Free Fight: The Ultimate Guide to No Holds Barred Fighting [Paperback]

Christian Braun (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2007

Free Fighting or Mixed Martial Arts (No Holds Barred Fighting) is becoming one of the most popular of martial arts disciplines. With a few exceptions, all the martial arts techniques of striking, punching, kicking, throwing, and groundwork are allowed. "Free Fight" is a practical and accessible volume with easy-to-follow frame-by-frame photographs, ideal for anyone wanting to learn basic fighting styles. Featuring more than 1,300 photographs, it illustrates everything - but everything - you need to know about reach distances, the transition from standing to groundwork, ground techniques, how to break out of holds, and much, much more.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Christian Braun has been practicing various forms of martial arts for more than 25 years. He is a Grand Master in and qualified trainer in Ju-Jitsu.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Meyer & Meyer Fachverlag und Buchhandel GmbH (October 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 184126217X
• ISBN-13: 978-1841262178
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,291,251 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good MMa Primer, January 25, 2009

By 

chester (concord, ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Free Fight: The Ultimate Guide to No Holds Barred Fighting (Paperback)

I'm a former amateur boxer who has since studied hard style karate and danzan ryu j.j. I picked this up because it looked packed with information, mostly geared towards the mma game. If you're an MMA competitor, this book will be very useful. It has a lot of punching and kicking drills on the heavy bag and focus mitts, and covers standup, clinches, closing the gap, groundfighting, grappling, styles, strategy, etc. It is well laid out with good clear photos and good explanations. My main fault with the book, however, is that there are numerous instances where the text and photos are not in synch with 'left' and 'right. For instance, page 89, the text says to kick with the left leg, and the photo shows a right kick. On the strikes it is pretty obvious, but some of the grappling typos had me scratching my head until i figured out the discrepancy. Hopefully, later editions will fix these inaccuracies. I'd have rated it 5 stars if it had been proofread better.

Braun also confounded me with the designations of A and D for the fighters. I think it means 'attacker' and 'defender', but i couldn't find the explanation anywhere in the book. Eventually I figured it out, but it took me a while to get used to.

With that said, it is an excellent mma book. As someone who years ago made the transition from sport fighting to self defense, I find the mma style limited. Although any serious mma competitor would be more than capable in the street, someone training strictly for self defense would probably be better off with a more rounded style that included small joint locks, pressure points, open hand strikes, gouges, pinches and finger strikes, etc. Combine that with the intensity of mma training methods and you will really have the best of both worlds. I picked up some useful and fun stuff to try on my own and in the dojo, and some good insight into the mma style, but in the end it was largely sport fighting techniques. One of my instructors got online to find out the actual UFC list of illegal techniques, and it read like a self defense course: no eye gouges, nerve digs, small joint locks, groin kicks, joint kicks, etc. My old boxing trainer used to say 'the way you train is the way you fight', so if you're a sport fighter, this book is great. If you're looking more for street defense, I'd look more towards traditional jiu jitsu, hapkido, kempo, JKD, combat karate, etc, and incorporate mma training methods for conditioning and variety.

5.0 out of 5 stars AWESOME, February 15, 2008

By 

Gregory Rayno Jr. (Albany, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Free Fight: The Ultimate Guide to No Holds Barred Fighting (Paperback)

This book has it all, striking, grappling, takedowns, defense in striking as well as takedowns. Very informative book with plenty of pictures. I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone looking to improve their game.