Submission Grappling Techniques by Royler Gracie - January, 2006

I got a bit excited and gave this book five stars. I like the book a lot, but it's not in the same ballpark as "The Guard" and "Passing the Guard". It helped me, though. And, it's good to see how Royler puts it together.

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From One of the Best..... Ever

We all know about Helio Gracie's sons. They have their champions in each arena and Royler's game seems to be submission wrestling. He is a perennial competitor at the ADCC championships and has come away with his share of medals.

Royler is a natural instructor and likes to teach by showing the techniques. Teaming up with Peligro has proven to be a bit of a masterstroke. Peligro is a well credentialled writer, but has the advantage of being a BJJ black belt and being very familiar with the Gracie family, themselves.

This family of books (Peligro) is always well organised and well photographed. This organisation and photography has improved over time, as well, and these later books are close to the best books in the market. The only ones surpassing them are the Ed Beneville books on the Guard and Passing the Guard.

In this book, Royler spends a significant portion of the text talking about adaptation of the gi game to no-gi and training for each type of competition. His discussion of strategy and the mental game is an important part of this book and separates this volume from many other books in the genre.

First, Royler covers grips and controls. These are well known to wrestlers, but this an area the jiu jitsu practitioner needs to get right to play no-gi. He follows this with drills for the basics. Stuff we all need. You've probably seen the drills before, but have you used them? Maybe it's time you did!

Following this is a fairly in-depth look at standing grappling. Takedowns, takedown defences and using those grips and controls from earlier are covered.

The standup section is good. Workman like, though. It's stuff you need to work on. The next section is the bit we buy the book for. It's when the man talks ground work. Surprising to some, Royler's game is basic. The techniques string together into a game. Royler shows how to combine techniques that flow together and shows details that make them work.

The book is well worth it for the gi grappler who is looking to improve his or her no-gi game. Equally, it is for anyone who wants to see what is working for the man, himself.