Customer Reviews

Mastering Mixed Martial Arts: The Guard

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
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The first thing I have to say is that this is not a no-gi book. This is not a book of random moves and submissions from the guard. This is the exact guard system developed by Minotauro Nogueira (Big Nog) that he uses to compete in MMA. It's not a bunch of moves he doesn't use, and each move stacks onto of the previous set of moves. It's a complete system to be used in it's entirety. In that respect, I think that it's one of the best books I've read on the market for MMA guard.

One pitfall this book avoid that a lot of other books can't is that he stays right on the point. There's no submission grappling or gi specific moves in this book that he simply executed with a pair of MMA gloves on. Everything is specifically tailored to the MMA guard. A lot of the book is geared towards avoiding taking punishment in the guard, something that Nogueira has learned a lot about in his career.

The first section of the book is posture control. The main emphasis of these chapters is controlling your opponent your guard to avoid taking damage, but still being offensive. Traditional closed guard and Nog's famous double shin on biceps guard are covered and broken down, showing the reader how to execute sweeps, submissions and gets up in an MMA environment. The hand trapping and head control he shows are actually really key to making the bottom work for you in a fight.

A relatively large portion of the book is centered around the half guard. I honestly think this is one of the best half guard sections I've ever seen in any book on grappling or MMA. Second best would be Eddie Bravo's book, and yes I really do think it trumps that. So many great, fundamental moves, broken down in very exacting detail. He also often explains the mistakes and counters available in positions, and then will go on to correct it in the next set of photos. If you have any doubts about the half guard for MMA, just read this book and then watch Nogueira's fights. In this section, he covers the details of his half guard sweeps he used to catch Tim Sylvia, turn Fabricio Werdum, and the infamous half guard sit out he's used on everyone including Bob Sapp. I really think that the half guard section in this book is fantastic.

The book rounds out with some of his best sequences from a double wrist control, both open and closed guard variations, as well as a his methods and techniques from the butterfly guard and a couple of key techniques from the downed guard, as if an opponent just stood up front inside your open guard, or you just got knocked flat with a punch. There's a lot of good moves he covers that can turn this potentially bad situation into a potentially great one.

So that's it, this really is an awesome book, especially for the price. If you're the market to find a book geared towards being effective, dangerous, and exciting off of your back in an MMA fight, I can't recommend this book enough.

Nogueira is the best guard player in MMA, and this book gives his entire system. I really like how every move is based on the move that came before it. If your opponent does 'this' to defend your technique, you answer with 'this'. If he defends your second technique, you go to the third technique. It goes on and on like this, providing answers most fighters don't know. And this isn't just in the guard, it is the half guard as well. A very, very good book to understand how you must grapple in mma.

There're several books out there that cover the guard; but they're mainly for sport BJJ. The rubber guard has had success with guys like Shinya Akoi over in Japan; but until any fighter comes even close to having an actual battle contested guard like Nogueira's; this book should absloutely be your first one in your collection to build a foundation for the guard in mma. Note: I'm not necesserialy knocking the X-guard,rubber guard,The Other guard books;I own them all and they're very good.It's just that for street fighting or mma this should be in my opinion your first stop!

if this is your first book that you own then it is 5 stars. but u r like the rest of us who hv been exposed to very many bjj/mma books in the market nowadays then only the only portion of the book is worthwhile - control within guards, the rest of the book is nothing new.

This is THE book that I have been looking for in terms of working from the guard. Not only does he show you three different view points for each and every step of a move, he also explains in great detail about each move that I do not think other books on jiu-jitsu have done. I find these details are what really make pulling off a technique a success or a failure. He covers sweeps, armbars, chokes, transitions, combinations and mounts from three different positions from closed guard, three different positions from half guard and finally one position in downed guard, a total of 7 different guard positions to work from. If you either fight MMA or are just a jiu-jitsu player, you NEED this book as I feel it will fill in tons of gaps in anyone's guard game and jiu-jitsu game in general.

This book encompasses all that BJJ is good in MMA. I really enjoyed this book and a highly usable book that gives a rock solid game plan for BJJ in MMA. I highly recommend to any BJJ, MMA or submission fighter.

I take BJJ for self defense but like most students I have to take it in a sport setting with the gi on, learning sport specific techniques. So the great thing about this book is that it gives simple techniques to counter being punched in the head while in different postions such as guard and half guard. The book also shows you how to sweep people from these positions while being punched. Great photos and concise text that makes these techniques easy for the gi no gi sport player to take back to the mat for a little side training on their own. Serious MMA students may find the book a bit elementary though.

This book does a great job of covering the mma guard like no other book. I wish more bjj, no-gi, and mma books would go the route as Minatauro. The whole book is dedicated to giving specific and detailed instruction and strategy from the guard position. It seems like many other books want to give you a once over of everything, and it is hard to find new techniques.

Not so with this book. Well worth the investment.

This book is an awsome guard book strictly MMA. Learn from the best jiu-jitsu heavyweight of all time. This book is right there with Mastering the Rubber Guard. This book may even edge out Bravo's book the transitions in Nogueira's book are great.

Mastering Mixed Martial Arts - The Guard
by Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
with Glen Cordoza & Erich Krauss (Victory Belt)
© Marc Wickert December 20, 2008
www.knucklepit.com

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is to grappling what Las Vegas is to deserts. The idiom used to be, `One man's meat is another man's poison', but in Nogueira's case it's `One man's poison is another man's bread and butter'.

When it comes to fighting, most competitors - particularly wrestlers - avoid being on their backs like the plague. However with Antonio Nogueira, not only is he at home in the guard, but he turns the hell's kitchen of MMA into his own private torture chamber, welcoming adversaries like a spider to a fly.

"Fighting off my back allowed me to use both of my arms and both of my legs to attack, while my opponent on top was restricted to using just his arms. Four limbs against two - how could you not like those odds?" asks Nogueira.

And no one submits from the bottom better than Antonio, who covers everything in Mastering Mixed Martial Arts - The Guard, including position control, double arm controls, inside hooks guard, half guard and the downed guard.

After studying and practicing Nogueira's 226 pages of crystal-clear lessons, you can't help feel not only extremely confident fighting from your back, but like Antonio, you'll feel compelled to seek out the guard during training and competition.

Antonio Nogueira provides his readers with a complete fight plan that resembles Rubik's cube: From start to finish, everything flows, with one move connecting to the next. "Unlike most books, I haven't offered a random group of techniques. I've sequenced the moves together based on an opponent's most common reaction to your position or previous submission. If your goal is to develop a guard system where everything is interconnected, I suggest studying this section sequentially. "

The autobiographical introduction to Mastering Mixed Martial Arts - The Guard makes this a value-for-money publication even before the instruction starts. An amazing book by an amazing man.