Customer Reviews

Jiu-jitsu Unleashed: A Comprehensive Guide to the World’s Hottest Martial Arts Discipline

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Eddie Bravo has made waves in the Brazilian Jiujitsu community by advocating gi-less training, developing an unconventional guard game, and tapping out Renzo Gracie in the prestigious ADCC tournament. He shares some of his unique system in this book.

The first part is an introduction (almost autobiographical) in which Eddie talks about how he developed his signiature system (mostly 'cause he was a poor student of the basics) as well as why he favors non-gi training. He makes a compelling argument that goes against some of the established BJJ teachers by insisting that in order to get better at non-gi grappling, one must practice grappling without a gi (as opposed to the standard party line, which is "to get good without a gi, you must practice WITH a gi").

His first technique chapter is on the half-guard, and he emphasises various sweeps, combinations of sweeps, and submissions, which differs from the standard strategy of trying to attain full guard. This offers the player the advantage of doing something unexpected, and turning a possition that's commonly thought of as "bad" into one of offense.

Next is the chapter on Eddie's "Rubber Guard". This possition requires a degree of flexibility, but what impresses me about it is how Bravo gives a grappler the option of using his own legs as a sort of substitute gi. The emphasis here is on submissions, but he also covers his "spider web" sweep into various arm bar & triangle choke possitions.

The third chapter is on the "Twister Side Control", a possition which sets up the submission Eddie is known for: the Twister (aka abdominal stretch, aka wrestler's guillotine). It's a unique possition that has one's weight (hips) near the opponent's head, and one is looking towards his opponent's legs. The emphasis is again on submissions, but ultimately, most require some dynamic repositioning (usually involving a roll of some sort).

The fourth chapter is on the mount, including a nice little variation called the "monkey mount". Most moves involve pushing yourself over your opponent's head in order to foil his upper-body control & expose his arms for subs.

Chapter Five, on back control, is a short one, but just the addition of the over-under control that Eddie uses will be valuable to most players. A handful of subs are covered.

Chapter Six, "Passing the Guard", has five guard passes, most of which are familiar to most BJJ players, but are done in such a way that they compliment the previous moves pretty well.

The last chapter is on combining the moves from the different parts of the book. This is the sort of thing that all grappling books should have, but most don't. It allows the reader to see how things might progress in a grappling match, and the combinations that logically follow one another.

Overall, a very good book. Right now, these techniques may be considered "state of the art", because they're so unconventional and not many people know them. The half- and Rubber-guard sections, especially, are very helpful in opening one's eyes to different possibilities. In the MMA/Sub Grappling "arms race", techniques shown here may give someone the decisive edge they need.

On the down side, this book is definitely not for the begginer. Someone with no grappling experience would most likely be lost upon reading it. As well, some of the chapters are too brief for my taste, or didn't really show anything all that new. As a final complaint, I feel that there is a "truth in advertising" problem with the back of the book, which promises "stances, kicks, punches, takedowns", and "sophisticated... strategies"; nope, just some pretty unique ground grappling.

Overall, a very good book for a grappler looking to add to his guard game, and some other neat stuff in the ground game. A must-have for the modern grappling competitor.

First off I want to give a few warnings. This book is No-gi submission wrestling all the way. If you are a hardcore Gi-wearin Jiu Jitsu dude then you probably will not like this book and I highly recommend The Guard/Passing the Guard (both available from Amazon). What all these books have in common is that they take a very in-depth look at a limited number of positions and situations. , no take downs, no clinch moves, etc. Which brings me to another warning, this book is not a general jiu jitsu manual. If you want basics and an overall introduction to all the moves there are tons of books like that out there. I recommend Mastering Jiu Jitsu, No Holds Barred Fighting, and/or Submission Wrestling . This last one is just chuck full of moves with absolutely NO FILLER. The other two are good too but have more general info about training, equipment, etc. OK, back to the review. I also must warn that if you are not very flexible and don't plan on working to become flexible then this book might not be of much use to you. If, however, you are flexible, but perhaps not the strongest dude in the gym, this could be just the thing for you. Also, if you have experience with high school or freestyle wrestling the whole idea of using a "leg ride" as we called it should be quite familiar to you. He actually resurects the old wrestling guillotine and converts it into a fearsome submission.

So basically I recommend this book for the flexible and especially for those who might lack the strength to set up submissions. Without a Gi even strong guys can have a hard time. This book teaches you how to SET UP submissions step by step. These are high percentage moves that are worth trying and having in your arsenal. You should also review the submission itself. This book assumes that you already know how to do a good arm bar. Same thing with the triangle. So if you have the basics down this book takes your game to a whole new level. If you are still learning the basics this book can help you learn how to get to the point where you are set up to try the submission.

