With the advent of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, grappling
arts such as Brazilian jujutsu have enjoyed a sharp rise in popularity.
Judging from these so-called “no-holds-barred” tournaments, one might
conclude that no martial art is superior to grappling when it comes to street
fighting—an arena where there truly are no rules.
In this book, author Erle
Montaigue demonstrates why such a conclusion is seriously flawed.
Far from being inferior, traditional martial arts are dangerous—even
deadly—when trained and practiced as they were intended: not for
sport but for self-preservation, says Montaigue. Throughout the book, he
points to the gradual “watering down” of the kicking and punching arts as
the reason for their apparent demise.
Kata and kumite, as taught in most
dojos today, are little more than showmanship, he says—empty techniques that prove useless in the street.
When a fight goes to the ground—
as street fights almost always do—the traditional martial artist must abandon logical techniques learned in the dojo and fight instinctively, like a
wild animal, with whatever reflexes he has developed and trained.
Thus,
Montaigue introduces training methods that turn learned techniques into
subconscious, reflexive reactions and help to develop the explosive yang
energy so essential to surviving any life-threatening attack.
Grappling is not superior, just different, says Montaigue, who was
once a professional wrestler himself.
To defeat a grappler, you must
understand how he thinks.
Montaigue helps you do just that, taking you
inside the mind of a grappler and revealing his strategy, thus taking
away his edge.
Finally, he shows you how to target the most vulnerable
points on the human body and apply five foolproof “sleeper holds”
from dim-mak in order to counter the classic moves a grappler will use
in any true no-holds-barred fight.
