BJJ Self Defense Book Royce Gracie

First off, I'm a big fan of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and among all the martial arts and fighting systems out there I rate it very highly. If there was just one martial art I could learn for self defense it would most probably be BJJ due to its proven track record of being very effective in a real situation. I'm talking about the street version, like what Rickson Gracie is trying to keep from disappearing, not the sports orientated version that has become so popular in recent years.

Right, with that out of the way, this is not a very good book. While it does have some good chapters, or "Positions" as the book calls it, the book is deeply flawed by the gun and knife defense and disarms. They are not very realistic, and would be very dangerous to try and pull of in a real life situation while you have a gun pointed at you!. Some of these moves could very well get you killed.

That's why this book, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Self-Defense Techniques (UK link to the book) is not recommended. It looks like Royce Gracie was just riding on the back of his fame from winning the Ultimate Fighting Champion chip and thought, I know, I'll bring out a self defense book and everyone will buy it because everyone is going crazy for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu after seeing me win the UFC. Sadly, it looks like all he thought of was the dollar signs and followed that old and silly, mechanical, self defense book model which mostly shows moves that would only work in a controlled environment (Gym - Dojo). If there's decent resistance and some unpredictability, which there will be in a real situation, most of this book is rather useless. Any person who's been in real life, unpredictable situations will know 8 out of 10 times it won't work.

The book does have some good moves, covering some basic things like how important it is to have a good base, escaping from a rear bear hug, headlocks, standing guillotine, some throws, take downs etc. But there's nothing in this book that you can't just go on to youtube and watch people actually performing. This will give you a much better idea of how to execute the moves, and its free. I suppose this could apply to most books these days that show self defense moves in sequence. However, some books just have that special something, and watching the moves on Youtube just doesn't cut it. It's a pleasure to actually own the book. I'm sure you own, or have owned at least one of them over the years. This isn't one of those books.

Although I'm a big fan of BJJ, this book could have been much better if they didn't add any gun or knife disarms and defenses and focused more on actual effective street Gracie Jiu-Jitsu like double, single leg take downs, escaping the mount, triangles, and ground control. Maybe even some chapters showing some of the exercises / drills for improving your Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu game that you can do at home without a partner. You know, some of the exercises that the champ UFC does! But no..This book doesn't hit the spot. Some people love it, and the reviews are mixed. My verdict: Give it a miss.