They
are not a good books, they are superb books. In fact,
because I think they are so good I will be highly critical
of them. But lets start with the positives. The techniques
themselves are very good many I had seen, but there
were more that I hadn't, at least not as well explained.
I couldn't find a single technique that I thought was
a page filler which is extremely rare. Many of the techniques
I have used in training and I can vouch for their effectiveness.
The production value is excellent, large glossy pages,
clear pictures, good descriptions and some very handy
hints. There is some interesting history and a some
personal view points by John himself.
So
what are the negatives? To be honest after being less
than impressed by some of the BJJ books out there and
then to see this, after reading it you think why cant
all books be this good. I had the misfortune of buying
Rigan Machado's toilet roll, sorry book, on the strength
of the quality of this book and if you read my earlier
review, it seems almost unbelievable that Rigan's student
could knock out something that shows just how little
Rigan wanted to show.
I
thought that John was a little short on praise for the
Gracies especially the influence of Royce. He actually
only mentions the Gracie name once and doesn't refer
to any of Royce's victories in the UFC, which is a shame
seeing of their huge significance. I know it's a Machado
book but without the filthy rich Gracies you wouldn't
have the filthy rich Machados.
I
would have liked to have seen the books done in colour
and gone into just a little more detail in some of the
escapes, but these are minor criticisms, overall this
series of books are the best that are available at the
moment. Even my highly regarded Ippon series drops from
the Premier division after receiving these books and
that takes some doing. John also does a book on the
guard and this I thought was even better with some fantastic
tips and techniques. If you only ever buy three books
on BJJ in your whole grappling lifespan then get these.
I give them all five stars, A+, ten brownie points,
and a BAFTA.
