Customer Reviews

Pankration: The Traditional Greek Combat Sport & Modern Martial Art

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This book is a rewrite and expanded version of Mr. Arvanitis's previous book on Greek pankration. There are additional photos and new sections included. The quality of the book matches that of the content presented. Although there are many fighting skills that can be found in other martial arts systems, Arvanitis emphasizes the "core" pankration techniques by their classic Greek terms. Nice touch!! This book is well laid out and easy to follow. There is a wealth of material here from a man who has been an innovative force behind MMA since the early-1970s. This is the best coverage of this ancient art to date.

This latest book by Mr. Arvanitis is a work of art and certainly lives up to the legendary status that he has achieved over the past three decades. Obviously his knowledge on the art/sport that he alone revived reflects a very passionate individual. There are plenty of easy-to-follow photos of the techniques, thorough explanations of their execution, and excellent historical references on the ancient sport and battlefield form throughout. The artwork of ancient pankratiasts in the opening chapter gets the book off to a great start. Pankration was the precursor to mixed martial arts, practiced over 2500 years ago, and whose practice and traditions were perpetuated by the author since the late-1960s. He explains his lifelong dedication to rigorous physical training and researching the ancient concepts and skills. These experiences were used as a blueprint in reviving the modern derivative, integrating techniques and strategies from various sources (i.e. boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, submission grappling, etc.) to build its technical foundation. This is precisely how the ancient pankration was formulated ... by combining elements of Greek boxing and wrestling into one cohesive Olympic combat sport. The content also does a neat job covering various training equipment, and exercises and drills to prepare both mind and body for any situation, be it upright or on the ground. The material is well-organized and makes for a great read. My one concern is that I would have liked more advanced applications. However, it's mentioned in the intro that this will be covered in future books. For anyone looking to expand their knowledge of mixed martial arts, this one comes highly-recommended.

Paladin press publishes a lot of crap from charlatains and armchair, wanna- be tough guys. This book is an exception. Jim Arvanitis has been around for a long time and the techniques presented in this book are top notch. A lot of martial arts books suck because they are poorly written and have photos of techniques which are almost impossible to follow. Mr. Arvanitis' book however, has very good step by step photos of his applications, as well as very well articulated explainations for them. This book is worth every penny you'll pay for it an you'll keep it around for reference for many years. I suggest you buy it ASAP, or better yet- find a Pankration teacher ASAP! Pankration is effective for self defense, fitness AND the ring, and very few fighting arts can claim ALL of that.

The "Million Dollar Question," if you had to choose and master only 5, 10 or maybe even 20 techniques, and your life may depend on it...which ones would you choose?

I've spent a lot of time debating and arguing this question with my co-workers. Since we all have such diverse martial arts backgrounds, everyone has their opinion and thinks their art is the best, of course.

After carefully looking through this book, we all finally found something to agree upon. Pankration covers all the core essentials and provides these techniques. Just enough boxing, judo, wrestling, jiu-jistu and Muay Thai in the right proportions and straight to the point, for your all around fighting technique needs. This is the best catalog of "no-nonsense" techniques I've seen.

If you buy this book, you could probably pick the 5, 10 or 20 most effective techniques for yourself and develop your own workout around them.

This is definitely Grandmaster Arvanitis best work to date on his revised form of the ancient Greek martial arts. It is both thorough and clearly explained as is usual for this expert teacher and is a must for anyone interested in Pankration. In fact, it is such an excellent book I would recommend it to anyone as it could easily tempt someone to take up the art. The first section of the book deals with the history and evolution of the art and it's inclusion in the early olympics while the second half covers clearly the physical components involved in modern Pankration such as the ready position, mobility, strikes, upright grappling and ground fighting. This is definitely one of those books I will read again and again and as such can't recommend it highly enough!

Well first of all when I saw this book I was a little if-ie about buying this book since so many others suck so I checked the reviews and they were surprizingly amazing so I took a chance and loved it, only problem I saw in the book was that the move on the cover of the book isnt show (its a spartan disarmment technique SHOWN ON HUMAN WEAPON ([...] then search human weapon) UNDER PANKRATION) but other than that he goes into amazing depth with the moves and combinations (amazing) with a brief chapter on the history of the sport (very basic) but he shows everything that a modern mma fighter does and wrestlers like me (judo sombo jujitsu) would do to make this review short I would say definitly get the book if you would like to learn the moves and training to go with it also!!!!

Coming from a wrestling background and martial arts I have to say that I really enjoyed the book
for ne I rather enjoyed the history and translations. I have a trip to Greece planned for next year and while I am there
I am definately foi g to train in Pankration while I am there.

I bought this book as a guide to Jim's video series at the recommendation of Massad Ayoob. It is Pure gold. Pankration is not flashy, and is, at it's core, very similar to modern MMA. The addendum of Spartan options are for street defense. Arvantisis teaches everything: history, standing, grappling, and technique. The Spartan options, as mentioned earlier, are optional for a street encounter. If you have any boxing or wrestling experience in your past and wish to learn a viable martial art then pankration is just for you!