Other cool things about this book:

The personal story of how this stuff came to the author is very effective at explaining why everything is important. He says like " I kept trying this one move and it never worked so I tried... " This helps you remember not to make the same mistake.

The book has Joe Rogen from the UFC in it. I've actually heard him using terminology I first heard of in this book.

All the moves have memorable names IN ENGLISH.

After learning and trying these moves I have seen that A) they work (I got my first Oma Plata using Eddie's Rubber Guard. )and B) you will recognize if others are trying this method or some variation against you.

I hope I have sufficiently explained why this book deserves 5 stars. It is not for everyone, but if it's for you then it's GOLD!

Eddie Bravo's approach to jiu-jitsu is entirely novel, and something that anyone could benefit from incorporating into his or her own jiu-jitsu game. That being said, I would say that this book isn't really geared toward the beginner. Eddie doesn't go over the basics of jiu-jitsu. Rather, he assumes you know the basics and are looking to add something new to your game. Furthermore, being in the 150 pound weightclass himself, Eddie has a lot of good advice for those practitioners that are in the lightweight category. The book is filled with large, black and white pictures. Too often jiu-jitsu books are filled with small pictures in which you cannot see the details of the moves. In "Jiu-jitsu Unleashed", although black and white, nearly every picture is at least a half-page in size, and many are a full page! In what follows, I'll give a "play-by-play" of the major sections of the book.

In the introduction, Eddie tells his personal jiu-jitsu story, from high school wrestling up to his defeat of Royler Gracie in ADCC and on to his creation of the 10th Planet Jiu-jitsu school. As a self-described "150 pound weakling", his story is inspiring. And he makes a very, very strong case for training without the gi. In my opinion, the introduction alone should be required reading for all jiu-jitsu "players" (as Eddie likes to call them) and instructors. Whether he is right or not, I really admire Bravo's courage in advocating such a drastic change to the jiu-jitsu establishment.

With the enthralling introduction aside, here comes the instructional segment of the book. Eddie begins with the half-guard (from the bottom, as opposed to "half-mount" from the top). Eddie asks: since so often players spend so much time and energy attempting to reposition from the half-guard to the full-guard, why not just learn to fight from the half-guard? I think this is a great approach. With this in mind, Eddie goes on in the first chapter to show the reader numerous sweeps from the half-guard, and even a few submissions. Here Eddie sets a precedent for the rest of the book. He first explains why he is about to teach you what he's going to teach you, and when it is to be used. Then he explains how to do it. And finally, if it doesn't work, he goes on to the next move, which is "plan B", then to "plan C", and so on. In this way, I feel he has done an excellent job in building up the jiu-jitsu game like it really is: a sequence of moves that act like a flowchart, giving you options for the various possibilities that arise in a real grappling situation.

In chapter two, Eddie discusses his variant of the full guard, called the rubber guard. This is essentially a clever version of the guard that allows you to trap your opponent in your guard without relying on grabbing ahold of the gi to do so. Rubber guard has become quite common and can be seen often in mixed martial arts matches on PPV, like in UFC. Also in this chapter, Eddie discusses delivering an armbar after a sweep. He points out that often a bigger opponent would simply stand up, stack, and smash his way out of an armbar (does that sound familiar to any of you lightweight players out there?). So, Eddie invented (with the help of his instructor, J.J. Machado) a way of doing the armbar without giving up the top/side position, which he calls the Spider Web. This move, like many in the book, is victim to a somewhat cheesy name, but is however quite effective (I've tried it myself, and it works!). This is another illustration of what makes Eddie Bravo and his book great; he is creative and not afraid to experiment and invent new techniques.

In the third chapter, Eddie introduces his trademark move, The Twister. I appreciate the fact that Eddie is not selfish with his winning moves. Throughout this book he takes on a very selfless attitude in which he bares all in the hopes that everyone will learn jiu-jitsu as well as he has.

In the fourth and fifth chapters, Eddie goes over some submissions from the mount and from back mount, respectively. Chapter six deals with guard passing. Compared to the first three chapters, these are pretty much standard jiu-jitsu fare, though I like his over-under approach to back mount.

In chapter seven, Eddie brings the entire book together. As anyone that's done jiu-jitsu knows, things never work out in reality like they do "in the playbooks". Therefore, you must be prepared to move from one strategy to the next. In the last chapter, Eddie does just that, by showing you how to transition between each of the positions he's described in the book and back again. This chapter really ties the book together, and makes chapters four through six essential.

