| Bloody Elbow Book Review: BJ Penn's MMA Book of Knowledge |
| Written by BloodyElbow.com | |
| Sunday, 20 April 2008 00:37 | |
|
This is the perfect present for the Muscle Sharks on your list. Not
only is it a very good MMA technique book from one of the best fighters
in the sport, its also an invaluable insight into B.J. Penn's approach
to MMA and his offensive skill set.
Here's a review from Amazon that explains what I mean: The two most valuable lessons to take from
this book is that first, a style of Mixed Martial Arts fighting should
be built off of one main discipline with techniques from other styles
added to complement the base style. Second, that the style should be an
integrated blend, not a disintegrated patchwork hybrid creation. Penn
warns us against developing the habit of separating grappling from
striking, switching on the fly from one to the other. Rather, he says,
we should always be doing both. The techniques in The Book of Knowledge
are presented as whole MMA techniques which blend striking with
grappling.
The glaring absence of kicks from the offensive section of the book
really jumped out at me. It's clear that B.J. has focused his style on
what works for him and ignored the rest. Too bad for Sherk that he
doesn't have any kicking game of his own to take advantage of that
with. Sherk's peek-a-boo boxing style also plays into B.J.'s hands as
it leads right into the clinch game where B.J. is the master.
Bj's book is made up of techniques that work for him and would be usable by most people. There are no kicking techniques and no leglocks. What is shown are basic techniques, which if done properly, are always dangerous. Nothing fancy, just master the basics and shove them down your opponent's throat until you beat him. Regardless, this is a really useful book -- and I don't even train. The techniques are clearly explained and the philosophy behind B.J.'s fighting style really comes through -- ABC -- Always Be Combining -- B.J. doesn't just grapple and then switch into striking mode, instead moves like "Whizzer into Punch" show you how to use a wrestling technique to set up a nasty punch. And "Half stack pass sequence" features multiple elbow strikes and punches to set up a guard pass. Read Full Article 
Set as favorite
Bookmark
Email This
Trackback(0)
Comments (0)
 Write comment
|
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
