Book Review - Zen Jiu Jitsu ('Oliver Staark')

Short Review: Oliver Staark (a pseudonym) put together a thirty day system back when he was a purple belt last year, alleging it will greatly improve your jiu jitsu. The advice is mostly sensible, but nothing out of the ordinary: you could probably glean similar tips from searching around various BJJ blogs and websites. Nevertheless, if you want to have a program to follow, then this short guide may be of use to you. Available to buy here in the UK for £3.90, or here in the US for around $6 on your Kindle. There is a hard copy version too, but it's rather more expensive.

Full Review: The ability to self-publish through Kindle has considerably opened up the market. It's a straightforward process, which provides the author with either 35% or 70% royalties (depending on how much you decide to charge), the rest going to Amazon. On the one hand that means that you don't have to conform to the commercially driven expectations of a publisher, but on the other it means that there is absolutely no quality control. There are also options for self-publishing in print, such as CreateSpace.

In the case of self-published Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructionals, there are other sources of credibility. The most obvious is having a black belt: that automatically gains a certain level of respect from prospective readers. As I've discussed in previous reviews, if the person behind the instructional does not have a black belt, then they are automatically going to have to work much harder to convince the reader their material is worth a look.

When it comes to instructional books, there is a precedent for non-black belts producing quality work. Ed Beneville's excellent series on the guard was initially written while he was a purple belt. Much more recently, I was impressed by Mark Johnson's Jiu Jitsu on the Brain (a self-published Kindle release), which remains the only book I would be happy to recommend to an absolute beginner in BJJ. Though he is now a Pedro Sauer black belt, he wore a brown belt at the time.

Oliver Staark has since also become a brown belt, but wrote Zen Jiu Jitsu (as far as I'm aware, this has no connection to Enrico Cocco's Zen Jiu Jitsu club) while a purple. It is purporting to offer guidance to blue belts looking for motivation. Now, technically you could argue that as the rank above, a purple belt has the relevant knowledge to do that, but the tagline of the book - "The 30 Day Program To Improve Your Game 1000%" - is a much bigger claim. If a black belt coach with a long history of producing top students made a similar boast, it would be one thing, but when it is a purple belt who can only put themselves forward as proof, that's quite different.

It is also problematic that Staark - as he admits in the text - is using a pseudonym. Anonymity is detrimental when you're trying to establish your credentials to instruct others. "It worked for me, so it can work for you" is not a bad starting point, but I would feel a lot more confident if I was reading a manual by somebody who can demonstrate that not only did it work for them, but it worked for numerous students too. When Staark insists that his method has been effective for his students, it may well be true, but the reader has no way of confirming that success or indeed his own assertion that he improved as a result (except, of course, by trying the program themselves).

In total Zen Jiu Jitsu contains slightly over 30,000 words. It is almost all text, except for a photo of a grappling dummy, a training log and the Batman slapping Robin meme. Due to the non-narrative nature of the book and its concern with theory, that can sometimes make it a slog to read, but in fairness theory is difficult to effectively illustrate (except perhaps with pie charts and graphs, but that isn't too exciting for the average reader). There are a few typos, like 'here' instead of 'hear', but as with Johnson's work, that isn't uncommon in self-published books. Also, Staark told me this review copy was older, meaning the newer version may have corrected those errors.

The claim Zen Jiu Jitsu makes is that if you can follow the program Staark sets out for thirty days, your jiu jitsu will be enhanced exponentially. At another point in the book, he exclaims that you could be 'world-class' in 'only 4.5 years!' You might ask why the rush, as jiu jitsu is something that you can spend a lifetime enjoying. Then again, there nothing wrong with trying to use your time efficiently, particularly if it is limited.

Staark's central advice is to be focused in your training, which while nothing revolutionary makes perfect sense. He views himself as a 'jiu jitsu scholar', attempting to systematise his progress. To give you a sample of Staark's writing style:

I used to hate side control top. For some reason I could not get good control or an acceptable submission. My game changed to this: use my killer A-Sweep to get them on their back, instead of going for the back or the mount, I would pull back and fall into side control. This forced me to work on a new orientation filter I was drilling. At first it was frustrating as my mount submissions blew everyone away, I got a real handle on the Roger Gracie cross collar choke from the mount, but I didn't go safe, I pushed into territory that exhausted me and made me feel lame.

