The Gracie Way
(Book Review)

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Craaaaack. Another home run for the Kid. Kid Peligro has turned out to be the top martial arts writer of the 21st century. He has churned out a half dozen or more book in a few short years. Each book is better than the last. Each book sets a new standard for quality production. Well written text, logical layout and clear color photo make a winning combination. It is hard not to love his books. Kid's book with Royce Gracie called "Ultimate Fighting Techniques Volume 1: the Top Game" is no exception. This an extremely high quality book from the first page to the last. This also appears to be the first of a series of books that will come out. This one is exclusively devoted to the "top game." I can only guess that the next book will cover the "bottom game."

This might come as a surprise to those thinking about buying this book; this is a SPORT BJJ book. I know this is hard to believe. The book is clearly misnamed. Since the book is called Ultimate Fighting Techniques and has a picture of Royce fighting in the UFC on the cover, you might assume that this was a NHB or Vale Tudo book. This is a pure sports book and a darn good one. This might just be the best sport BJJ book on the market.

I don't know if creating a sport BJJ book was their intention, but that's what the book ended up being. Those that would argue otherwise will note that there is little or no punching shown in the book. The fighters both are wearing Gi's. Even Royce does not wear a Gi top these days when fighting NHB. To top it off, Royce shows many techniques that require a Gi to execute. Let me know how many NHB fights last year were won by a Gi choke. This is NOT a Vale Tudo fighting book. Despite the trappings of a Vale Tudo book, there does not seem to have been much of an effort to make this anything other than a sport BJJ book. I just think it was too tempting to market this book based on Royce's legendary UFC reputation. Royce has never been a force in sports BJJ.

Royce walks you through the basics of the "top game." This included takedowns, clinching drills, passing the guard and half-guard, and side control. The book then moves on to cover attacking a turtled opponent, knee on chest, the mount, side mount back attacks, and arm locks. The theme is the "top game." These are all positions that have you on top of your opponent in a superior position.

Not to beat a dead horse, but Royce on page 112 shows the "Stacking Guard Pass." This is our old friend called "put me in the triangle and choke the crap out of me" guard pass. In this iteration, Royce has put a disclaimer on the technique that, in part states, "many practitioners shied away from using this type of pass because they ended up caught in a triangle, but if done correctly, with proper posture, mechanics, the passer controls the position the entire time with no danger of submission," This sound strangely like a recipe for preparing Fugu. You know the sushi made from a blowfish (Diodon holacanthus) that if not prepared by a licensed chef will kill you. One mistake and you are off to the hospital. This was a great guard pass until Rolls Gracie had to go and learn the triangle choke from Judo and ruin the fun for all of us. Like I said, you have been warned by both Royce and I.

However, don't let any of this take away from the fact that this is great sports book. The moves take you from the very basics to an intermediate level. There is nothing advanced in this book. That's just fine. The pictures are clear and large. There is a lot of well written thought-out text to go along with each photo.

Bottom Line:
This is an excellent book. Kid and Royce have raised the bar for sport BJJ books. My only real reservation about the book is the title. I am afraid that many people will buy a book called Ultimate Fighting Techniques and think they are getting a book on Vale Tudo Fighting. Make no mistake, this almost entirely a sport BJJ book. For those that are just starting out, this is a great resource. You will have to wait for the subsequent books to round out your game. Just in case end up on the bottom. If this book is an example of things to come, we all have something to look forward to with volume 2.

Bill Lewis BJJ33@aol.com
© Copyright Bill Lewis 2005 all rights reserved.