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Mastering the Rubber Guard: Jiu Jitsu for Mixed Martial Arts Competition
In Mastering the Rubber Guard, Eddie Bravo, the only American to submit a member of the legendary Gracie family in jiu-jitsu competition, reveals the techniques and strategy of the Rubber Guard, a revolutionary system of grappling designed specifically for the street and mixed martial arts competition.
Through descriptive narrative and nearly a thousand color photographs, Bravo teaches dozens of unique moves and submissions. Widely regarded as not only the most offensive, but also the most defensive, guard game in existence, the Rubber Guard will change the way you view and play jiu-jitsu.
Through descriptive narrative and nearly a thousand color photographs, Bravo teaches dozens of unique moves and submissions. Widely regarded as not only the most offensive, but also the most defensive, guard game in existence, the Rubber Guard will change the way you view and play jiu-jitsu.
272 pages, Paperback
First published September 30, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 4, 2009
It's no secret that I'm a total mark for Victory Belt's body of work. Co-authors Erich Krauss and Glen Cordoza have also done books with Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Randy Couture, B.J. Penn, Karo Parisyan, Marcelo Garcia and Anderson Silva and I've enjoyed them all.
Thanks to the generosity of the fine folks at Victory Belt, I've been able to go back and review some of their earliest publications like Eddie Bravo's Mastering the Rubber Guard.
Its hard to believe that its been two and a half years since Victory Belt and Bravo put out this tome. Its harder to remember how controversial Bravo was at the time -- his ideas were seen by some as heretical, unsound, impractical and unlikely to ever make an impact on MMA or competitive jiu jitsu.
Since then its gone from shocking when Shinya Aoki choked out Joachim Hansen with the first ever gogoplata submission win in MMA history to a cool but not unheard of submission. Nick Diaz's gogoplata win over Takanori Gomi and Brad Imes' two fight gogos streak helped establish the hold as a proven MMA fight winner.
The increasing popularity of no-gi grappling has also made Bravo's insistence on exclusive no-gi training much less controversial. The strong sustained sales of Bravos books and DVDs also speak to the penetration of his ideas in the MMA and grappling world.
Now on to the book itself. It pioneered the approach we've come to expect from Victory Belt -- lots of multi-angle color photos detailing each step of each move from multiple angles; step-by-step instructions; clear organization; color coded pages for easy reference; logical organization into sections and sub-sections. Clearly Victory Belt hit upon a winning formula here as the many successful follow-ups attest.
As the first of its kind there are some rough spots -- some minor grammar mistakes made it past the editors and in one or two instances right and left were confused in the descriptions -- not a minor problem when Bravo's moves are so complicated and often involve all four limbs. But overall, the book has earned its status as a classic of modern MMA/grappling training manuals.
As for Bravo's ideas....well the guy is pretty clearly a grappling genius. HIs style is more than just a bunch of techniques. Its a comprehensive system that literally maps out multiple plans of attack from virtually any ground position a competitor is likely to find himself in. Mastering the Rubber Guard covers roughly half of Bravo's system, the guard game. His top game is covered by Mastering the Twister which I'll review in the near future.
His approach is built on extreme flexibility which allows him to use all four limbs to control his opponents and protect himself while constantly working to improve his position. In that sense -- positional control as the top priority -- his is an approach to jiu jitsu very much in the Helio Gracie tradition. But in other aspects its very non-traditional.
A student of the Machado brothers, Carlos and Jean Jacques, Bravo doesn't pretend that his approach springs out of nowhere. Numerous moves are credited to other practitioners including the "Jean Jacques Sweep", "Frank Mir Ankle Lock" and "The FIlho." Nevertheless, Bravo's system is a big departure from any other jiu jitsu system I've seen, even such 21st Century innovators as Marcelo Garcia and Robert Drysdale.
I don't think Bravo's approach to jiu jitsu is for everyone, but I do think understanding it is a must for anyone serious about understanding the modern MMA game on the ground. His approach is already dramatically changing how Jiu Jitsu is applied to MMA and I expect his influence will only increase as more fighters learn his systems and incorporate them into their game.
One thing I do need to mention about the book though, the introduction by Bravo and forward by Joe Rogan are pretty worthless and infuriating. Bravo babbles endlessly about all kinds of irrelevant crap from his failed career in heavy metal to his miracle love for marijuana and Rogan follows his lead. Its pretty easy to skim those sections and they don't detract from the book too much.
The other eccentricity of Bravo's is his insistence on unusual names for moves and positions -- "Crackhead Control" "Mission Control" "New York" -- etc. Apparently they work for him and his students. I think their unconventionality might make them harder for others to remember and adopt. I expect that the moves most associated with Bravo's system and the most widely used will retain the names he's given, others will revert to more conventional "Roll from half-guard" sorts of names.
