Customer Reviews

Fighter's Notebook: A Manual of Mixed Martial Arts

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The Fighter's Notebook is the book to get if you want to be a complete martial artist. This books is 614 pages long, 3500 pictures, over 800 techniques. The book is divided as follows: Introduction Section A: Attack from the Stand up Section B: Defense against the Stand up Section C: Attack from the Side Control Section D: Defense against the Side Control Section E: Attack from the Mounted Position Section F: Defense against the Mounted Position Section G: Attack from the Back Mount Section H: Defense against the Back Mount Section I: Attack from the Guard Section J: Defense against the Guard Section K: Warm-ups, Conditioning & Training Section L: Submission Fighting: Rules of the Game Index

As you can see, this book is very comprehensive and is a must for Submission Fighters and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practioners. It comes in a huge three ring binder and is worth the money.

As other people have stated, the product is full of good ideas. Although lacking in the number of submissions, this book is a good overview of the basic, bare-bone techniques for groundfighting. This book was written at a time when training in BJJ or submission fighting was relatively new for a lot of people, so it is not as sophisticated as many of the new instructional tapes and videos. In other words, this looks like a book for the martial artist in Karate or kickboxing who has some interest in groundfighting. If you have no background in BJJ or submission fighting, this book might be for you if your money is burning your pocket. If you have access to BJJ classes, seminars, or instructional videos, you are not getting enough bang out of your buck to make this a worthwhile purchase.

The quality of the photos leave a lot to be desired, often leaving out subtle intermediate steps. Sometimes the photos are too dark to clearly see what is happening. Other times it is not very clear that the information on the page matches the photographs at all.

The biggest disappointment for me was the quality of the actual product. The paper was not very good quality and neither was the notebook. This is not a product that will last a long time if used as intended - removing pages to be taken with you to the gym or leafed through as a reference book on a regular basis. I would be happy to buy a bound book (softcover or hardcover) and just make photocopies of the pages I'm interested in to take to the gym.

I really wanted to like this book, but I found it did not meet expectations. For the price of this notebook, you are better off spending your money on a seminar or instructional video. Although a lot of people in BJJ are turned off about Judo, you will learn a lot of the basic techniques in this book by looking at Judo books such as "Best Judo" by Isao Inokuma which cost a fraction of the price (about 25% of the reviewed product's price).

I am writing this because I feel out of all of the Martail arts video's, books, and anything else that I have been to this is the best. If you want to start learning how to grapple and you want to d oit the right way don't buy a video, or somehing like that, get this book. The rerason I say this is if you go to a gym tjo train for a fight you usally can't bring a tv and a vcr right next to the mat. Whereas if you get this book you can bring it straight to the mat look in the index ,where you need to work on, look at the techniques and you can practice them.The number of topics alone are enough to start you off to be a grappler. I mean there are over 800 techniques that range from the gaurd, to stand up fighting. If you read and practice every technique in this book you are almost insured to win any grappleing fight. This is truely a fighters notebook. It took about 4,500 hours to make this book, tha tis how good it is. Oh yeah, did I mention thst I have been in about 6 NAGA tournaments and I am still learning from this book.

The techniques in this book are badly oudated, even for a complete novice. There are several books on the market with more useful information, like Gene LeBell's Encyclopedia of Finishing Holds, which also explains the techniques much better.

Another problem with the Fighter's Notebook is that many of the techniques shown work only if the opponent is completely willing and cooperative--when was the last time you encountered such an opponent on the street or in a competition?

The photographs aren't crisp enough to give a clear view of the techniques. They're fuzzy and have poor contrast, usually too dark. Hiring a professional photographer would've been the right thing to do for a book this pricey, but, alas, the authors took the cheap route. The pictures also don't show a lot of the transitions between moves, so you see a setup and in the next picture, the hold is clamped on. But how was it done?

The quality of the book itself is embarrassing, especially for the price. I always handled mine with care and never took it out of my home, yet it still has pages falling apart. Very [weak].

