No Holds Barred Fighting: The Ultimate Guide to Submission Wrestling

This book has lots of information for the self-taught. This is the sort of book the beginner would find useful. It has those basic techniques everybody has seen in MMA fights, as well as drills and advices to correctly apply them. I immediately bought the other books of the series and found them very good too. And being tiny helps taking them to the training if needed. I wish there were more books about submission wrestling like this one and I had not wasted my money in books about "BJJ mind sets" or Sprague's grappling for real life situations...

Mark Hatmaker writes No Holds Barred Fighting (NHBF) Ultimate Guide primarily as a NHBF and a submission wrestling handbook. I bought and use it as a self-defense guide to ground fighting. Supposedly 75% of all fights end up on the ground. He does an excellent job of covering takedowns, takedown defense, ground controls or hold downs, submissions, and escapes. He is able to pack a wealth of techniques in 250 pages without being overly detailed or verbose because the 695 pictures are so excellent - a good picture is worth a thousand words! He does offer explanations when and where needed. If I had a ten best list of self-defense or the martial arts, this book would be on that list.

Mark Hatmaker has left a good impression on me with his (I think)first book. Though not realy NHB, as strikes aren't covered, this book had info on takedowns, possitions, reversals, escapes, submissions, drills... Although the book didn't have 'every single move in the world', what was presented would help anyone improve their game. It is as complete as a book of it's size can be on the subject it covers. It is well-written, logically presented, and has me eagerly anticipating the second book. If you are interrested in submission grappling at all, get this book; you will not be disappointed.

Mark Hatmaker, with Doug Werner, have simply written and masterfully produced a nice book on submission wrestling. One can get this book, practice the techniques, and have a pretty good idea on the submission wrestling sport. Of course, there are many disadvantages from not taking formal lessons, but this book tries and narrows those gaps.The strengths of this text are the easy to understand instructions and prior advice on safety and equipment. He brings up the losing of ones "ego" and his advice is right on. Many injuries are due to someone who cannot mature and learn. Listen to his advice and learn, grow, and be a better wrestler!The photos are nicely done and, like the written material, easy to mimic and therefore, learn from. Some of the movements are better suited for sport and some are better used for self-defense, and not explaining these differences are probably the book's only weakness; however, this great text still deserves 5 stars. It has great advice, easy to understand, and "bargined" priced (it is a steal).Buy now!!!

GREAT BOOK! Worth the money. Very few books on the subject of Submission Wrestling have this degree of detailed analysis of the technigues. Supplementing my training with this book has helped me to gain higer levels of preformance. This guide stands strong by it's self, but can be used with Alan Ground's; The Gate and The Gracie's two Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu books for those who seek to cover all areas of groundfighting.