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45 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Training's useful but there's no substitute for experience !, February 29, 2004
This review is from: Mastering Jujitsu (Mastering Martial Arts Series) (Paperback)
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' schools Fusen 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 self defense. But there is a lot of data in which a boxer a karateka or a good street fighterhas indeed prevailed aginst two men---and more. Ask around your friendly local barroom bouncers, LEO's , and MP's. Come to think of it, many in the military police and other similar organizations think the world of the hand to hand combat developed by the likes of Fairbarns, Sykes and other commando trainers from WW2--which are indeed 'theoretical' Furthermore with the introduction of 'Redman' and other protective suits and gear, the gap between theoretical and practical is closing. Lastly, and I know I'm nitpicking--I think the world of the Gracies--Bruce Lee would be somewhat taken aback by the statement that the roundhouse " Can be safely regarded as the 'king of kicks' ". Here the authors are referring to Thai low roundhouse using the shin to attack a boxer's leg. I'm surprised the authors did not follow their own logical conclusion, that the low side thrust kick to the leading leg of the opponent does not exist in Thai boxing because it's too dangerous and thus is 'theoretical', but might prove quite handy in a real fight , just as Bruce thought. In any case, all martial artists can be gratefull to the Gracies for putting back some perspective into what works and doesn't, as well as for founding an organization where it does take years of hard work to earn a 1st degree black belt, as opposed to--well I'm too much of a gentleman to name names but if you've been around the MA scene, you know the score- and where possesing one actually means that yes, you can handle yourself in a fight-- WHAT A CONCEPT ! Outstanding book.
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61 of 75 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Notable addition to the literature of fighting strategy, July 22, 2003
This review is from: Mastering Jujitsu (Mastering Martial Arts Series) (Paperback)
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 or transitional move) be done when the necessary preconditions are in place rather than simply hoping to pull them off through speed and strength. What the BJJ phased positional strategy does is to break down the preconditions for attack uniquely well and ensure that they are present. A finish (or transition) doesn't begin until the advantage is present for it to succeed with a high degree of likelihood, unless a very clear target of opportunity opens up. This way, BJJ fighters rarely get countered and frequently succeed at reaching the next step of their positional goal, especially against opponents who are waiting for larger openings to appear, even though they may have great technical skill. This is what I think is the reality behind the "lack of strategy" of other grappling approaches. This book does a very competent job placing the (strategic) principles of Jujutsu into Japanese social and cultural context, using more than just the standard uncritical mythology usually found in books of this type. The difficult topic of cultural evolution in general and martial arts evolution in particular is covered unusually well, although it stops well short of being a scholarly presentation. The general problem of trying to explain both convergent and divergent evolutionary patterns in culture is introduced in an understandable way, and the weaknesses of the "common origins" theory of Asian martial arts are made very clear. Having detached their analysis from the questionable "common origins" theory, the authors are able to make a strategic analysis of unarmed combat based on a more sophisticated combination of historical, social, and technical factors. With this analysis, they accomplish something akin to what Bruce Lee and the Jeet Kune Do theorists attempted years ago, and what Paul Maslak addressed in his "Strategy in Unarmed Combat" and "What the Masters Know," but with a new twist. Whereas previous analyses focused on the range-dependence of standing fighting, the authors of "Mastering Jujutsu" add their understanding of mixed martial arts fighting. This allows them to incorporate both the principles of grappling strategy and the principles involved in fighting against grapplers, and to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the of the range-based strategic approach. They find the range-based approach marginally useful. Where they consider range important to standing fighting is in the same sense that Maslak divided ranges into "infighting and outfighting," and classical Budo considers a single critical distance or Ma-Ai to be important. The JKD-inspired idea of separate ranges for "kicking, punching, trapping, and grappling" ranges is found to be an inferior teaching tool in a very persuasive analysis using both practical examples and general principles. The authors divide standing ranges into "non-contact" and "contact," and demonstrate why this is as useful a range-based analysis as can be attempted. Where the book has its greatest value is in its clear and very general presentation of the origin and application of the phased positional strategy of BJJ, and the examples of how it is executed in mixed martial arts, submission, and self-protection fighting. This is one of those rare books that while written from the perspective of one discipline has value that easily crosses disciplines. An excellent addition to the literature of unarmed fighting strategy.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good book for any reallity-based martial artist., November 29, 2003
This review is from: Mastering Jujitsu (Mastering Martial Arts Series) (Paperback)
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 are presented could be best termed "essential". The authors also make no bones about the environment that thier theories best suit: one-on-one, unarmed combat. There is definitely a sense of prejudice towards grappling and groundfighting, and this is where I kind of take issue with some of the stuff said. Early MMA/NHB events are brought in as evidence of "little guy beats big guy using grappling", but in UFC's 1-7, without going into too much detail, of six cases where the winner of a match was greatly outweighed, three were won by striking, and two of the remaining matches ended up with the grappler taking a severe beating, and the last one lasted about 20 min. with little action. In other words, I question the "little guy beats big guy using grappling" theory based on those events. Other than that, no real complaints. Great book overall, and an exelent illustration of BJJ theories and how they're applied. Good for anyone interested in what to expect out of a one-on-one, weaponless fight, or a MMA/NHB event.
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