The Black Belt Blueprint: An Intelligent Approach to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Paperback – 7 February 2015

The author presents the principles of BJJ clearly and they can be applied to other martial arts

Perfect for learning the fundamentals of the great art

I decided to get back into Brazilian Ju-Jitsu at 47. I knew my body and mind had changed since the last time I stepped onto the mat after almost 10 years ago and I was right.After a few months of training I came across some videos of Nic on the Internet. I liked his approach, especially his conceptual approach to training, which quite honestly appealed to me, especially as the sun has started to set on my martial arts journey.I purchased his Black Belt Blueprint book precisely because I wanted his wisdom and expertise in print to carry around (personally, I prefer the relationship with a book than a video).The book is well laid out both in its literary and visual content. It shows Nic knows his stuff and his words reflect a welcome format change from many other BJJ books I’ve purchased across in the last few years.I’m almost 50 and being able to look at BJJ from a conceptual point of view has accelerated my learning when I’m on the mat. Probably one of the last BJJ books I will purchase, unless of course Nic decides to publish another one!

Great book for beginners. I haven’t finished the whole thing yet but I have found this book fills the holes of information you don’t always get from class . Really well written and organized . Great if you are just starting or thinking about starting .

Without going into the details of the many highly practical tools Nic gave me to improve my game (something already done much better than I could by the other reviews), I will illustrate as well as I can how this book has impacted my game (and my life)Coming from a gym full of competitors, and being one of the lightest fighters there, I thought my jiu-jitsu was somehow deficient because I wasn’t tapping all the other white belts in a minute. I’d be puzzled if a higher belt would complement my skill, after getting being unable to mount and significant offence against them. To summarize, I had no idea what good jiu-jitsu really was, and was caught in the same vicious cycle that the other white belts were stuck in (too many techniques, not enough conceptual understanding, "train harder" approach to problems)I would get swept often from top position, without having any idea why. My submission attempts were likened to “mosquito bites” by my coach – and with good reason: I’d slap armbars, triangles, chokes and they would all just roll off my opponentNicolas’ Gregoriades book goes way beyond technique, and speaks directly to the founding principles of jiu-jitsu. This is the stuff that trandescendally skilled practitioners such as Rickson Gracie are made of.The Black Belt Blueprint opened the doors to the true essence of jiu-jitsu. With these concepts explained to me, rather than step-by-step techniques (which I forget anyway), I am able to forge my own game, and understand, adapt and learn from my opponents.Thanks to Nic’s book, I started to truly understand Helio Gracie’s words “its not them (my sons) that are good, it’s the art that’s good”If you memorize and apply every time you roll the concepts explained in this master work, your jiu-jitsu will reach levels limited only by your imagination and will to learn. When something I do on the mats isn’t working, I go back to these concepts and foundationsFor those who like me, would rather hear concrete results, after reading the section about balance and center of gravity, I decided to apply them. After a couple of days of uncertainty and trial and error, I committed fully to the concepts while rolling with one of my fellow white belts about 10 kg heavier than me. To his shock, puzzlement and frustration I passed his guard, mounted him, all the while with my eyes closed and hands in my belt. It was an epiphany for me about the superiority of hips, awareness of your center of gravity and weight distribution.In a recent tournament, I used the same concepts to mount an opponent 20 kg heavier than me in the absolute final. Before reading this book, I would have been eventually swept like a rag doll. Instead, I comfortably and relaxedly rode out his increasingly desperate attempts to bridge me into oblivion. I was in absolute awe at how such small tweaks and selective application of knowledge could open the doors of truly effective jiu-jitsu. I ended up letting him roll himself onto his back, comfortably flattening him out, and choking him out to win the gold.But the true beauty of this book lies in opening your mind to beyond medals, tapping opponents out, and generally winning or losing. This book is a real insight of someone who went full circle from killer competitor to visionary of the art. I am looking forward to buying his DVD serie with Kit Dale, and his video series BJJ Founding Blocks. I could spend so much time raving about this book and I know I simply can’t do it enough justice. If I had to rebuy it for 10 times the price, I’d do it without question.