The idea he is putting forward here is not a bad one: practice weaker positions, don't just rely on areas where you are already competent. However, I found the phrasing a bit off-putting, and even arrogant in places (e.g., "my mount submissions blew everyone away" as opposed to "I felt I had a good understanding of attacking from the mount").

There is a similar example when he is talking about getting a training dummy for drilling purposes at home. Again, it is a perfectly reasonable idea, but he feels he has to include this sentence: "The dummy still paid off though as I started to make ground on guys who I was always level with or slightly worse than. Those guys I blow through now like they aren't even there."

However, this comes down to personal taste: humility is important to me, but fortunately we're all different. Others could see Staark's description of overcoming his training partners as appealingly aspirational, rather than big-headed. Presumably the intention is to encourage readers to emulate his success, rather than crow about how he smashes everyone in training.

Strangely the section on the training dummy has a sales pitch from a particular brand in the middle of it. Staark says he has no connection to the company and that he doesn't get any commission, but whether or not that is true, it seems odd to copy and paste a large chunk of marketing directly from the company website FAQ. Half the points are debatable at best, in which the owner also takes the opportunity to launch an attack on rival companies.

That's immediately followed in the next section by a sales pitch for another company selling logbooks. It is entirely possible that Staark simply feels very strongly about the products that have helped him, but the repeated pushing of products feels a little inappropriate (Update May 2013: I should note here that the owner of that company contacted me and confirmed that he has no business relationship with the author). Not to mention that as somebody who has logged obsessively since the beginning, I'm not convinced you actually need a specialised product for logging: a notepad works fine, as does a dictaphone and/or a laptop.

I also strongly disagree with his proposed format for note-taking, if the example he gives is meant to be a template:

In sparring I took the back on both occasions. Got a nice two collar choke on Big Dave and a RNC on Little Charlie. Big Win. Felt confident.

To simply congratulate yourself on submitting people is not likely to result in improvement: in fact, it may do the opposite, particularly if you have a 'win/lose' attitude to sparring in class. There is nothing in the above commenting on how he went about getting those collar chokes, in regards to grips, set-up and the like, reactions of his training partner or the defences he could need to overcome next time. All of which would be far more useful information. Once again, however, this could be a matter of personal preference. The intention here might be to boost confidence, which may well be of some importance when preparing for competition.

At several points he urges you to ask your instructor, which should always be kept in mind when using supplemental material. Staark also highlights video analysis, both of yourself and well-known competitors, which is undoubtedly beneficial if you have the resources. Another good idea is to warn about injury, although it is risky to give out specific suggestions without a medical background (maybe the author does in fact have one, but it isn't mentioned anywhere). One problem is that he dubiously states you should "at all costs avoid surgery." While it is obviously not something anybody wants to go through, if surgery is required then it would be extremely ill-advised to ignore your doctor.

On a more positive note, Staark suggests asking your partner if they are injured before you roll and if there is anything they are working on. Fostering communication of that sort with your training partners is a plausible route to improvement. I also approved of his recommendation to train at other academies, which is something I regularly do myself, though it would be difficult to follow Staark's minimum of once a month without aggravating the relationship with your instructor. Most gyms don't mind if you train elsewhere while travelling, but to manage once a month or more, you would either have to have a lot of free time or start dropping in to other local clubs.

Zen Jiu Jitsu does not present anything ground-breaking, but it does collate various pieces of mostly sensible advice, though perhaps this doesn't require an entire book. In short, stay focused, train consistently and have a clear goal. However, if you need direction, then you could certainly do worse than this program, as it at least gives you an outline to follow. Available to buy here in the UK, or here in the US.

Book Review - Borrowing the Master's Bicycle (Mark Johnson)

Short Review: Johnson's follow-up to Jiu Jitsu on the Brain is less focused on immediate applicability to training, but is nevertheless an interesting and entertaining read. The central theme is one which Johnson has been developing on his blog for a good while now: understanding life through jiu jitsu. In the 1970s, Robert Pirsig famously used motorcycle maintenance to explore broader concepts, such as the nature of society's relationship with technology. Johnson does something comparable, but through jiu jitsu, trying to develop what he calls 'Jiu-Zen'. Available to buy for your Kindle here for $5.17 (or in the UK, here, for £3.20).

