A few weeks ago,  I received the most anticipated bjj book in history, Saulo Ribeiro's Jiu-Jitsu University.  This is a massive 368 pages of bjj philosophy and technique.  For anyone that has been under a rock for the last few years, Saulo is a six time World Champion and multiple time ADCC Champ.  He has also coached his brother Xande to many championships as well.  His ability to practice the art goes without question, but the beauty of Saulo is that he may just be the best instructor as well. 

I was first introduced to his techniques via his groundbreaking dvd series.  That was the first set that really delivered for me - meaning I took things directly to the mat and put them to use right away.  If you are a fan of those dvds as well, you'll be happy to know that Saulo continues to use the same moves and communicates them exceedingly well in this new magnus opus.

Let's talk structure.  There are many books on the market and they all take a different approach.  Some organize by technique types (attacks, escapes, etc), others by belt (white to black), others by perceived complexity (beginner, advanced, etc).  I am usually not a fan of organizing by belt since I tend to beleive that there are no "advanced" moves, but Saulo does structure, at first glance, by belt level.  However, that is not really the case in practice.  The organization is a hybrid.  He essentially tells what the focus must be for each belt (ie. escapes for blue, guard for purple) and then dives in deeply.  He acknowledges that everyone needs to know everything, buts its a matter of focus.  In this regard it works very well. 

The white belt section is fantastic.  It is all about survival via posture.  I think the bjj world is just catching up to Saulo in this regard.  Posture is everything and the sooner you learn the right postures, the better off you'll be.  We always say to avoid the fancy stuff and get your postures down - Saulo shows each position, the appropriate posture and importantly, the common mistakes.  Personally this section reminded me of a lot of the details shown on his dvd sets.  It was a nice refresher and if you don't have his dvds, you need these postures.

The blue belt section is focused on escapes.  For me this is perfect and I am really trying to focus on escapes these days.  Being comfortable escaping the essential as it gives you confindence.  What I really like is Saulo has a simple escape game.  It uses a consistent movements and philosophies from everywhere.  In essence allowing you to ingrain a few movements and be safe as opposed to having to learn specialized positioning from everywhere.  I learned a ton in this section.  There were a lot of points where I picked up little adjustments that I know will help immensly. 

However, for me there were three escape highlights: (1) Knee on Belly Escape (2) Triangle Escape and (3) Armbar Counter.  These were all areas where I have a more traditiona escape game that Saulo proceeded to break into a thousand pieces.  Very, very valuable - Alone, these details are honeslty priceless.  I am really excited to try a few of these escapes on the mat in the coming weeks.

Let's talk about the purple section...

It can be ordeded here.