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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 796
EAN num: 9780977731596
ISBN number: 0977731596
Label: Victory Belt Publishing
Manufacturer: Victory Belt Publishing
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 272
Printing Date: September 15, 2006
Publishing house: Victory Belt Publishing
Sale Popularity Level: 33750
Studio: Victory Belt Publishing
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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 colour 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.
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Rated by buyers 
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The common misconception about the 10th Planet Jiujitsu system is that it is too advance for beginners to start with. If anything, it might actually be better for someone to skip traditional BJJ training and jump into the 10th Planet so he or she doesn't pick up any bad habits by learning a gi-based style with techniques that are low percentage in no-gi grappling, which is sadly an all too common sight in the grappling world. Even in most no-gi classes, they are just teaching modified gi jiu-jitsu where they try to compensate the lack of sleeves and collars with head and elbow control, head and wrist control or double wrist control. Not to say that techniques don't work, they work quite well against beginners, but they become lower and lower percentage as you face more experienced and tougher opponents. Head and arm grips, regardless of how well develeped your grip strength is, doesn't offer as much control over your opponent as a tight clinch with the rubber guard does and leaves you vulnerable to strikes if you're competing in mma. Rubber guard was designed for mma and no-gi grappling so you can go for submissions while preventing your opponent from posturing up, striking you, and possibly going for leglocks from inside your guard. The rubber guard, like the 10th Planet Jiujitsu system in general, is very easy to learn and follow because unlike most jiujitsu instructors, Eddie Bravo has his entire system mapped out with a clear pathway from one move to the subsequent with every move having its own quirky nickname. This book is very easy to follow and learn from because unlike most technique books, Eddie Bravo teaches an entires system of techniques and transitions between techniques as oppose to teaching a set of isolated techniques.
There is nothing fancy or advanced about the rubber guard, that is not to say that there aren't advanced rubber guard techniques. The only thing that is stopping the average person from learning the rubber guard is flexibility, which can be easily attained with 2 or 3 months of just doing knee and hip stretches everyday. Don't listen to the health club "experts" who will have you believe that you have no chance of becoming your flexible if you haven't taken yoga for 10 years or been doing gymnastics since the age of 4. You would have to become flexible to be a good jiujitsu player anyways, even if you choose not to make rubber guard a part of your game(which would be insane). People will have an easy time passing your guard if you lack flexibility and range of motion in your legs. There are many jiujitsu practioners who have the flexibility for rubber guard but don't use it because they only know the traditional bjj guard and they keep trying to go for triangle chokes and armbars against postured up opponents only to get constantly stuffed.
Even if you don't have the flexibility at the moment, there are still many useful half-guard and butterfly guard sweeps, submissions, and transitions in this book that will do a lot to help your game. Not to mention the spider web, which is a control position where you're going for the armbar from mount and hooking your opponent's near side leg to prevent him from scrambling. Eddie shows a couple techniques for breaking the arm free from the spider web that will higher your armbar percentages.
Buy this book along with Mastering the Twister(where Eddie covers his side control, mount, and back game in addition to transitions to the infamous "twister" submission hold) and study both of these books deeply, find a partner, and drill these techniques religiously because it will bring your game to a much higher level than taking an overpriced class with some Brazilian guy who forces his students to wear the gi and only teaches them extremely basic jiujitsu. Do the math, these books require an only one time payment of only $20 to $30 each along with a mat which cost about $100 something as oppose to paying the $175 to $200 a month tuition to the Gracie or Machado Academy. You're spending less money to not only learn a different style of jiujitsu, but a much more effective style of juijitsu which should be standard for mixed martial arts and no-gi grappling in my opinion.
Rated by buyers -
Eddie Bravo is one of the most outstanding and controversial figures in Jiu-Jitsu today, having received his Black Blet under the equally distinguished Jean-Jacques Machado. In addition, he holds the distinction of being the only American to submit a member of the legendary Gracie family in Jiu-Jitsu competition, a feat he accomplished against Royler Gracie at the 2003 Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling Championships.
Anyone who's trained Jiu-Jitsu knows that in the beginning, you spend a great deal of time on your back, and that it can be one of the most frustrating experiences in Martial Arts training. Exasperated White Belts find their Guards passed almost effortlessly, and end up floundering helplessly in Half-Guard or Side control, waiting for the inevitable submission. Even more advanced students often feel apprehension when fighting off their back, worried that a failed submission endeavor would cause them to lose position. Frustrated Jiu-Jitsu students of the world: Eddie Bravo has heard your cries, and written a book that will turn your Guard and Half-Guard into one of the most dangerous places your opponent could be!
Mastering the Rubber detail breaks down, in incredible detail, Eddie Bravo's entire bottom game and is a great tool for anyone interested in Jiu Jitsu.
Rated by buyers -
Eddie Bravo has spent years developing his Rubber-Guard system. He's even used it to beat Royler Gracie in competition. Now he presents the bulk of the system in one text. Good stuff.
I could have done without the intro. "Pot's great! It should be legalized! The Tobacco Mafia's holding down hemp!" Alright, Eddie. Whatever you say. He at least tried to relate this to BJJ by saying that smoking pot will give you a new way of seeing things. And taking 'roids will make you stronger and have a faster recovery time, but they're illegal too. It's actually somewhat convincing as a pro-pot argument, but completely out of place in a martial arts book, in my oppinion. Even his gi-versus-no-gi hypothetical question at the beggining of the book has the worst of racial steriotypes in it.
