Technical Book Recommendations

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/tags/victory-belt

I would think something from the Victory Belt line of books is definitely what you want.

-BJJ
I have quite a few books
- BJ Penn’s the closed guard is great; but is mainly attacking from the guard and transitions from your back to sweeps or subs.

- eddie bravos books : they are good but really unless you are trying to use your flexiblitiy as a weapon then im not sure how it would apply in mma.

-saulo riberto (SP?) jiu Jitsu University : is great, it has lots of surviving and escapes. It covers lots of positional grapplingg then adds in submissions.

I also study demain Maias DVDs, i mainly use the books as a reference when i get stuck or i am trying to link or chain moves together.

I just bought one of Victory Belts Books and am porbably gonna buy a Jiujitsu only book since my ground game needs a bit of work (specially from the bottom)

I’d recommend BJ Pen’s book. It’s one of the best for MMA grappling, take-downs, sweeps, subs etc. If you arent going to train grappling in the Gi then I wouldnt recommend any of the traditional BJJ books as Gi and no-Gi are very different.

BEST JUDO by Isao Inokuma
That book is the shit. The author also was the last Japanese man to commit traditional seppukku, so he’s pretty much badassness.

The Judo Masterclass Series is also pretty dope.

I have Fedor, Randy, and Bravo’s twister book. Also a small bruce Lee self defense book where every page ends w/ some schmo getting kicked in the nuts.

My absolute favorite one though is Judo Gene Lebell’s Encyclopedia of Finishing Holds. it’ massive. Some moves are just for show but many of them work. It doesn’t show any setups so a beginner cant really make any use of it. Gene Lebell also throws more humor into his book than anyone else.

2nd place is the Fedor book. It has a lot of ‘why didnt i think of that moments’. I was suprised at what I picked up from the striking sections.

Randy’s book was good for me but not sure it’s for everyone. i have a lot of grappling experience but little true take-down knowledge. So it almost works like a textbook. I’ll learn something in wrestling class and suddenly I’ll recognize it in the book. It’ll explain the ‘why’ of how the technique works so in that sense I can refine something from class as well as remember it more easily.

Bravo’s twister is too complicated for me. I can’t even get the white belts with it. I probably just need to give it to my jujitsu coach and see what he thinks.

I really enjoy the Victory Belt series. I own Karo’s Judo for MMA, which is fantastic, and Greg Jackson’s for standup (but I haven’t actually gotten around to reading that one yet) that KidNate did a great review on and Luke has a comment on the backcover, so it can’t be bad.

One thing that helps me a LOT for learning techniques are looking up videos. Submissions101.com has some great stuff, and not all of it is rubber-guard based.

I got the Ultimate Mixed Martial Artist in the mail the other day, it really is an awesome book.