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Jiu-Jitsu University Paperback – November 17, 2008
Enhance your purchase
- Print length368 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherVictory Belt Publishing
- Publication dateNovember 17, 2008
- Dimensions8.56 x 0.88 x 10.85 inches
- ISBN-109780981504438
- ISBN-13978-0981504438
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From the Publisher
“Technical knowledge is not enough. One must transcend techniques so that the art becomes an artless art, growing out of the unconscious.” —Daisetsu Suzuki
In Jiu-Jitsu University, author Saulo Ribeiro shares with the public for the first time his revolutionary system of grappling, mapping out more than 200 techniques that carry you from white to black belt. Illuminating common jiu-jitsu errors and then illustrating practical remedies, this book is a must for all who train jiu-jitsu.
SEATED MOUNT SURVIVAL
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SPINNING ARM BAR
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Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
About the Author
Kevin Howell is a political science professor based in Huntington Beach, CA. He holds a brown belt in judo and a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Product details
- ASIN : 0981504434
- Publisher : Victory Belt Publishing; First Edition (November 17, 2008)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 368 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780981504438
- ISBN-13 : 978-0981504438
- Item Weight : 2.77 pounds
- Dimensions : 8.56 x 0.88 x 10.85 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #6,594 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1 in Tai Chi & Qi Gong
- #2 in Mixed Martial Arts
- #6 in Martial Arts (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Hello all! My name is Kevin Howell and I am a jiu-jitsu fanatic who's goal is to help in the growth of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and grappling both through the sharing of deep personal knowledge and practice. My goal is to make the best use of my over 13 years of grappling experience and education/writing background to create the most unique and sought after grappling related books in martial arts. I am the author of two best selling books on the martial arts: Jiu-Jitsu University with Saulo Ribeiro and Drill to Win with Andre Galvao.
When away from writing, I am either teaching college level political science, spending time with my family, or teaching jiu-jitsu at The Jiu-Jitsu League in Long Beach, California (www.TheJiuJitsuLeague.com).
Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviewed in the United States on February 3, 2017
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Overall the book is beautiful, printed on thick paper with large color photos. The book is divided up by belt and the techniques Saulo associated with each belt:
White - Survival, just concentrate on not getting tapped.
Blue - Escaping
Purple - Guard Positions
Brown - Passing the Guard
Black - Submissions
I think his rationale is genius. Everyone's natural talents and skills differ, but I know for me, I spent a whole lot of time in inferior positions when I first started and rarely got the chance to even try for a submission. So reading from a Pro that the art of survival was worth mastering in of itself gave me a great perspective, helped with motivation and setting expectations. It became that much more fun to go train with an eye on mastering survival first and paying my dues before expecting that I would hit submissions and reversals.
His rationale in a nutshell for mastering your survival positions: Once you are confident your opponent cannot tap you, you are more relaxed and this frees up your energy and time to concentrate on escaping, passing, positioning, and submitting.
Saulo points out many details about his survival positions: your preemptive position so that you can safely chill out while in an inferior position - or at least really make the other guy work for the tap.
When I first started, I grappled nearly exclusively in no-gi. Yet, while this book is 100% gi, I would say most of the book's concepts do well for no-gi, save for the submission section which is gi focused of course. The basics are valid for no-gi and gi. For example, escaping with no-gi is just like with gi - it's even easier since there is less friction.
I have to say, some of his points are subtle and are hidden in the photos - I wish these were a little clearer. For example, in his section covering bottom mount survival, he lies slightly on his side [instead of completely on his back] - at first glance, this was imperceptible to me, perhaps because the gi is naturally baggy and so that subtly is lost. That point and other similar points could have been more explicit, perhaps with no-gi complementary photos or written in text. I wish there were bullet points of key points, that would have been great. Overall though, you can glean a lot of information from the photos if you go over them again and again. It's all the little things!
The book is huge. There are many positions and techniques that have never even presented themselves to me yet - he gives you a whole lot to think about and work on week after week.
At least one time in the book, the Point of View of instruction changes from Saulo to his brother - this was VERY confusing to me until I figured out what was going on. In other words, for most of the book, the text is describing what Saulo is doing or should do - then in another technique it switches to Xande's perspective. That's fine to switch it up, but there was no notice to the reader that I can recall. No biggie if you know this.
