Good Book

[danfaggella]

My back has been fucked up bad. I'm in physical therapy and hopefully I'll be on the mat soon. I've become bored with reading the books I currently own, and I want to buy a book that focuses primarily on the top game (for two reasons: [1] I need to work on my attacks/ transitions from top, and [2] When I get stacked a crumpled and squished im my gaurd, my back hurts more).

Any ideas?

Gracias.

[Bjjexpertise@be]

Ken Shamrock's book focuses on a lot of top game moves. He has some good stuff in there, you should definitely check it out. I'm the exact opposite of you, I have a good top game but my guard game is crap. I really need to work on my guard game since I am the lightest guy in my school with everyone else weighing at least 60 pound heavier than me. Any pointers you can give me for the guard ?

[Tim McFatridge]

Hey guys...just wanted to jump in here and suggest some books. Larry Hartsell has a few that are really good. The first is "JEET KUNE DO (vol. 2) COUNTER ATTACK! GRAPPLING COUNTERS AND REVERSALS" this book has alot of material from the tie-up position. The second one is JEET KUNE DO - Hardcore Training and Strategies Guide and the third one JEET KUNE DO - Conditioning and Grappling Methods. All of them have some really good stuff to improve your stand up game...by stand up I mean striking and grappling. He also has some really good videos that will improve your top game. You might also want to check out Erik Paulson's website...all of his videos are great! They all have a ton of material on them. I hope that helps.

Train Hard, Train Smart

[danfaggella]

Stop promoting yourself, if anything I am now deterred to look at any of those things. Make a billboard or something, don't come into my thread and tote your crap.

Thanks for the suggestion BJJexpertise.

About gettin good at the guard:

Being a little guy I end up on bottom frequently. There are a million basic concepts and principles to adhere to when you are in bottom guard. The biggest thing to me is to start controlling them, walk the legs up, work to control thier head and arms with hooks and grabs, and always have an attack in mind.

Also, having loose hips has helped me a lot, get a bit more flexable and when you spar in class, choose to start with the opponent in your guard and work on whatever specific skills you want to develope.

[Tim McFatridge]

[quote=danfaggella]Stop promoting yourself, if anything I am now deterred to look at any of those things. Make a billboard or something, don't come into my thread and tote your crap.

danfaggella - I do not think I was promoting myself since I did not write the books that I mentioned to you. As far as you calling them crap well thats up to you my friend...but when you have someone who is older than you and has far more experience than you do in the martial arts and someone who has trained with some of the best martial artist in the world then if I were you I would think about listening to them. Erik Paulson is a great fighter who was also the first non asian to go over to Japan and win the Light Heavyweight Shoot Fighting Title and he remained undefeated for 5 years. You might want to check out his videos. Larry Hartsell has been doing martial arts for 50 years and has trained in catch as catch can wrestling, a black belt in Judo, a black belt in Kenpo, a senior full instructor under Dan Inosanto, has trained with Gokor and Gene Lebell, trained in Sambo, trained in dumog and BJJ and has alot of really good material to offer everyone. The reason I did not offer any BJJ books or videos is because your profile says you train in that...thought you might want a different take on the stand up and ground game.

[DJColdfusion]

I don't know about Tim's other suggestions but Erik Paulson is the real deal and you really might want to look into his stuff http://www.erikpaulson.com

[7r14ngL3Ch0k3]

What youre looking for basically is a book on ground grappling. Eddie Bravo's UNLEASHED is really good. Getting a Ken "Leg-Lock Brawler who's weak at JiuJitsu" Shamrock book is not the best idea for what you want to learn.
Here's Eddie Bravo's book......his techinques are a blend between wrestling and his own style of BJJ. Here it is........http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/007...lance&n=283155

[DJColdfusion]

Good suggestion 7r . . . .

I like Eddy's book, alot, but its definitely a bottom game kind of a book and if you're not that flexible then there are IMO better options; however, a couple of his half guard sweeps, like "old school", are very effective . . . yes you can find them elsewhere (with different names) but Eddy does a great job explaining the techniques.

[danfaggella]

Yeah I baught eddies book despite the "unleashed" in the title and the fact that I don't like eddy... Hes still a damn good grappler and i did see a lot of cool and different no-gi stuff in his book. Yet... it is a bottom game oriented book, and I've been working specifically on top positions (not so much passing the gaurd, just how to attack/transition better from side mount/mount).

And TIm, its not really personal, but I just think that you coming in here saying "yeah check out these 3 JKD videos if you want to be a good grappler from the top possition" is a bit over the top. Obviously there are more specific resounrces. It just appears to me as though you want to throw some JKD stuff out there so it gets attention, your profile serves the same attention-getting purpose. This isnt bad in my book until you start barging into this thread (not literally, this is the internet) and randomly throwing out JKD stuff when I'm clearly looking at more BJJ/Judo/Subgrappling topic.... im not looking into conditioning right now as much (my back is fucked up) or my stand up (i have been working on that a lot already, and i dont work too many takedowns these days due to back problems).

[Tim McFatridge]

Originally Posted by danfaggella

And TIm, its not really personal, but I just think that you coming in here saying "yeah check out these 3 JKD videos if you want to be a good grappler from the top possition" is a bit over the top. Obviously there are more specific resounrces. It just appears to me as though you want to throw some JKD stuff out there so it gets attention, your profile serves the same attention-getting purpose. This isnt bad in my book until you start barging into this thread (not literally, this is the internet) and randomly throwing out JKD stuff when I'm clearly looking at more BJJ/Judo/Subgrappling topic.... im not looking into conditioning right now as much (my back is fucked up) or my stand up (i have been working on that a lot already, and i dont work too many takedowns these days due to back problems).

The reason I have my "signature" the way I do is becuase I use my real name and when I post a comment in here I want people to have an idea of where I am coming from and if want they will be able to go to my website and see where my training comes from thats it. When I made the suggestions of those books it was not to say "hey if you really want to be a good fighter you need JKD"...thats crazy. I know JKD is not for everyone but you can learn alot from looking into other systems and looking at what people from other systems have to offer. You had made the comment that you had gotten bored with the stuff you had been reading thats why I suggested what I did. Erik Paulson has a really good video that I think is called "Killer Top Mount"...in it he goes over alot of different set ups, attacks, submissions, counters and striking. It is a very good video. I also have trained in BJJ for a while and know that sometimes you need to look outside your art in order to move forward. As far as your back is concerned have you tried yoga? Also you can do back extensions to help strenghten your lower back.