The only reason I'm not giving this book 5 stars is that I felt it lacks as an "all-around" guide to jiu-jitsu. You may have noticed from my overview that Bravo focuses only on the offensive jiu-jitsu game, with no mention of escapes. Really, the primary focus of the book is half-guard, rubber-guard, and the Twister. Those are great topics, especially as taught by Eddie Bravo, so if this book had been titled and advertised as only that -- rather than having the subtitle "A Comprehensive Guide" -- I'd give it 100 stars. Don't buy this book if you want to learn jiu-jitsu basics and the entire jiu-jitsu game (for that I might recommend Royce Gracie's new 2-volume book series, or something by Royler and/or Renzo Gracie).

I highly recommend this book to anyone that is looking to add something new and interesting to their jiu-jitsu game. Combine that with the fact that this is one of the least-expensive jiu-jitsu books out there, you really can't go wrong with this purchase. 4.5 stars.

I bought this book since I've been following Eddie Bravo's grappling career, and I've read some of his writings and I was intrigued.

I was pleasantly surprised, I found things in this book I was able to apply right away. It also improved my guard quite a bit. I'm not a guy who has ever really been able to pull off a triangle choke, my legs are kind of thick for their length, but I got one using Eddie's rubber guard techniques. The half-guard material is excellent as well, as my half-guard was quite weak to begin with. I'm now much more confident with my half guard than I ever was before.

So why don't I give it 5 stars? A couple of reasons.

The first is that sometimes the text doesn't really match up well with the pictures. This isn't to say you can't figure out the techniques, but it's definitely going to require some mat time to figure out exactly what he was trying to say. Particularly with his more complex moves.

Second, this lists itself as a "Comprehensive Guide." I don't think that's entirely accurate. This book is definitely for the more experienced student, who at least has already acquired a solid foundation in BJJ basics. I think there are better books out there that would help the raw beginner.

The above are relatively minor issues, however, in comparison to how much I got out of the book. I'd recommend it to all BJJ players.

This book is a must have for any Jiu jitsu practioner or MMA fighter. Eddie Bravo's approach of no gi grappling is innovative and completely functional. The Chapter on his Rubber guard enhanced my ground game almost immediately. I was tapping out my sparring partners left and right even though they are bigger and stronger than me. The positions Eddie describes require a degree of flexibility but very little strength. I was able to incorporate most of the moves into my full out sparing sessions after only a few days of drilling them. Some of the moves in the book are difficult to pull off, but other than that this is a solid giude to BJJ. I recommend this book to any serious martial artist

I am a jiu jitsu student with about 2 years of experience and I own a number of jiu jitsu books and DVDs. I train almost exclusively with the gi at a BJJ school on the East Coast and have never met or trained with Eddie Bravo. I recently picked up a copy of Eddie Bravo's new book thinking I would flip through it and then put it back since I already have a vast library of instruction materials. When I began to read it however, I realized it was a very different book from what I was used to seeing.

Most BJJ books on the market seem to be a collection of random techniques. Most of the books are informative, but they don't tie the techniques together very well. Eddie's book is more than just a technique primer, it's an overview of his very unique system of BJJ.

Before I get into the good things, I'll mention the few negatives: First, the book is not in color and the photos sometimes could be from better angles or could have shown more "reverse" angles so a technique would be more clear. The book is only 190 or so pages and does not contain an overwhelming amount of techniques. Last, Eddie assumes that you already know most of the BJJ basics. If you are brand new to the art this should not be your first book-- Eddie skims over the rudimentary fundamentals that most BJJ should already have mastered (ie- keeping posture, escaping from the mount, basic guard sweeps, etc...). If you want a good book for a brand-new BJJ student, I suggest Royce Gracie's "Ultimate Fighting Techniques" since it is organized by position instead of by belt (like the Renzo/Royler Gracie book). You really should be approaching the blue belt level before you sink your teeth into Eddie's book. One more thing, it's completely a no-gi book (Eddie explains his reasons for this in the text).

Okay, now for the good stuff...

When I began reading this book I was absolutely amazed by Eddie's creativity. I could not put the book down. I read the entire text in two sittings and will read it multiple times more I'm sure. Eddie gets to the heart of the no gi problem which is controlling your opponent without the grips you would normally have with the gi. His techniques are wonderfully creative adaptions to address many of the common problems found in no-gi fighting like controlling a man from the back position, maintaining and submitting from the mount, sweeping and submitting from the guard and half guard, etc... I own his "Twister" DVD so I knew he was a unique talent, but I was absolutely blown away by this book.

What makes this book even better are the anecdotes he tells about how he developed the techniques. The book reads more like a philosophy/biography than a mere "how to" manual. The chapters flow very easily together with each chapter building upon its predecessor.

I also appreciated the respect he pays to the Gracie family. While Eddie became famous for beating one of the Gracies in a no-gi tournament, he acknowledges their genius and fighting spirit. He seems appropriately respectful of those who created the art and mentions many of the Gracies in the "Acknowledgements" section of the book.