Now that I've had a bit more experience and have, hopefully, learned a few things, I know some of the techniques taught in the book do not work for me, or just aren't my specialty and I've found other tools that better suit me. Everyone's game is a little different. For example, there are more than a few ways to escape side mount or get the clock choke [ all the little things] and everyone has his favorite particular way that works for him. So Saulo is showing what works for him but it might not work for you. I wouldn't expect any book to show me THE definitive way to do BJJ, but this definitively a worthwhile foundation. My personal example here is that Saulo emphasizes the bridge a whole bunch for his escapes. If you are bottom side mount he would say to bridge, hip escape to make room, then recover guard. I've found this can be difficult if your opponent is a reasonable size bigger than you and really know has to weigh down. The solution is to combo your escape techniques, not just depend on the standard bridge.
Prefacing each chapter is some great writing on his fighting philosophy and some nice stories - great addition to the book and really gives it character and intimacy.
Overall, a solid book. I would give it 5 stars if there were more text on individual techniques in the form of bullet points and the switch between Saulo and Xande was absent.
The Survival chapter is worth the price of the book itself. Beginners would do well to get this book just for that section.
Everyone has pretty much given the run-down on this superb book so I will just touch on a few points that are of particular importance to me:
The breakdown by CHAPTER==BELT COLOR==GOAL, e.g., white=survival, blue=escape, is ESPECIALLY useful for those just starting jiu-jitsu or those teaching.
The white belt "survival postures" and the blue belt escapes from those postures are worth the cost of the book alone. Saulo Ribeiro has managed to keep the survival postures to a minimum (even for side mount where there are numerous top pinning styles and arm positions) and they all seem to work off the same principals and even a similar pattern.
Frequently, Ribeiro shows a better (according to him and his also multi-time world champion brother Xande [shandee]) way to do common techniques, and also shows the common mistakes including what is wrong with the usually given methods for that same technique.
This book immediately made me almost happy to have my back taken (by a similarly experienced and sized opponent) since the very simple defenses and escapes to those positions worked on the first try even though I messed up some of the details. (Really! -- my training partner is a bit stronger, heavier, younger than I am and he has quite a bit of judo training, but he can no longer hold me FROM THE BACK.)
Although the book stands alone, it is especially useful if you have any of Saulo Ribeiro's Jiu-Jitsu Revolution 1 or 2, or Freestyle Revolution DVD sets. Although you don't "need" one to benefit from the other, the text gives the few CRITICAL points which is good for memorizing the techniques, while the videos show the moving details in case you are having trouble or something doesn't make sense.
Although the DVDs and book overlap, their is no sense of wasting time or money when using both.
(BTW, he in no sense means that you must wait to become a purple belt to learn the guard, but rather that the FOCUS is on a particular goal or position for each belt level. In the case of a purple belt, he is saying this is where you focus on MASTERING the guard.)
Is there anything wrong with it? No index, but the contents is so good this is not a deficiency and the book runs the content RIGHT to the last page wasting no space. Crappy font for cover title but how picky can I get? A VERY FEW mistakes in left-right or picture correspondence -- or maybe clarity and I misunderstood, but that isn't very detracting, although I would offer to edit the 2nd edition if they ever re-publish it.)
The techniques WORKS right out of the box (i.e., book) and if you practice it then it is even more valuable.
Much of it is SPECIFICS on HOW to grapple using the techniques as examples rather than as the only answers -- he is teaching grappling using techniques, not JUST a bunch of (useful) techniques. Saulo is teaching us to fish (do jiu-jitsu) WHILE he feeds us some very fine fish (techniques).
If you are a low rank jiu-jitsu play you MUST buy this book if you buy anything.
If you are teaching jiu-jitsu, you owe it to yourself and your students to have and understand this book.
I am reasonably sure that anyone in between (i.e., teacher and low level) will find this book superb, and probably the best, as well.
Top reviews from other countries
Layout is very nice when you need to find stuff. Loads of pictures and detailed explanations of moves.
I especially like how the book separates itself by belt ranks.
Very useful tips on where your head should be at when starting out in BJJ.
Ribeiro explains himself very clearly and the photos are easily understood and followed.
As someone pretty new to BJJ, I am finding the book very useful, not just for technique but also the mantel game. Setting yourself realistic goals and knowing what you should be capable of when rolling as white, blue etc...
As with most instructional books, this thing is oversized and slightly cumbersome to take on your working commute. Would be a cool idea to publish as PDF or interactive app to view on tablet. But this is a small complaint and the page size is necessary for the photos to be easily interpreted.
Back to my point. This book is brilliant. Get it.












