No Holds Barred Fighting: Savage Strikes: The Complete Guide to Real World Striking for NHB Competition and Street Defense (No Holds Barred Fighting series)

Pros --There is good information and lots of pictures.The book is very inexpensive.The approach Hatmaker takes is fundamentally sound -- he is looking for what really works in real situations.Cons --Advanced strikers will find little new to them.The pictures are grainy. In most cases, this is just an aesthetic consideration, but in some it makes it harder to discern what he is trying to show.There are a few errors in the text (but if you look at the pictures and think it through you will figure them out, and there are not many.)The text is not always well-correlated with the pictures. That is, as you read along, you can't always tell which part of the information is being shown by a given picture. I think the book would be much more user friendly if the text included picture numbers for reference.Unless you are already well-versed in this area, worth more than the low price.

I bought this book after my last street fight. My game had deteriorated a lot over the years, and it showed in this fight. I pretty much got jumped and hit in the head with a bunch of key-loaded haymakers (though it surprised me; it didn't hurt at all because I remembered enough to close distance and let him hit my hard skull with his soft hands). I actually ended the fight by picking the guy up and throwing him. Effective, but not very stylish. I was unprepared, and wanted to think about how to end such things with science rather than going back to my rote martial arts training. This was one of the books I picked up to remind myself of how to mix it up with proper manly panache.The book is very much coming from a boxing mentality. This is good, as boxing is the most effective form of fist fighting. This is bad in that a lot of stuff is illegal in boxing, and insanely street effective. And a lot of those "illegal in boxing" things are missing from this book. It's not all missing, and he gives a lot of excellent "dirty punches" (the Louisville slugger is indispensable, as are hammer fists) but there are a few obvious ones missing. As an example of something missing; the straight back fist is a hugely effective technique. It's extremely quick and whip like; faster than a straight jab, and if you do it with a good foot shuffle, you can lay your opponents out flat with it. Another example is the uppercut elbow, which is a total show stopper. MIA in this book. Oh, he has some "up elbows," but they're all very boxing-like, and not what I'm talking about. Another weakness is the lack of transitions from striking moves to locks or a ground game. There are a lot of positions shown in the photos which were obvious lead ins to arm bars, guillotine chokes or just plain take downs. Since this is a striking book, he never points this out, though he does have an excellent section on ground and pound (sans takedown: I guess you need the author's other book to learn how to get him on the ground). Man, I'd be embarrassed if I tried one of his clinches and got my elbow broke by an arm bar. Some of the defense drills strike me as silly also; the elbow defenses for example. Maybe I just think they're silly because I never tried them. Just my call on that one.Now, there are also some excellent things here, taken from boxing. My favorite, which justified the price of the book, is the section on head butting. I was never taught to head butt by a real fighter; only clowns from high school. Clown head butts are done with the forehead. Fighters use the top of the skull. This is extremely effective. I've done it by accident; it's the type of thing that comes natural in a boxing situation. Doing it on purpose would rule. The photos and explanations are all excellent, top notch stuff. You're not going to learn to fight from reading the book, but his observations are valuable, and they can serve as a quite memory refresher on the subject of striking game. Just reading the section on how to throw a solid blow ... excellent stuff. I really can't think of a better book on striking (haven't read Beaumont's books yet either), but I can see a few ways in which it could be improved.

This book is really geared toward MMA sport fighters, and my only complaint is that the self-defense section was a bit lacking compared to the boxing stuff, as well as I would have liked to see some diversity with hand strikes, for example palm strikes, finger jabs and such. However, great section on combinations in the back that made up for anything that was slightly off with the rest. Lots of ideas you can put to work in your training.

The first part of the book deals with basic boxing skills. Then, the author emphasizes the technique of "shutting the door" for gaining power. Of course, with power comes both accuracy and speed. The rest of the book combines these skills with wrestling techniques for what amounts to a treatise on "ultimate fighting." The black and white pictures are easy to follow. Moreover, his videos on youtube also make some of this concrete. The book is not at all hard to follow, especially if you have enthusiasm for the subject and have gotten in the ring at all or got in a good fight. If you lack the experience, I highly recommend practicing on a liberal man or woman. Simply get them to spout out their politics and then proceed to apply all the contents of this book. It will be rewarding for your own increase in experience, as well as doing your patriotic duty.

This is all the book you will ever need for striking. It covers everything from basics punches, to edvanced combos. If you want to know how to fight on the street then get this book and a jiu-jitsu book. Practice these moves on a heavybag, get about a thousand reps on each technique and your on your way. I've used most of these in real life and they are good stuff.

This is a good book for elbow and insert strikes.eg.. what to do on a missed jab or hook. For the price I thought it was worth it but their is probably nothing new for intermidiate or advanced strikers in MMA.

Mark Hatmaker has truly made the martial arts his lifelong passion and now proves he has the background and technical knowledge to teach it effectively!

mark hatmaker is god!

A reasonable book, with poor photo quality. The photos are also taken with boxers who do not represent the rest of us.

Good

Yes, this is a good book. One of many that he has apparently released and based on this, I intend to look at them to.

Full of useful info , a must buy , you cant go wrong