The Essence Of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu; Rigan Machado

This weeks review features Rigan Machado's book The Essence of Brazilian Jiujitsu.

Rigan begins the book with a question and answer segment that brilliantly addresses several important topics such as Gi vs. No Gi training, as well as the different approaches involved.
An interesting key point that's brought up is the distinction betwen controlling entire regions of your opponents body without the gi whereas with the gi you nee to control specific points.
His philosophy concerning trining for sport and self defense is discussed as well.
The second chapter goes into discussing various armlocks from basics to more advanced.
He does an excellent job of breaking them down and showing the specific etails involved.
The basic armlocks from the guard, cross side and mount are covered as well as standing armlocks and the Flying armbar.
Chapter three looks at Leg Locks.
Again a look at the basics but there are even a few rare leg locks thrown in as well as some positional variations of the knee bar from outside in, inside out, the half guard and north south. Very interesting and rare setups for a foot lock from inside the guard and even from bottom mount are featured as well.
An array of heel hooks and their setups are shown as well.
The chapter ends off with more advanced takedowns directly to knee bars.
Chapter four takes on the topic of Chokes.
It starts off with some details on subtleties involved and then goes right into the techniques like the previous chapters.
Although the majority of the chokes demonstated are with the gi, there are still quite a few no gi chokes shown like the basics, the rear naked choke, the triangle, as well as the rear triangle.If you are looking for gi chokes though, then this book is a great resource. Covering all the necessary gi chokes including the clock choke.
Chapter 5 is my personal favorite chapter as it is dedicated to No Gi techniques.
That is Techniques that are specifically adapted for applying to an opponent who's not wearing a gi.
This chapter looks at a variety of techniques; chokes, leg and arm locks.
Specific details on setting up and controling the opponent without the gi are given and again the photo sequences are excellently depicted.
Overall this book serves as a great resource for anyone who already trains in Jiujitsu and grappling and wants to have a visual training aid to remember key points of different moves. Beginners looking for a good introduction to grappling and those just looking to check it out will also find this book very useful.
More advanced practitioners won't learn anything new here but will find it useful as a reference manual and reminder of the key points of submission.
The only real lacking point is that the key points involved in positions aren't covered in greater detail.
Other than that this book is still highly recommended for the purposes listed above.