Marcelo Garcia: The X-Guard
Introduction
Marcelo Garcia is perhaps one of the greatest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners in modern times. He has conquered a multitude of competitions around the world, often dominating his competition from start to finish. He generally uses the guard quite frequently and, due to his relatively small build, uses sweeps much more than others competing at the same level. In my view, this is what makes him distinctly unique and special amongst the traditional “cookie cutter” fighter. Victory Belt Publishing went to Marcelo and offered him a book deal; obviously, he was enthusiastic and rather excited to have the opportunity to share his techniques and philosophies with all of his fans and supporters. My goal in the following review is to give a bit of insight into the work itself and point out all the strengths and weaknesses that I could find to help you all, the readers, decide if it is the right book for you!
Included Content
In terms of included content, this book covers two positions that are frequently ignored by both BJJ instructors and various forms of instructional material. The first is the Butterfly Guard, which is probably as old as BJJ itself. While I wouldn’t go to such lengths as to say it’s ridiculously avoided by many schools out there, I will say that it isn’t drilled as often as something as “important” as the traditional guard. I myself use the position very often for sweeps, so one would imagine I found some great usage in this section. The second section covers a relatively new and underutilized form of guard that not too many people have even heard about, let alone use (especially newbies). This guard, not surprisingly, is also the name of the book: The X-Guard. I’m not going to get too into describing it in this section because, as you will see, I am dedicating the next two sections to each of these excellent guard types.
The Butterfly Guard
If anyone has been to a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class for more than a month, he or she will have learned or experienced the Butterfly Guard. However, as I mentioned above, it is not very heavily drilled or practiced. I asked some other people why they feel this is the case and they all pretty much felt there are very limited options and generally only consider the traditional “butterfly sweep” to be effective in most scenarios. Marcelo Garcia does not feel the same way. In this section, he shows how wrong that “limited” frame of mind truly is. He covers a multitude of sweeps for both gi and no-gi BJJ along with various counters to your opponent’s movements that will usually end in a very nice sweep. My opinion on the Butterfly Guard is that every gym teaches it differently, but each focuses specifically on its SINGLE style of sweeping. Since Marcelo has been traveling to many different gyms since he was a teenager (covered in his semi-biography, which is also in this book), he picked up many different ways of sweeping from this position. He has done all of us grapplers a favor and brought it all into one book! Overall, this is a great section for anyone who wants to expand their Butterfly Guard game and really learn to land that sweep.
The X-Guard
The X-Guard, from my perspective, is an extreme variation of the spider guard. It involves controlling both of your opponent’s legs using an “X” form with your own legs as well as utilizing an overhook or underhook on the other leg. Once established, I can say from experience that it is almost impossible for your victim to avoid a sweep. Why doesn’t everyone just use this every time guard is established, you may ask. There are basically two fundamental challenges to this type of guard; one type is a major challenge, the other is a minor challenge. The “major” issue is establishing the X-Guard. It is very tricky if you have no understanding of this type of guard to get into the X-Guard position. Marcelo luckily shows the readers how to quickly establish this powerful position from nearly every situation. The second “minor” problem is that, on occasion, your opponent will react quickly enough to block your X-Guard sweep attempts. Again, Marcelo comes through and shows us what to do if your opponent does get lucky enough to stop your initial sweep attempt. Like the Butterfly Guard section, this is covered in both gi and no-gi. Considering there aren’t very many other X-Guard instructionals on the market, I can say unwaveringly that this is the BEST X-Guard instructional in the world right now (in terms of books, not actual instructors).
Layout of the Book
Something I was very impressed with in this book was the overall design. The cover, in my opinion, is one of the sexiest looking covers ever put on a martial art’s book up to this point. Then again, I am a sucker for black and white color schemes. The overall layout of the book is super organized and VERY easy to navigate. One of my favorite aspects of the book (other then the content) is the “thumbs”. Next to every title of the technique in the book, there is a “thumbs up” or a “thumbs down”. This will tell you if it works for gi, no-gi, or both. This information is included in the table of contents as well, so you can easily find exactly what you are looking for. I think this may be one of Victorybelt’s most streamlined and navigable books so far (as good if not better than the Eddie Bravo series with it’s flow-chart).
Negatives
Not everything in a product could be good. However, there aren’t too many bad qualities here, so don’t worry! While the information included is good, it is not by any means a type of system or program that will teach you BJJ. In other words, it isn’t for beginners. If you want to learn a whole system, try Eddie Bravo’s books/DVD. This is more of a supplement than anything. As a strict no-gi advocate, I found myself a little disappointed that the gi techniques outnumber the no-gi techniques. However, about 70% of the gi techniques in the book can be converted to no-gi rather easily (sleeve grip = grabbing the wrist). On a whole, there really isn’t too much to criticize.
Overall
I’m going to make this short and sweet. Get this book if you fit into any of the following categories: A BJJ player (gi or no-gi) who knows the basics and is looking for a supplement; a BJJ player who is looking to specifically improve both types of guard taught in this book (you WILL get better if you practice these techniques); a MMA fighter looking to throw a sneaky sweep or two into his/her arsenal; any BJJ player who takes the sport seriously and has been training for more than six months. There are no real mysteries to this book. You will learn pretty much everything there is to know about these two guard types. You will basically get lots of quality techniques focused on a specific area as opposed to tons and tons of mediocre moves that only work sometimes. I hope I have given everyone a better idea of just what one can expect in this book.
