Library
This page contains reviews from club members for recommended books or videos/DVDs relevant to training. Club members should submit reviews to Zoltan (dienes@sussex.ac.uk).
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If one is interested in efficiently training for self defence, what role should kata play in your training? The most impressive argument for kata as a self defence training system is provided by the work documented in Bill Burgar's book. Bill spent five years working out self defence applications for one kata. An impressive amount of thought went into making the set of applications for the kata coherent and effective: Coherent in the sense that the set of applications as a whole provides responses to all of the most common acts of physical violence Bill believes he is likely to face, in the sense that there is balance in covering this set of likely attacks, and in the sense that the same moves can be used as likely continuations of outcomes of using the very same moves. Bill has thought about efficiency in terms of reducing the set of moves to as a small a set as possible to prevent complicated decisions, while maintaining flexiblity in responding effectively to different "what if" scenarios. The result is a compact minimally sufficient set of movements that can be practiced solo given that partner practice can be hard to come by for some people with a busy life.
In my view, the genius shown in the book lies not in any individual applications shown for the movements but in how they all fit together, how Bill satisfied many simultaneous constraints to create a lean efficient but flexible self defence system. Further, he showed how other martial artists could do the same themselves.
However, one must consider carefully what the moral really is. Bill took an "off the shelf" kata - one from the Shotokan syllabus - and adjusted the kata moves somewhat to create his specific version that nonetheless bore a family resemblance to the kata he started with. To create his self defence system, Bill had to work with a very strong constraint: Find applications that can be made to fit the kata. Maybe the movement templates provided by the kata helped stimulate novel solutions to particular self defence problems. But more likely, forcing oneself to fit a kata introduced a strong constraint that only slowed progress because of its arbitrariness. The constraint must also tend to limit one's development as a martial artist, keeping one to a certain mould; this restriction being most obvious for groundwork. We all develop, change our favoured moves, and should do so unfettered by arbitrary constraints.
Whatever one's view of the value of traditional kata, though, Bill illustrates an approach that can't be faulted: Think carefully about the set of self defence situations you consider likely, constantly evaluate and practice one's favoured responses to those situations, and learn to use vivid imagination in solo practice.
Available from Amazon.
Burton Richardson presents a training philosophy: Training should be based on games presenting the participants with particualr problems to solve in clinch, stand up, ground or their transitions, with progressive resistance (that is, with respect to the learning needs of both people),and they should be fun. The approach is geared not to MMA as a sport but to self defence, drawing on the lessons that MMA teaches. So, usefully, the recommended games include means of enacting, for example, eye gouges and groin strikes, to build such responses into one's self defence repertoire.
Available from Burton Richardson's website (see links).
"Watch my back" is an autobiographical account of Geoff's 10 years on the doors in Coventry, how he had to adapt his traditional martial arts training to deal with the hard realities of Coventry nightlife then, and most importantly the psychology of the street altercation. It is a real eye opener; if you wish to gain insight into the psychology of street violence. Full of funny stories as well. Geoff has had a big impact on modern martial arts training, most notably with his concept of the "fence".
Available from Amazon.
A thorough detailed tour of all aspects of the MMA game (ground, clinch and stand-up). Matt Thornton has not only reached an obvious level of personal skill but can also communicate principles and techniqiues very clearly. The constant underlying message is aliveness, removing rigid structure from training, to allow genuine learning of effective responding in real situations. Some may fear that this would lead to sloppiness; on the contrary, Matt demonstrates it is THE route to technical mastery and the possession of *relevant* fine-tuned precision skills. The DVDs are particularly strong on ground work and clinch. These DVDs are packed with techniques, drills and principles. Matt Thornton is not exclusively concerned with self defence but also with MMA as a sport.
Available from Matt Thornton's website (see links).
Randy Couture is one of the most respected names in the noholdsbarred world. With a background as a world class Greco-Roman wrestler, Randy seems able to completely control and positionally dominate his opponent in the Octagon. This six volume set presents some of the basics of Randy's perspective on the fight - from free standing, to clinch, to ground. Each tape is 30-45 minutes long; short, yes, but the drills and techniques covered in each tape have been invaluable to me in developing better skills in all those arenas.
Available from Randy Couture's website (see links).
This is an excellent book to get an overview of the strategy and tactics for dealing with three possible phases of a fight, as construed in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) circles: Stand-up, clinch, and ground. Just enough specific techniques are given to flesh out the ideas. Transitions between these phases are also discussed. There is a useful historical introduction to Brazilian Jujitsu, making the persuasive argument that it is only by training against a live resisting partner that really effective technique and strategy can be honed. Because the book is not just a cookbook of techniques but has an emphasis on concepts,I regard it as a must read book for club members.
Available from Amazon.
Pressure points are an integral part of every martial artist's toolbox, so long as the martial artist is interested in self defence rather than sport, and Rick Clark is a world authority on pressure point use. Further, Rick avoids subscribing to the mysticism often used to sell pressure points: For example, exotic theories, or suggestion-based knock outs caused by projecting qi. Nonetheless, use of pressure points is sometimes criticised on several grounds. One is that the pain inflicted by pain points might only make the aggressor more angry. But this argument can be made to any attempt at self defence: Hitting the aggressor, trying to arm bar the aggressor, trying anything on the aggressor might only make him more angry. Several people in my club who work on the door have effectively used pain compliance - including the manipulation of pain points - to effectively control aggressive people. Sudden unexpected pain causes predictable reactions - reactions that set up other moves. Another criticism is that for many points there will be a substantial percentage of non-responders. That is true, but not a reason to avoid learning pressure points. For any given person I face, there will be some things I cannot get to work on that person - striking, grappling, throwing, and so on. The aim must be to increase the set of tools in my toolbox to increase the probability that I know something that might get me out alive. Fortunately, sensitivity to pressure points is NOT related to size. Dirty gouges, twists, pokes and strikes might be the only thing that saves me from a larger stronger skilled opponent. Finally, it is said use of pressure points requires an accuracy not available in a real fight. That can only be said by people who have not incorporated pressure point use into general training: When you have clinched with someone, standing or on the ground, certain parts of the aggressors body can become precisely available in windows of opportunity. What can become available are not just locations susceptible to pain, but also locations facilitating light force knock outs. Rick presents the use of points in the form of applications to common kata.
Available from Amazon.
Each video lasts 3-4 hours and needs to be returned to repeatedly to extract information in layers. All martial artists should study these videos carefully, on one pre-condition: You are sincerely open to having your most cherished beliefs about martial arts thrown out the window to be replaced by something better. I noticed immediate results in, for example, punching power and I know I am far from having taken on board all the principles. The tapes' theme is competitive noholdsbarred fighting, but since Steve Morris is a person with not only regular noholdsbarred fighting experience in the gym but also regular fights on the street, his philosophy is applicable to either arena. The tapes deal with how to integrate tactics and dynamics to deal with the mutiple constraints posed by dealing with an opponent who might strike, clinch, take down, or grapple. The tapes also deal with a philosophy of training, i.e. how should one structure one's training to be most efficient, what types of training frameworks allow one to progress fastest. Psychological factors as well as general and specific conditioning routines are also dealt with. The tapes present a framework that is a lot more than just a mixture of e.g. Thai boxing and submission wrestling; there is a genuine integration of the demands created by dealing with both striking and grappling simultaneously and what emerges is certainly more than the sum of the parts. I think the tapes are particularly strong - in a unique way - on striking skills.
Available from Steve Morris' website (see links page).