BJJ Tips: Recommended Books and DVDs

Building your BJJ/Grappling library is a lot of fun! But where do you start? and just as importantly, where do you stop?

A quick search on the web will show you a million and one books, DVDs and dowloadable files that all claim to be "Essentials", "Fundamental", "You-Can't-Survive-Without-It"...etc. But a question came up the other day:

What constitutes a good start, or a bare minimum?

The way I see it, from an educational point of view, good starter-kit materials need to:

1. Have an author who wants to teach. Not just show you the cool shit (s)he's come up with, but teach it!
2. Focus on the fundamentals as defined by Pareto's rule (20% of the total of the moves but used 80% of the time)
3. Break the moves into digestible chunks with lots of details that make or break the move
4. Build the moves into chains and game-plans
5. Good production quality

With that in mind, I believe the BJJ/No Gi Grappling list below is a good starting point. If you are going to buy nothing else, buy everything Saulo Ribiero has ever written or produced. Not only is his performance amazing, but he is such a fantastic teacher, and that's what you really need. Otherwise, you might as well just get some Mundial Finals DVDs and wing it!

Books:
Standing:
Gi: Dave Camarillo, Guerilla Jiu-jitsu: Revolutionizing Brazilian Jiu-jitsu
No Gi: Randy Couture, Wrestling for Fighting

Ground:
Gi: Saulo Ribiero, Jiu-jitsu University: The Daddy of BJJ books!
Kid Peligro & Rodrigo Medeiros Essential Guard
No Gi: Antonio Nogueira, The Guard
Eddie Bravo: Mastering the Rubber Guard & Mastering the Twister

DVDs:

Standing:
Gi: Saulo Ribeiro - Jiu-Jitsu Revolution Series 2
Dave Camarillo, Position Impossible
No Gi: Saulo Ribeiro - Freestyle Revolution

Ground:
Gi: Saulo Ribeiro Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Revolution Series One & Saulo Ribeiro - Jiu-Jitsu Revolution Series 2
Roy Harris, You can find his great material from BudoVideos
Cesar Gracie Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Instructional 9 Volumes on 3 DVD's!
SBGi Cross Side Top: Pressures & Concepts DVD , Cliff Notes Version

No Gi: Saulo Ribeiro - Freestyle Revolution

I have a few more books and DVDs but I don't in any way feel that they are necessary for someone starting out. Heck, if Saulo's stuff had come out earlier, there is a great chance I would never had bothered.

PS. I don't claim to have a superior knowledge of BJJ/Grappling. There are heaps and heaps of player out there who are better than me. However, I am qualified to judge educational material and this is what I am doing here. Nuff' said.

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