All-in-all this was a really amazing read. Bravo's ideas are as complicated as the positions he describes and require quite a bit of concentration to absorb. For those who actually train, I would expect this book to take months to really digest and potentially years to thoroughly work into your jiu jitsu game.
Thanks to the generosity of the fine folks at Victory Belt, I've been able to go back and review some of their earliest publications like Eddie Bravo's Mastering the Rubber Guard.
Its hard to believe that its been two and a half years since Victory Belt and Bravo put out this tome. Its harder to remember how controversial Bravo was at the time -- his ideas were seen by some as heretical, unsound, impractical and unlikely to ever make an impact on MMA or competitive jiu jitsu.
Since then its gone from shocking when Shinya Aoki choked out Joachim Hansen with the first ever gogoplata submission win in MMA history to a cool but not unheard of submission. Nick Diaz's gogoplata win over Takanori Gomi and Brad Imes' two fight gogos streak helped establish the hold as a proven MMA fight winner.
The increasing popularity of no-gi grappling has also made Bravo's insistence on exclusive no-gi training much less controversial. The strong sustained sales of Bravos books and DVDs also speak to the penetration of his ideas in the MMA and grappling world.
Now on to the book itself. It pioneered the approach we've come to expect from Victory Belt -- lots of multi-angle color photos detailing each step of each move from multiple angles; step-by-step instructions; clear organization; color coded pages for easy reference; logical organization into sections and sub-sections. Clearly Victory Belt hit upon a winning formula here as the many successful follow-ups attest.
As the first of its kind there are some rough spots -- some minor grammar mistakes made it past the editors and in one or two instances right and left were confused in the descriptions -- not a minor problem when Bravo's moves are so complicated and often involve all four limbs. But overall, the book has earned its status as a classic of modern MMA/grappling training manuals.
As for Bravo's ideas....well the guy is pretty clearly a grappling genius. HIs style is more than just a bunch of techniques. Its a comprehensive system that literally maps out multiple plans of attack from virtually any ground position a competitor is likely to find himself in. Mastering the Rubber Guard covers roughly half of Bravo's system, the guard game. His top game is covered by Mastering the Twister which I'll review in the near future.
His approach is built on extreme flexibility which allows him to use all four limbs to control his opponents and protect himself while constantly working to improve his position. In that sense -- positional control as the top priority -- his is an approach to jiu jitsu very much in the Helio Gracie tradition. But in other aspects its very non-traditional.
A student of the Machado brothers, Carlos and Jean Jacques, Bravo doesn't pretend that his approach springs out of nowhere. Numerous moves are credited to other practitioners including the "Jean Jacques Sweep", "Frank Mir Ankle Lock" and "The FIlho." Nevertheless, Bravo's system is a big departure from any other jiu jitsu system I've seen, even such 21st Century innovators as Marcelo Garcia and Robert Drysdale.
I don't think Bravo's approach to jiu jitsu is for everyone, but I do think understanding it is a must for anyone serious about understanding the modern MMA game on the ground. His approach is already dramatically changing how Jiu Jitsu is applied to MMA and I expect his influence will only increase as more fighters learn his systems and incorporate them into their game.
One thing I do need to mention about the book though, the introduction by Bravo and forward by Joe Rogan are pretty worthless and infuriating. Bravo babbles endlessly about all kinds of irrelevant crap from his failed career in heavy metal to his miracle love for marijuana and Rogan follows his lead. Its pretty easy to skim those sections and they don't detract from the book too much.
The other eccentricity of Bravo's is his insistence on unusual names for moves and positions -- "Crackhead Control" "Mission Control" "New York" -- etc. Apparently they work for him and his students. I think their unconventionality might make them harder for others to remember and adopt. I expect that the moves most associated with Bravo's system and the most widely used will retain the names he's given, others will revert to more conventional "Roll from half-guard" sorts of names.
All-in-all this was a really amazing read. Bravo's ideas are as complicated as the positions he describes and require quite a bit of concentration to absorb. For those who actually train, I would expect this book to take months to really digest and potentially years to thoroughly work into your jiu jitsu game.
February 15, 2008
Great for those looking for more jiu-jitsu moves, but can't necesarily find a good gym/instructor to practice with. Good color photos on high-quality pages take you through the moves step by step (and most from different angles as well) to give you a complete idea of the moves, with simple, easy to follow instructions to walk you through the process.