Also, don't be fooled by the author's claim that he "runs The World's Best Source for Mixed Martial Arts Information". That title is self-proclaimed. He actually runs a website with a message board that, granted, has a lot of members, but that hardly makes him an authority on fighting qualified to write a book on the subject and charge such an outrageous price. The site isn't so much a source of information as a collection of banner ads, popups and links to advertisers. It has event listings and school listings, but nothing that will improve you as a martial artist. As for being "Commissioner of the North American Grappling Association," that title is misleading as well. He is commissioner of a promotion run by his close friend and business partner, Kip Kollar. NAGA is absolutely NOT a sanctioning body, but rather a business venture.

If you want to learn how to fight, get this book. It has almost every Brazilian jujitsu, sambo, and submission grappling technique. If you want to learn submission wrestling, don't buy Robert Fergusons book "Submission fighting" this is the book to get. It has around 700 pages and each page has alot of info and the directions and pictures are easy to follow and understand. Not only does it have grappling and submissions, it covers all types of striking and takedowns as well. This book will make you a complete fighter. You should get it if you are a begginer or advanced. Now if you want to be a complete fighter you need to get this book, as well as "Winning wrestling moves" and "Greco-roman wrestling" for takedowns and you'll be set. The only bad thing about this book is the price but, you will probably think that it's worth it.

I found out about this book via a friend, due to the fact I've been training in AJJ for 2 months now. The book has its plusses and minuses. The good things are that it covers submissions and defenses from the various positions one could be in (top mount, knee on stomach, etc), which I thought was most useful. I also liked being able to learn how to defend all these moves, since as a beginner you're more defensive than offensive when you roll. The negatives for me are the ones you'll find in other reviews: poor quality of photography, the binder format which can rip pages, some poor sequences of shots (explained later), and the price. If you had $79.95, should you buy it? No. Buy it if you can find it much cheaper and still in good shape. Also, you HAVE TO know the basics in order to understand some of what they show; they tend to skip some crucial transitions into submissions that you can only understand if you have been rolling at least as long as I have. So, all in all, this is a solid book for a beginner to learn new moves and defenses to these moves, but the more experienced you are, the more of a waste of money this becomes.

This book is amazing. A "bible" for MMA techniques. The book covers just about every situation you can find yourself in while training in MMA. The 1000's of pictures show you, in great detail, how to preform each technique listed, and different variations of many of them.

All in all, I have to say that this is the best martial arts 'technique' book I've ever had the pleasure to own.

BIG Sean Madigan

This is one BIG book. Kirik is the owner and operator of arguably the largest MMA forum on the internet. He's also an experienced trainer. Despite not being a Gracie or a Shamrock, he's also an experienced competitor.

There's no need to go into a huge amount of detail here. The book is what it is. A collection of techniques that you can use in MMA.

The book shows a lot of techniques organised by position. The techniques aren't organised into a game or system, but are simply a catalogue of the basics from all the arts that contribute to the game.

It's a bit expensive for what it is, nowadays, with so many good texts on the market. But, if you see it around for a good price, pick it up. You never know what you can dig out of it.

This book rocks!!! I got it years ago when it was "only" 500 pages, and I am pumped to see it on Amazon.com. I guess I'll have to buy the new one now.

What is it? It is everything you ever wanted to know about mixed martial arts. Do they have every technique under the sun? No. Do they have more than you know now? Oh, yeah. I guarantee it. You could easily spend a hundred times as much trying to get this much info from watching tapes. Most bang for your buck available in the martial arts world.

That's right, the moment I got this book, and saw how it was laid out, I decided -- NO MORE VIDEOS! I hardly need 'em any more, even though they are useful for watching techs in action; I'd say TFN out does 'em. Besides, I like saving $, and already have a few hundred dollars in vids. Maybe by writing this, I'll save you some money on vids.
The other reviewers are right, it's an excellent work. Except for some pics where the contrast between the fighter's clothes and SHOES (both in like colors)makes discernment difficult, the layout is exceedingly clear and instructive. Things I did not see mentioned by other reviewers:

The book has an INDEX (which I moved to the front of the book)that is probably one of it's best features (besides its ringbound format -- I like being able to take out a few pages, put 'em in a separate binder and bring 'em to my training session. Anytime a position comes up that you have questions about, you can check the index when u get home and "voila!" instant info.
When u buy it, you might try spltting it up into two 2" binders for ease of reference. Turning through 600+ pages can be a bit testy, unlike Mr. Jenness who was courteous and patient enough to answer a couple of my Qs in an e-mail exchange. Now if I only had MORE TIME to study it!