Anyway, once we get going, Eddie gives us some good stuff. He talks about the importance of flexibility, and provides the reader with some stretches. Next, it's on to the half-guard bottom game, a game that has sorely been ignored by too many people. Just working the various sweeps from this possition will improve your game. Next we get a butterfly guard game, always one of my favorites. This section's a bit bare, mostly covering sweeps and transitions to half- or rubber guard possitions. Then we finally hit the Rubber Guard itself, of which about 100 pages is devoted. We get control possitions (very important) and submissions. Good stuff. Following that is a short chapter on how to finish what Bravo calls the "Spider Web", which is a possition that sets you up for an armbar after one of his Rubber Guard sweeps. Mostly it's how to finish from here. Eddie finishes up with escapes into guard and half-guard possition from just about every possition you can think of. This is a valuable section, for nothing else than to get you from a defensive game to thinking offense again.
Now when it comes to Jiujitsu, Eddie shines. The Rubber Guard system is in my oppinion the best bottom game going, and we're seeing more and more of it in grappling and MMA competitions. Like almost all Victory Belt products, we're given clear colour photos, multiple camera angles, and color-coded sections. Bravo even includes a "rubber guard flow chart" at the beggining of the book. I found most of the instruction easy to understand and apply.
The down side? As I've said, the intro on pot was unnecessary. I also found some of Eddie's technique labels to be very obscure. Basically anytime he was allowed to talk about anything other than how to perform a technique, the book took a downturn. Also, while one of Bravo's big selling points is that the Rubber Guard is good for MMA, he doesn't actually do any MMA himself, which seems a bit funny. However, given its excellent format and highly-applicable techniques, I'm going to go ahead and give the book five stars.
Rated by buyers 
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Most people in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu know who Eddie Bravo is. There's a pretty obvious "love him or hate him" feel around. I'm happy to note, though that I'm one of the less boisterous people who fall into neither category. I just like anyone who can explain a concept to me so that I pick it up. And Eddie does that for me in this book.
A quick word, firstly, on Eddie's very first book - 'Jiu-Jitsu Unleashed'. I was going to give it a separate review until I received 'Mastering the Rubber Guard'. 'Jiu Jitsu Unleashed' was a reasonable book until the new one came along. 'Jiu Jitsu Unleashed' is a collection of techniques that Bravo uses in his game. It's got a good collection of anecdotes and shows Eddie's game and how it has come to be quite well. That said, the overlap with 'Mastering the Rubber Guard' is too much to warrant buying both - if you were wondering about that.
In fact, I felt quite disappointed in myself when 'Mastering' turned up. Why? Because I'd paid good money for 'Unleashed' just a couple of months before and this was so much better. Ultimately, though, I got a book that was twice as good, anyway. The exception is tht 'Unleashed' takes a bigger look at the Twister and Eddie's top game. Hold on, though. Victory Belt (the publishers) have 'Mastering the Twister' on the horizon.
Like 'Unleashed', 'Mastering' covers the main areas of Bravo's game. There are sections on the half guard and, obviously, the rubber guard. This time, however,we get sections on the butterfly guard, recovering the guard, Bravo's "Spider Web" control and a section on stretching.
Kudos to Bravo for realising not everyone has his flexibility and that they need to develop that attribute to make all the techniques work. Putting my S&C coach hat on (especially with my knees), I shake my head in disapproval of some of the stretches. Still, it's what Bravo does and they are all applicable to his game and the book. Just exercise some critical thinking. If you're in the group the stretches are likely to injure - don't do them.
I'm not going to get into details of the moves. What I am going to say is that they work for Bravo and his guys. They work for a lot of others, too. They might even work for you. The technique names have always been a bone of contention for some, too. Bravo is quick to explain that the names are devloped for coaching in competitions, so the opponent doesn't understand advice being given. I do the same thing with my guys to a large extent.
The book flows well, with a strategy for each position and a series of ideas to help achieve the techniques. For example, the "Whip Up" has been a bit of a boon for my half guard, depite it not being a technique, per se.
The book also contains a flow chart to help guide you through the Rubber Guard game. I've beeen flow charting for a couple of years now and can attest to the improvement and insights it gives you. Eddie gives you his own, personal flowchart.
I'm never going to use Eddie's whole game. I'm 6'7" and weigh the best part of 300 inflexible pounds. I bought the book to help my students and training partners. I've been pleasantly surprised to take some techniques and insights away, along with a better understanding of the 10th Planet system.
Insofar as production, it's good. It's colourful with good quality stock. Photographs are clear and plentiful. Since I'm a bit anal, I picked up some spelling and grammar errors and I hope they'll be picked up with better editing in future Victory Belt productions. But, ultimately, it's content I care about and this book has plenty of it.
Victory Belt's 'Mastering the Rubber Guard' Page
After giving this review to a couple of friends to look over for me, one pointed out the obvious philosophical differences between Eddie and myself and expressed surprise I'd give such a flattering review. Especially due to the drug references.
Let me say this..... Some of the language in the anecdotes is foreign to me and I find some analogies a little trite. I have never taken any illicit drug, including marijuana and am strictly anti-drug.
If you can't put these things behind you and they stand in the way of you buying the book, then too bad. You'll miss out on some quality instruction.
Rated by buyers -
This book is a must for any Jiu Jitsu practioner wanting to take his or her ground game to the subsequent level.
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