Advanced BJJ by Marcelo Garcia

[FiveRingRonin]

Originally Posted by Aesopian

What do you consider advanced? Marcelo is showing what works for him at the highest levels of competition.

He called the book advanced and I think it's good stuff that works but I just expected more. I don't consider opening the guard advance or wrestling basic wrestling takedowns or the guillotine choke, stuff like that. Maybe if he didn't call it advanced. People are pretty defensive of this book, it's just my opinion.

[henno]

I think that it just that your idea of advanced is more along the lines of "the latest shiny nu skool moves". Marcelo's is "this is what works for me at the highest most advanced level".

In a general sense, there wasn't a lot in there that I was completely unfamiliar with, but there was a wealth of advanced "details" and insights that have given me a real leg up in each of the areas he goes into in the book. If you already knew 90% of this stuff then you are both lucky and well informed.

[Mike Ryan]

I got a lot out of the book even though I've had an on and off subscription to his website for years. One might look at the back control section and think, "Oh, seatbelt again, I already know that," but there are a lot of advanced details in that section. It's simple stuff in a way, but I wasn't even ready to see some of the details until I'd been working with the positions for years. I'm sure I'll see more details in a few more years.

[FiveRingRonin]

Originally Posted by Mike Ryan

I got a lot out of the book even though I've had an on and off subscription to his website for years. One might look at the back control section and think, "Oh, seatbelt again, I already know that," but there are a lot of advanced details in that section. It's simple stuff in a way, but I wasn't even ready to see some of the details until I'd been working with the positions for years. I'm sure I'll see more details in a few more years.

How is his website?

[Mike Ryan]

The website is top notch. It's basically a camera inside his academy. There are videos of the techniques he teaches each day and of his rolling sessions. Everything is searchable and some of the live rolling is broken down into clips of individual techniques. Like you mentioned before, Marcelo only uses a handful of techniques, but the website helps you find the details and transitions that are easy to miss. It's my main source outside my academy. I'll probably stick with it until my subscription ends in September and then move on to some DVDs for a while. I'll probably go back eventually, though.