Full Review: This is the second book from Mark Johnson, following Jiu Jitsu on the Brain (which I reviewed earlier this year). Since then, Johnson has received his black belt from Pedro Sauer, which automatically means this book should garner more attention. Fellow black belt author Kid Peligro has written a foreword, which again lends considerable credibility, given Peligro is easily the most prolific author of respected BJJ books (such as The Gracie Way and BJJ: Theory & Technique). Peligro doesn't say anything especially noteworthy in his foreword, but then forewords are often just there to lend legitimacy rather than deep insight. Peligro's book The Gracie Way does the same thing, where the foreword is written by Royce Gracie.

As with Jiu Jitsu on the Brain, this new release is not a typical instructional volume. Instead, it is a collection of Johnson's thoughts on BJJ. In Jiu Jitsu on the Brain, there was a cohesive structure that meant it can function as an instructional of sorts, geared towards beginners or people still just thinking about starting BJJ. Hence why I would be happy to recommend that first book as the only BJJ instructional volume currently available which is completely 'safe' for beginners (as there is no danger of them being overwhelmed with technique).

Borrowing the Master's Bicycle is different, though there are still useful bits of advice (e.g., set yourself small goals, learn to breathe properly, cultivate an attitude of constant learning, etc). With each chapter, Johnson takes the opportunity to muse about potential broader meanings in jiu jitsu, generally unconnected to the previous chapters. Still, there is an overarching theme, which Johnson has mentioned numerous times on his blog: jiu jitsu as a vehicle for understanding the universe. Indeed, the pdf version he sent me for review was entitled Jiu Jitsu and the Universe.

Like Jiu Jitsu on the Brain, there are a few slips which can probably be blamed on the spellchecker, like 'affective' instead of 'effective' or 'preformed' instead of 'performed', among others. A few full-stops have also gone astray, then there are occasional things like 'to' instead of 'too' (though I am sure the spellchecker is also to blame in that instance rather than Johnson's grammar, given that he is a high school English teacher). That's to be expected with a self-published book and the mistakes are quite minor.

If Jiu Jitsu on the Brain was a Hagakure for BJJ, the comparison that springs to mind for Borrowing the Master's Bicycle is, appropriately, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Johnson's book doesn't have the narrative flow of Pirsig's work, but there is some of that same sense of reaching an understanding of universal principles through a focus on the specific. For Pirsig, it was getting his hands dirty working on his motorcycle on a long journey across the US. For Johnson, it is perfecting his jiu jitsu over the course of a lifetime.

Like Pirsig, Johnson peppers the text with anecdotes, intended to elucidate a philosophical point. For example, in one chapter Johnson discusses how BJJ has helped him become calm, to the extent that he now barely even argues. To do so, Johnson draws a contrast between two evocatively described episodes from his past: his aggressive response to a theft back in his college football days, compared to his polite withdrawal from a potentially volatile situation after he had begun training in jitsu.

The only other book I've read in BJJ that is in at all the same field, aside from Johnson's own previous work, is Carlos Machado's Putting the Pieces Together, which I recently reviewed for Jiu Jitsu Style Magazine. Machado's volume would fall firmly into the self-help category, consisting of a series of inspirational quotes. Though I wouldn't put Johnson's book in that same category, there is an element of this in Borrowing the Master's Bicycle, although Johnson accomplishes his philosophical aims through more considered and expansive parables.

It is difficult to discuss spiritual concepts without coming across as pompous, especially in the blogosphere from which Johnson's book grew. Even the word 'spiritual' has developed connotations of hokey New Age posturing. However, Borrowing the Master's Bicycle does a decent job of avoiding that tone. Johnson's fondness for throwing in references to pop culture is another reason he doesn't float off into clouds of incense. Darth Vader, Yoda and The 36th Chamber of Shaolin all make appearances. Then there is his language, which remains colloquial: the book has liberal helpings of "cool", "dude" and the odd "shit".

I was particularly intrigued by the idea Johnson shares in his last section, where he started to analyse the eighty-eight techniques required to gain a blue belt from Pedro Sauer (the question of whether or not formal testing is a good thing is a different topic, about which I have strong views, but it isn't directly relevant here). I would be very interested in reading an entire book along those lines, if that's a project Johnson ever decides to expand upon in a future release. Borrowing the Master's Bicycle is available to buy for your Kindle here in the US for $5.17 (or in the UK, here, for £3.20).

