One of the most breath-taking moments in UFC history was during Penn-Hughes II when BJ sits up from guard and takes Hughes’ back and then puts Hughes in an arm-bar triangle. I rewound this on TIVO and watched it about 30 times before my wife made me stop. Yes, BJ Penn is a two-fisted ass kicker and I’ve been following his career for a long time, so it was hard to resist buying Mixed Martial Arts: The Book of Knowledge. Now, having spent some time with the book I must say it totally rules.

Basically the book is split in two. The first part covers the stand-up game. The second part covers the ground game. Both the stand-up and ground sections are logically organized by common fight situations. For instance, the stand-up game has a section on the clinch as well as an entire section on takedown defense. The ground game has a section that discusses guard techniques and a separate section that deals with mount. Each page has high-quality color photographs that detail a given technique step-by-step. All of the techniques are shown from alternate angles so you don’t have to guess what’s going on. There is no fluff, or advertising, or any other form of boring crap. Basically the book is a 300+ page brain dump of BJ’s bread-and-butter fighting techniques. BJ Penn fans will definitely recognize BJ’s game in this book. For instance the electrifying sequence in his battle with Matt Hughes is laid out in pages 192 and 294 where he shows “Sit Up Guard To Back” and “Triangle Arm Bar From Back”.

Since this is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blog I should add a few thoughts for people considering buying this book. First of all, this book is not a BJJ primer. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsokas will find that some basic white belt techniques are omitted from the book. Since this book functions as a compendium of BJ’s go-to fighting techniques, this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, but it bears mentioning.

Second, since this book is focused on MMA all of the ground techniques are no-gi and some of the ground techniques incorporate striking. For instance, BJ shows how to incorporate strikes to pass the guard. I kind of liked this aspect of the book because it made me think about techniques in a different way, but for a total BJJ noob I can see that it might be a little confusing.

Finally, I should mention that you won’t get as much out of this book if you just look at the pictures. BJ really drops science in the text and you have to read the text to fully understand the context of each move and how to string them together into a sequence. For instance, the sit-up sweep, guillotine, and kimura are detailed on consecutive pages so you might guess that these moves can be strung together in an attack sequence. But the text really explains how one move sets you up for the next.

I used to think martial arts books were a waste of time but that opinion was based on the many low-quality books on the market. This book is in a class by itself and has caused me to change my opinion about book-learning.

While no book is an adequate substitute for mat time Mixed Martial Arts: The Book of Knowledge can really help you raise your game. In BJJ you win with your mind. Putting together a grappling sequence requires an exercise of the intellect as well as coordinated physical execution. Reading this book helps me “get my head in the game” which has really improved my rolling. Additionally, I have actually applied some of the techniques in this book. For instance, I always had a hard time passing half-guard, but after studying the no-hand pass in this book I started trying it on the mat and now I do it all the time.