each technique is insane!!! Each technique is presented step by step, with full colored pictures. Whether you are a newb or a seasoned grappler, you NEED to get this book to refine your game.

This is an excellent BJJ book. The pictures are very clear, and the moves BJ Penn has chosen to demonstate are all extremely useful. It is a great complement to more general books like BJJ University by Ribiero. Because it just focuses on the closed guard, it really gets into the details of the key moves from this position. The book has definitely improved my guard game as a blue belt. One can learn a great deal from just looking at the pictures and seeing how BJ Penn executes the moves as compared how you might be doing them. So even if you think you know a lot of guard sweeps, arm attacks, etc, you will learn something from BJ Penn. I hope his other books covering the different positions come out soon! - Xerife

The Closed Guard Book of Knowledge is an excellent supplement to your Brazilian Jiu Jitsu game. Whether your a beginner or an advanced player the book goes into detail of how to chain some of the most basic movements and attacks off of your back. The book is organized well and is full of excellent explanations and pictures. The Closed Guard book of Knowledge is a great way to review some of the traditional attacks that you learn first in your Jiu Jitsu game and will help any level of player.

This book will help you improve your close guard regardless of your rank and experience. I like the idea of just covering one aspect of the art of jiu-jitsu (Close Guard in this case) and really covering it from learning the basics to advance moves and putting combinations together. The book delivers on its promise.

Well I guess you could summarize a review of this book be simply stating, "Penn has done it again." And you would be absolutely right!

Like his other well done martial arts book, Mixed Martial Arts: The Book of Knowledge, Penn has done an outstanding job at presenting the technical material in both an outstanding visual collection of very well done color photographs, along with a very detailed and analytical amount of information presented in text form to compliment the color photographs.

This book is without a doubt one of the best books I have yet seen on the technical aspects of working from the closed guard position. Penn shows you a wide variety of techniques and how to not only use them, but also how to get into position to use them from the closed guard position. Were there any bad parts to this book? Well, as far as I am concerned I would have to say NO! Although I might add that there are some areas where I would like to have had a bit more detail in both text and photographs, but not enough to rate this book anything less than the exemplary 5 star rating that I did give it.

I would highly recommend this book for the traditional jiu-jitsu practitioner as well as the aspiring MMA competitor who wished to ratchet up their grappling skills several notches. You won't be disappointed at all with the purchase of this outstanding technical book.

Shawn Kovacich
Creator of numerous books and DVD's.

This book not only is full of great techniques but the detail and the photos illistrating the techniques are great. I highly recommend this book.

BJ PENN
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: The Closed Guard
with Dave Camarillo, Erich Krauss & Glen Cordoza
(Victory Belt)
© Marc Wickert August 2, 2009
www.knucklepit.com

As soon as you turn the first page of BJ Penn's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: The Closed Guard you know you're opening a can of pure dynamite. This is a book that will fast-forward your game completely.

BJ Penn was the first American to become Jiu-Jitsu World Champion. He is also UFC's current Lightweight Champion and best-selling author of Mixed Martial Arts: The Book of Knowledge. In his latest publication Penn focuses on the most essential and most basic guard - the closed guard.

The book begins with practical warm-up and submission drills to increase fluid attacks and transitions, before illustrating how to break and control an opponent's posture whilst keeping him on the defensive.

BJ demonstrates a number of sweeps and transitions executed from closed guard. He also shows how to apply chokes and arm attacks while using your opponent's defense of your initial attack to set up subsequent attacks.

"In order to catch an experienced grappler in a finishing hold, you must become a master at stringing your attacks together in fluid combinations until you land a submission or execute a sweep," says Penn.

This is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at its best, flavored with the intensity and brutality traditional Hawaiian fighters are renowned for.

As the back cover promises, in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: The Closed Guard, BJ Penn "demonstrates how to apply bone-breaking pressure to your opponent's wrist, elbow, and shoulder using his most ruthless straight arm bars, inverted arm bars, kimura locks, Americana locks, and omaplata locks."

A good insight into the basic but highly effective guard. Recommend it to anyone who understands the importance of getting the basics right.