Book Review - Jiu-Jitsu on the Brain (Mark Johnson)

Short Review: This is perhaps the only instructional BJJ book which is completely 'safe' for beginners. There is no chance of overwhelming a fresh white belt with overly complex technique, for the simple reason that this book does not contain any techniques. The only photograph is on the cover. What the Pedro Sauer brown belt offers instead is much more valuable for a beginner: sound advice, from how to put on your gi to dealing with meatheads. Available to buy for your US-registered Kindle device or app here, or for £3.33 in the UK, here.

Full Review: Mark Johnson has been training in Brazilian jiu jitsu since 1998, which by the time he wrote this book had brought him to the rank of brown belt under Pedro Sauer. In 2002, he opened West Side Academy in Utah, which is not only still going strong, but now has several affiliates. Johnson is also an English teacher, a position which often uses the power of words to try and make a positive impact and lasting influence.

All of that experience makes Jiu-Jitsu on the Brain an interesting addition to the expanding number of BJJ books currently on the market, particularly as this is not what readers have come to expect from an instructional book. You won't find a step-by-step description of techniques, or any photographic representation of jiu jitsu. Instead, Johnson's book of parables and vignettes could perhaps be described as a sort of Hagakure for the jiu jitsu practitioner, trimmed of that 18th century volume's cryptic references and stiff prose.

Johnson's language is irreverent and colloquial, with the cursing you'd expect from the vernacular (though Johnson is thankfully no Dana White: he says 'fuck' three times, along with an infrequent 'shit' or 'crappy'). It's also not going to take up much of your time, which means that unlike all my other reviews, I don't want to get too in-depth and spoil your enjoyment of the contents. Jiu-Jitsu on the Brain reminds me of the beautifully compact 33⅓ series of books, perfectly sized to accompany you on an intercity train journey or a short flight.

Fittingly for a short book, Johnson chose to publish through Kindle (I should note here that the file I was sent for review was pdf format, but I presume there aren't any major differences to the Kindle version). There are the occasional slips in proofreading that you would expect from self-publication, but nothing major (presumably thanks to Johnson's day-job.) Mostly it's the typical spell-check killers, like 'are' instead of 'our', 'accept' instead of 'except', etc.

Jiu-Jitsu on the Brain developed out of Johnson's thoughtful blog. Having followed that site for some time, I expected this book would be similar to the posts I remember, epigrammatic anecdotes where Johnson develops a life lesson sometimes related to jiu jitsu, sometimes not. Elements of the blog do pop up, especially in the final chapter, but the book starts with some practical advice about what to wear to your first class. I also found a strong belief of mine echoed early on: "your gi is a tool to train with, not a fashion statement."

I was pleased to see that he is careful to always be gender neutral. It may seem overly PC to some, but personally I feel it's important to avoid excluding fifty percent of your potential audience, particularly as it isn't difficult to add in the occasional "or her". The first chapter is called 'black bar', in reference to the black strip on your white belt, which then progresses to '1st stripe' and '2nd stripe'. The advice of the first chapter bleeds into the second and third, but the theme is slightly different. It is all good advice, with a dose of observational comedy from a jiu jitsu perspective.

'3rd stripe' gets a bit more intermediate. It remains applicable to beginners, but increasingly Johnson is looking towards more experienced belts, who will find themselves nodding their heads in agreement with a smile. I could quibble with a few points, like Johnson's opinion on testing, but he tends to balance out his perspective with the other side of the argument.

The last chapter is about character, which is where I was most strongly reminded of the posts I read on his blog. The use of anecdotes and parables is far more noticeable here, shifting away from the practicalities of class to more philosophical concerns, like controlling your anger, not judging by appearance and being respectful even when others don't show you the same courtesy. It could easily have come across as trite, but Johnson manages to avoid both the banal and the pompous.

I can happily recommend this to anybody either in the early stages of their training, or those who are thinking of trying out jiu jitsu (with one proviso: don't worry too much about that stain he mentions, I've never seen it happen in my five and a half years on the mat ;D). Jiu-Jitsu on the Brain functions as an excellent primer on the basic dos and don'ts of training BJJ, in a concise but consistently readable package. Available to buy for your Kindle (or if you're like me, your Kindle for PC or Kindle for Windows Phone) in the US here, or for £3.33 in the UK, here.