Shootfighting: The Ultimate Fighting System (Paperback)

~ (Author), Mark Jacobs (Contributor) "Fighting, whether with weapons or without, is as old as mankind..." (more)
Key Phrases: submission hold, release the hold, roundhouse kick, United States, Fujiwara Gumi, Karl Gotch (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

What is Shootfighting? It's a brutal hybrid sport that combines real wrestling moves with Eastern martial arts such as judo, karate and Muay Thai kickboxing. Among old-time wrestlers, the word "shoot" referred to the real thing - no scripts, no fake holds, no mercy. So Bart Vale coined the name Shootfighting to describe the new fighting system he learned from Japanese martial artists Masami Soranaka and Yoshiaki Fujiwara. The International Shootfighting Association (ISFA) created by Vale, Soranaka and Fujiwara has affiliated gyms and martial arts schools around the world. In this book, Shootfighting champion Vale takes you through the history of the sport, the training methods that will get you in peak shape, and the kicking, punching, takedown and submission-hold techniques that will give you the winning edge in all aspects of unarmed combat.

About the Author

A former reporter for New York Newsday, Mark Jacobs is a free-lance writer whose work has appeared in Sports Illustrated, Men’s Health and TimeOut New York. He lives in New York, where he teaches martial arts and is at work on a novel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Paladin Press (May 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581601344
• ISBN-13: 978-1581601343
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,676,485 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good material - if you're a beginner/newbie to martial arts, July 31, 2001

By A Customer

The book is basically a description/definition of Mr. Vale's method called Shootfighting. Initially, when I ordered the book, I was expecting more of an in-depth analysis and/or an array of techniques which would distinguish Shootfighting from other systems since I have read about Shootfighting in some MA magazines. It was not the case.

The book has been divided to 3 chapters.

What is Shootfighting?

The good: I found the author's stories about his fights in Japan amusing. Pictures are dark but visible.

The bad: No in-depth description of what Shootfighting is really all about. Everything I've read in the MA magazines is basically compiled here in the book.

Conditioning

The good: The book contains wrestling-hold streches

The bad: the exercises are too basic. Although it covers stretching, cardio and strength, there are just too few exercises here in my opinion i.e. one exercise for cardio, one for plyometrics.

Techniques

The good: The book covers stand-up and ground fighting. PLUS, there's a wrestling-counter wrestling topic which is the transition from stand-up to ground fighting. This part is nice.

The bad: This only shows the basic stuff i.e. punch, kick, elbos, knee, takedowns, locks etc.

The topics and techniques are too basic for martial artists who already practice stand-up, ground fighting, and/or wrestling. But the book is a nice start for beginners (who don't know the value of being well rounded in most aspects of martial arts like stand-up, ground fighting, submissions etc.) in terms of techniques.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars short but usefull, June 19, 2002

By	rickey l. esteves sr "estevesbooks-o_livreiro" (san francisco, ca United States) - See all my reviews

Considering that there is very little on shootfighting in the way of books out there this was a good start.I'm sure they could have added a lot more material but maybe Mr.Vale has a contract to do a series of books.A short book doesn't always mean that it is a bad book (an example would be one of the greatest grappling books there is-"My study of Judo" by Gunji Koizumi.Short but comparable if not better than anything currently availabe.I'd say if you have a martial arts library,grab "Shootfighting".If you're looking for advanced techniques or enough to try to incorporate it into your fighting repretoire,you might want to wait and see if a second volume that is more advanced comes out.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good basic info, September 22, 2006

By	T. Mcilwain - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Bart Vale's book has some good basic information and covers a lot of topic material. If you're looking for indepth technique, you won't get it here. It is, however, a good overall read and interesting...