Joe Rogan of UFC and Fear Factor fame wrote the forward of the book and I was expecting an in-your-face, brash, we-are-the-best sort of forward. Instead, Joe describes Eddie's musical talents and gives us an insight into Eddie's creative mind. This actually is important since I put the book down more than once muttering "how in the world could someone think up stuff like this?" Joe helps us understand that this book was the product of some very interesting intersections of talent and passion.

In sum, I recommend this book to any serious BJJ student who has mastered the basics and wants a shockingly fresh perspective on BJJ. There are a few typos and the above mentioned negatives, but in all it is a steal. It has radically changed my view of no-gi grappling and inspired me to train even more.

This is probably my favorite instructional jiu-jitsu book. The sweeps and transition options in his half-guard section has done wonders for my half-guard game. I also really like his rubber-guard section, though I'm not quite flexible enough to pull off some of the crazier submissions.

Warning: This book will help with grappling tournaments, but is not really MMA (cage-fighting) oriented. Despite the back cover's promise, the book only covers groundwork. No clinch, ground-n-pound, striking, etc.

Well, Eddie Bravo makes a fairly strong argument about training without the Gi. He has deviced a method specifically for NoGi, which he says is more realistic and more likely to give a fighter success in MMA.

The only problem with his introduction is that he likens his advancement of NoGi Jiu-jitsu, to Helio Gracie's advancement of Jiu-Jitsu itself. A claim that, in my opinion, is full of empty wind. Yes, he has dveloped a great system, but what Eddie Bravo fails to realize is that not everyone wants to fight MMA, and that training with the Gi is more symbolic and practical than anything else. Eddie Bravo statements are the equivalent of a young basketball player claiming that he invented the slam dunk, simply because he can do it without shoes.

The last part I would like to comment on is Eddie Bravo's introduction to the Half-guard. I have to say, this made the book completely worthwhile, because he gives a great explantion of each move. I've started to sweep all kinds of belts because of the stuff Eddie Bravo shares with his readers about the Half-Guard.

Let mefirst say I love the format of this book. It's a shade smaller than other BJJ books I have and is easier to read because of that. Colour photos would have been a help, but the contrasting clothing of the models is good enough.

Content-wise, this book is exactly what it says it is and more. It starts off with the mandatory look at Bravo's history and philosophy before getting to the technical part.

As I've heard said, there's nothing really new in the half-guard section. It's featured because it is such a major part of Bravo's game. What it does give you is a look at the details that make the position work for Eddie. He also explains how he came to incorporate them into his game and why. Further, Bravo gives the reader an idea of how to string the techniques together to come up with a gameplan.

What I've written for the half-guard seems equally true for the sections on the mount and the back, as well. There are pieces that explain the details of what makes Bravo's game unique, but there are really no new techniques. It's a new philosophy. That said, there were still a couple of "A-ha" moments for me.

Where this book really comes into its own for me is the Rubber Guard section. Again, Eddie explains why he began developing the Rubber Guard as his primary guard philosophy and goes on to explain the hows and whys of the technique. I found, although I knew the techniques, I really didn't know the hows and whys or how to set them up. Now I'm getting the hang of it.

I haven't delved too far into the section on "Twister Side Control", despite the fact it's an important part of the book. The side is my strongest area and doesn't need the work. However, if you're interested in seeing how Eddie sets up his trademark technique and what the position can do for you in terms of gameplan, the information's all there.

All in all, this book will provide the reader with a few new techniques and some fantastic ideas on how to incorporate them to fill holes in your game.

Before i start, let me say that i have no affiliation with eddie bravo or anyone from his school, if anything i was kind of anti-Bravo, coming myself from a gracie run school. I have been training on and off now since the first ultimate fight but i have been out of training for the last two years for a couple of reasons, but one being lack of the same luster i had for the art before.
Having given that long winded bio, let me say that this is the best money i have ever spent of bjj material in my life. This book has really brought back that old inspiration alot of us had back when Bjj first hit the scene after the 1st UFC.
The presentation of material, and the various techniques it presents throughtout the book is excellent. the way the chapters read for each position covered acuately had me do something i havent done with a book on Bjj in a long time; It made me want to read everything in the book. So many of the books now out on Bjj are as dry as a bonegiving you that same feeling of "You've read one, you've read them all!"
Bravo keeps you interested not only in his techniques, but also in the stories that lead him to developing each one.
Just as a note, most of my training ive done both Gi and no gi training, and have always prefered Gi, so for me to rave about a book thats main point is training with the Gi is alot of the times wrong, says alot.
My only hope for this book is that Eddie puts out another one soon. And a personal note to Eddie Bravo: Thank you for helping me find the original love of the sport i thought i had lost forever!