The only thing that is a little out there is (as most people who have reviewed this book will say and agree with me on) is the introduction. It is filled with how the author basically lived a "hollow, empty existence," with no real joy or emotion in his life. That is, until he was introduced to pot, and how now that he smokes weed, that his whole world has changed, he's a better person, his jiu-jitsu game is much better and blah blah blah. Slightly interesting, but unnecessary in a book like this. A good book nevertheless, and I am anticipating the arrival of its sequel.
The only thing that is a little out there is (as most people who have reviewed this book will say and agree with me on) is the introduction. It is filled with how the author basically lived a "hollow, empty existence," with no real joy or emotion in his life. That is, until he was introduced to pot, and how now that he smokes weed, that his whole world has changed, he's a better person, his jiu-jitsu game is much better and blah blah blah. Slightly interesting, but unnecessary in a book like this. A good book nevertheless, and I am anticipating the arrival of its sequel.
January 16, 2024
A very good book to understand rubber guard, the lockdown, and the butterfly guard. Before I state my criticisms, Eddie Bravo is a very large inspiration for me and his innovations are not even fully realized today, the notes are more for myself and future readers to read rather than as criticisms of the content itself. Not an entire fan of every single technique but im sure it would be very different if we wrote it now a days, for example, most of his rubber guard is reliant on full rubber guard positions when nowadays the gogo clinch seems to be the method, as seen by masters such as the boogeyman and ben eddy in their recent competitions. Positions such as the meat hook don't seem to be used much anymore due to the leg clamp and shoulder crunch. Further, i also found his method of finishing the gogo/loco plata to be slightly outdated and more arduous than now a days, but again time. Instead, finishing with your hands around the neck tends to prove more effective in my experience as the individual cannot push the foot away, but once you are that far in the submission series, it is unlikely they are escaping anyways. The book also had lots of reliance on slammable submissions (in adcc/mma rulesets), but it showed a full spectrum of other submissions to choose from. Could have also elaborated more so on topics such as x guard which conjoin very well with no-gi guard, but again it already showed 272 pages of techniques. The Jiu-claw section was brilliant and i will have to try out all the moves included in it. Overall, I went into this book not expecting much and for it to be dated, but it has helped my lockdown, rubber guard, and butterfly game, i would highly recommend all bjj/mma practitioners to try it out.
October 26, 2018
Very in-depth explanations of movements
October 11, 2016
Damn. The introduction was worth the whole price of this book. Eddie Bravo somehow works in getting stoned, into the whole equation of his brazilian jiu jitsu system. In submission wrestling/grappling/bjj the aggressive styles were dominating compettions. Until someone like Jean jaques Machado came around, no one understood the overhook for sub. grappling. Locking down your opponent forced them to play your game. Jean Machado had no fingers so he couldn't grip, so he used the overhook to dominate wrestlers. The rubberguard is basically a overhook lock down with the leg. In mission control you can't be hurt, and can execute a game plan from the position.
To lockdown a strong aggressive opponent to recuperate the r.g. is great. Playing it for submissions will though, will take a high skill level and an opponent's ignorance of the r.g.
Glad eddie is around! mahalo
To lockdown a strong aggressive opponent to recuperate the r.g. is great. Playing it for submissions will though, will take a high skill level and an opponent's ignorance of the r.g.
Glad eddie is around! mahalo
May 4, 2007
Fantastically and richly detailed. Extensive high-quality, color photos and explanations lay out the framework for this most unique of BJJ practitioners. Truly innovative and ground-breaking work organized in a superb fashion. I'll be purchasing any book this guy puts out.
Just don't bother with his 50-page introduction on why you should smoke marijuana.
Just don't bother with his 50-page introduction on why you should smoke marijuana.
July 4, 2010
The book is incredible. I cannot say enough about it. I practice Jiu Jitsu, and Eddie Bravo has truly come up with a new concept in the area of Jiu Jitus. This has changed the way I train Jiu Jitsu in many ways. The book presents ideas on the issues of a very aggressive guard, and I find it incredible.
January 9, 2012
I know it might seem strange, and no, I don't feel the need to explain, but this book seriously sparked a major epiphany which changed my entire life view and I'm not even touching on the truly revolutionary techniques which are the ground level for anyone looking to be a student of 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu's Rubber Guard System.
January 9, 2014
Great book about the special half guard of Eddie Bravo and ofcourse his rubber guard. I still use the rubber guard and the oldschool sweep from this book. Be carefull though that you don't skipp learning the basics just because you want to do rubber guard.
Read
May 31, 2008Pretty Useful stuff.
November 15, 2008
Eddie Bravo annoys me to no end, but he's god some good jiu jitsu. The rubber guard has been a stable in my guard game since I first discovered it.
December 30, 2013
Awesome book. It took my half guard game to an all new level.
March 25, 2015
Essential for anyone who wants to quickly advance on to higher levels of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews