Customer Reviews

King of the Ring: How to Use Your Gym Equipment and Other Tricks of the Trade

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book, written by martial arts legend Benny Urquidez, consists mainly of pictures of Benny using various boxing and martial arts equipment. But there is very little detail provided: a typical page might show, for instance, the author about to throw a side kick, and then a picture of him landing a side kick, but there is virtually no supporting text or pictures to tell a beginner what happens inbetween. In short, the book shows A and shows B, but nothing about how to get from A to B.

This would be a worthwhile book for someone who already has a firm knowledge of the basics and who is looking for some additional drills: I found that the section on using focus gloves and Thai pads was worth the price of the book.

The book ends with a longish description of Urquidez's extraordinary ring record.

A final note: the book is "blurbed" on the back page by virtually every significant American martial artist, all of whom positively gush in praise. It seems clear to me that none of them actually saw or read the book before "blurbing" it: it is very far from being "a guide to living" as one reviewer put it.

An outstanding reference guide and working manual for amateur and professionals alike in boxing, kick-boxing and competitive martial arts. Written in basic, very understandable text accompanied by excellent b&w photos clearly defining each piece of equipment and its use and techniques for competition in the ring. Covers everything from speed bag to timing ball to jump rope to testing the ring ropes, even has a 13-illustration step-by-step guide for proper hand-wrapping. Benny "The Jet" Urquidez is unquestionably a fighter who knows what he's talking about but it's the clear, no-nonsense explanations and well-thought-out photo demonstrations that make this book a valuable addition to the library of any serious fighter. An excellent book by a world-class competitor who's proven in the ring that these training techniques really do work

This Book is Brillant.
In my opinion Benny Urquidez has done a wonderful job in producing this book. It is an encyclopedia of knowledge. If you want to learn how to punch & kick the heavy bag the speed ball Padwork etc this book is for you.
Benny Urquidez is the Undefeated World Kickboxing Champion. In my opinion he was the Bruce Lee of Kickboxing in fact he would have beaten Bruce Lee in the ring or in the street.
Buy the book and learn what it takes to become a World Kickboxing Champion.
Muay Thai Kickboxers, Full Contact Karate Students, Kickboxers, & People of all the striking arts will find this book very useful. Ignore any bad references made regarding this book.
Buy it read learn & put to practice your techniques will improve.

Maybe I've been spoiled by excellent books such as Mastering JuJitsu (Renzo Gracie, John Danaher, covers tons of non-grappling elements of MMA as well), but this book felt like a waste of time. For starters there's almost zero explanation. If you condensed the book down to discussions, tips, analysis, etcetera, you'd probably shave down from 300 pages to about 15. I'm not exaggerating, there's almost no explanation of anything.

The lack of explanation really thwarts the claim that this book is great for beginners AND advanced martial artists. In fact it's not particularly helpful for either. For example, a series of photos shows Mr Urquidez demonstrating a spinning back kick. There's really nothing new or helpful if you know how to perform one of those already because there's no text telling you to avoid X or make sure to do Y. And if you're a beginner you kind of just look at the pictures and wonder how he got from point A to point B to C to D to E. In either case you're just looking at a clump of photographs you can find anywhere on the intarwebs for free WITH an explanation.

This pattern is repeated throughout the entire book and it's really frustrating. A new chapter on a piece of equipment will start off with 1 page of Mr Urquidez's hard-won thoughts and advice, then move right along to 25 pages of him doing kicking drills you can learn to do in any dojo or gym in any part of the world from any number of thousands of people.

What makes this 2 stars instead of 1 is that when Mr Urquidez actually conveys his thoughts they're helpful in that they fill in small gaps of knowledge. We all have little crevices we've accidentally skipped, such as making sure you use the speed bag at the END of your workout to train tired shoulders to keep your hands up. And some of his ring lessons were interesting, like getting into the ring a few hours before the fight to test where the soft spots are. But overall these types of insights were overshadowed by about 5,000 photographs of routine workouts without explanations. I paid 5 clams for this book so I'm somewhat happy, but the asking price of 25 is ridiculous.

There are two general categories of martial arts books that I've noticed - theory and technique. This book seems to go out of its way to fit into neither category.

Benny "The Jet" Urquidez's book is a very good primer. Often, primers sometimes forget the small things, not in this book. Benny even covers different ways for entering the boxing ring. The photos are of average quality, but he details, with large photos, how to use thai pads, kicking shields, focus mits, punching bags, and double end bags.

These photos are from his Van Nuys gym (destroyed, if I recall correctly, in the 94 earthquake). The book is more concerned with use of equipment than proper placement of technique since it is a primer on "gym equipment", not techniques.

The written material is good as well. Short and sweet, however, the advice is solid. Benny has always been a gracious sportsman, true teacher, and world class person and I'm glad to finally provide one of his books with a better than average rating (both his other books got three stars from me).

Want to learn how to throw a punch? This isn't the book for you.

Want to learn how to hit a speed bag? This isn't the book for you.

Want to learn how to throw a kick? This isn't the book for you.

But if you want to hear about how wonderful Benny Urquidez is, this is definitely the book for you.