Customer Reviews

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Master Techniques: The Essential Guard (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Master Techniques series)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I consider this book to be one of the 3 BJJ books that everyone getting into the sport or wishing to improve their game (the other two are "Passing the Guard" by Ed Beneville and "Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: Theory & Technique" by Renzo Gracie) should consider getting. While a book is no substitute for time spent on the mat or with a good instructor these books have helped me develop a game plan and allowed me to see what I should have/could have done after sparring.

This book has three main strengths. First, the layout and organisation are excellent. The book is broken down into the following sections:
1-Introduction
2-Essential guard techniques
3-Closed guard techniques
4-Open Guard techniques

Each section is broken down into further sub-sections including drills, breaking the posture, attacks, combinations etc. The page headings are also colour coded to help you flick through the book faster.

The second great thing about this book is the photos. Peligro has a different approach to illustrating his books than Ed Beneville and limits himself to three or four pictures per page (Beneville's book is very well illustrated, he just has a very different style of layout). The pictures are very large and clear and illustrate the key points of each technique very well. These pics are accompanied by a solid text and at no time did I find myself struggling to understand how a technique was meant to be performed due to unclear instructions.

The third strength of this book is the fact that it contains a wealth of valuable information. The authors take the time to explain what you should be doing, why you should be doing it and what it should lead into. The Combinations section has was very helpful for me (and would be for any other beginner) as it introduced a lot of logical progressions involving basic techniques that had not occured to me after one year of training.

While a more experienced BJJ practitioner may have a different opinion, I consider this book an essential resource.

This book is going to greatly improve your understanding of the guard, wow, all the small details, and focuses on different aspects of the guard makes this book a must have. It is all done with the Gi. I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in improving their game.

This is the most comprehensive, extensive book on the guard available to date. The attention to detail and practical application to each technique is very important if you wish to excel in the sport of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Kid Peligro is as eloquent as it comes and elucidates each technique so there are no questions, if you just pay attention to what is given in the book. Rodrigo Medeiros is one of the world's top Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners and is as technical as they come. He allows us all the opportunity to see what techniques are the most effective. If you want to drastically improve your skills in this sport, this book will certainly help a great deal.

This is one of the best if not the best Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu books out there. Kid Peligro and Rodrigo Medeiros did a great job dissecting the guard, what is important and what not to do.

With great tips on special things you ned to be aware of to improve yoiur guard. The Do's and Don't sections are very practical and easy to remember and easy to understand.

With great clear pictures to illustrate the techniques and clear concise descriptions of the moves this book is certain to improve anyone's mastery of the most important position in BJJ, the guard.

The techniques are organised in groups with emphasis on sequences that work from any type of guard, so you learn one group and can use it in various situations.

This is a 5 star - must have book for every BJJ and grappling fighter.

this is the essential book for the beginner or intermediate BJJ player. it is likely the best BJJ book out there because it pays quality attention to the nuances of the GUARD and you will not get that at every jiujitsu school. without fundamental knowledge of the proper body positioning required to execute guard techniques, youre going nowhere.
futhermore, no matter how good you are as a 'top' position player, without a SOLID guard, youre wasting your time.

rodrigo medeiros is an excellent teacher.... one of the best. this is evidenced by the fact that he shows you the 'finer' points in very clear detail. one begins to wish that the book were much larger in scope and that it covered ALL the techniques from the guard, but no book can really do that. however, if you are having trouble executing or setting up the standard techniques, this book is sure to help. you get a $200 lesson for about 25 bucks.

get to rollin'

I've been training BJJ for about a year now, and I'm on the small side (130 lbs) so I find myself on my back a lot, and I quickly learned the importance of an effective guard. For me this book has probably done more to improve my training than anything else (except actual sparring). I usually fight guys much bigger than me (between 180-220 lb) and until I learned how to use the guard effectively I was basically a grappling dummy for my opponents. But now I'm constantly surprising my training partners and myself with how effective and varied these techniques from guard are, and I credit this book with much of my improvement. The guard is great because you can attack with all four limbs while your opponent can only use their arms.
Kid Peligro is an excellent teacher and offers many of the subtle details that make the difference between submitting and being submitted. For example, the section on breaking the posture and the 4 pages on the basic cross collar choked improved my game more than anything. Everyone knows this choke, but the minor details make it really dangerous, especially when you don't have a lot of muscle to force the choke. Before, most guys I sparred with weren't too worried about my choke, I was convinced I wasn't strong enough, but since reading this book I've put several guys to sleep because they wouldn't even considering tapping and now they try hard not to even let me get a grip on their collar. This opens up many more opportunities to attack with sweeps, arm bars, and omoplatas. What makes this book so good is the authors' understanding of students and the basic mistakes they make, as well as the very clear explanations and photos. The moves are integrated into a complete system that will put you years ahead than if you tried to figure this out on your own. That being said, there is plenty here for higher belts as well. I think the Essential Guard is essential reading for anyone taking BJJ seriously and interested in dramatically improving their Guard game. It should be know that there isn't a lot on the half- guard, it's mostly breaking the the posture, replacing the guard, opend and closed guard, butterfly, spider, and attack combinations. If you want a good half-guard game, I recommend Eddie Bravo's Mastering the Rubber Guard. These two books compliment each other well.

I loved this book the second I opened it. This book has a great lay out and an easy step by step process to help any gaurd game at any level. I opened it a read it the first day and put some new simple techniques into effect my first session. The chapter on setting up and combonations from one technique to another is GREAT, This is what all new BJJ strive for. Great book and a must get for anyone interested in improving there gaurd game.

Nicely done overview of the Guard. I highly recommend this book for everyone!

This was a good book. A lot of the other books from this series are really mainly just move indexes with some reading to. This book has a lot more reading about what you should be doing well you are in guard. I think as a beginner this book helped me a lot. I think there was a few times I would not have passed guard and gone on to tap someone if it were not for reading this book

Thank you for writing this book. This book gives details about the guard that would take thousands of dollars to learn in a jujitsu school. I hope the authors write a book about how to pass the guard that is as detailed.