Jiu-jitsu University (Paperback)

This book has deservedly received a lot of great reviews. There are a couple factors that distinguish this book from other jiu-jitsu books covering different areas of the game (guard passing, maintaining guard, escapes, submissions, etc.):1. Each technique is one that has been successfully applied against top notch competition by Saulo or his brother Xande Ribeiro, who is also a world champion in BJJ.2. Each technique is shaped by Saulo's approach to BJJ, where emphasis is placed on obtaining good posture and position to facilitate both defense and attack. Attacks launched from bad positions are not going to succeed against a strong opponent. Instead, such suspect attacks will leave one open to a much more devastating counter.The benefit of launching attacks from strong positions is (a) they are more likely to succeed; (b) even if the attack fails, you are less vulnerable to a counter; and (c) establishing good posture and position is also critical to maintaining a successful defense. In short, what Saulo attempts to do is establish core techniques which put you in good position to both defend and attack.3. Saulo explains the risk minimization benefits of each technique, and also shows "mistakes" that, in his experience, hurt you. Ironically, some of those "mistakes" are standard moves. Basically, Saulo is saying that jiujitsu has evolved; don't stick with yesterday's moves against today's competition when the counter is well known. Saulo also shows positional reasons why he thinks some of the standard moves don't work as well as they used to.4. Not all, but several of the techniques are linked together so you have a clear roadmap of what to do.This book also has an interesting philosophy to organizing techniques, although I'm not sure I agree fully with it. Saulo sets goals for each belt. White belt is about survival (i.e., avoid submissions), blue belt escapes, purple belt The Guard, brown belt Passing the Guard, black belt Submissions.This unique belt organization system has a couple of benefits. First, it makes the techniques incredibly easy to organize. If you have a half guard question, open up to the purple tabs in the book. If you're looking for an escape, check out the blue tab portions of the book. Second, this unique way of looking at belts meshes with Saulo's philosophy, that good offense is based on good posture, position and defense, because you can launch your offense confident that you are not vulnerable to counter, and even if you are countered, you know how to avoid submission and/or escape. Based on this philosophy, it makes sense to focus on survival (i.e., avoiding submissions) and escapes before learning top and bottom guard game and submissions.The drawbacks to Saulo's belt system are that it's unrealistic. I can't see going through white belt level knowing only how to survive. This system may work if, as a white belt, you are only sparring with purple belts and above, but if you are also sparring with other white belts, somebody has to know how to launch an attack, pull guard or pass guard. Saulo seems to acknowledge this problem as he states somewhere in the book that he does provide his white belts with tools other than just survival techniques.I am not trying to be critical of Saulo's belt system, despite some inherent drawbacks. Every approach to presenting the vast body of work that is BJJ has its pluses and minuses, and Saulo's unique approach is as good as any I've seen, and better than presenting random techniques.It was also interesting to note Saulo's philosophy on The Guard position, which IMO is unique to BJJ and what made me interested in this martial art in the first place. Saulo believes that The Guard should be viewed as an inherently disadvantageous position because you are fighting both your opponent and gravity; therefore be aggressive in your guard. The standard attacks from the Guard and the counters to them are well known and not as successful as they used to be. Saulo believes that if you maintain good defense and posture on top and frustrate bottom's attacks, you should be able to wear bottom out with the help of gravity. Saulo is also a black belt in judo and he makes it clear that he prefers to dominate on top, not unusual for a BJJer with a judo background.I don't think Saulo is alone in his assessment that standard Guard techniques are not as effective as they used to be. Eddie Bravo in Mastering Rubber Guard and Marcelo Garcia in X Guard basically say the same thing; they developed their specialty guard positions because they weren't satisfied with the declining results from standard guard positions. I guess as BJJ evolves the X Guard and Rubber Guard will also see declining success.I only have three criticisms of this book:A. No takedown section. It's not critical IMO because BJJ has always been about the ground game. However, without a few takedowns Jiu-Jitsu University cannot be called a complete book. You can always supplement with Dave Camarillo's Guerrilla Jiujitsu, which focuses on using judo's standup game to takedown and then transition to BJJ techniques to get the submission or an advantageous top game.B. Most of the time (like 95%) Saulo is doing the action wearing a blue gi, but sometimes the white gi is performing the technique. It only takes a second to figure out, "Oh, it's the white gi this time," so it's a minor point. However, this book is so good and has such a high production value, it would have been nice to get these little details perfect.C. Black belt submissions section is basic. Submissions are covered, but they are shown how to be done from one position. It would have been nice to see how each submission could be done from various guard positions, or while passing guard. However, it may not be possible to cover that much ground with each of the submissions shown.In conclusion, this book is just phenomenal and it's obvious a lot of work was put into this book. The criticisms I make are really minor compared to the overall incredible quality and depth of knowledge presented. If you had to get just one book on BJJ, this would be it.Both Saulo Ribeiro and Victory Belt should be commended for publishing the new gold standard in BJJ books.