I Love this Book*
Everything that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Self-Defense Techniques by Royce Gracie and Charles Gracie with Kid Peligro is, this book isn’t.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Theory and Technique by Renzo Gracie and Royler Gracie (text by John Danaher, edited by Kid Peligro).
Apart from an oddly fawning introduction, I found this book to be stellar. It laid out a curriculum with logical progressions, included great pictures, and had great, clear explanations. No, reading the book won’t make you a BJJ black belt, but it will give you a much better technical understanding of what BJJ is like. Shockingly, BJJ has not collapsed with their ‘secrets’ out.
Detractors may point out that the first guard pass they teach is the dreaded ‘Gracie Gift’ (hello triangle choke!), and that there are some seemingly pointless lessons like tying your belt, single wrist grab defenses and so on, but that tells me that it’s the real thing. This is what Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is. This book is a great reference for those who want to learn more about Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. I felt it was worth every penny.
*This review was not influenced in any way resembling Royce Gracie visiting and me typing with one hand while being in an omoplata on my living room floor
