Footwork Wins Fights: The Footwork of Boxing, Kickboxing, Martial Arts & MMA (Win Fights Series)

A really excellent book. Well written. Good solid information. Excellent photography. A good reference book.

Coming from heavily martial footwork dominated schools, this is an awesome work of research and time on the discipline of Martial Footwork. When most think of Martial Footwork they tend to gravitate that thinking of styles like Capoeira, Baguazhang, Aikido, Silat, Shaolin, and others. Boxing, Kickboxing, Savate, Western Fencing and now MMA also possess tactical and strategic footwork.However, only a small fraction of practitioners have mixed and closed the gap between the two. As Sun Tzu would state that everything is of a duel nature, it important if your an Eastern Martial Practitioner to know the methods of a Western Martial Practitioner, and vice versa. This would be the first step in Sun Tzu's system "Laying Plans," in which you would discuss opponent Philosophy, Climate, Leadership, Ground, and Methods to see where you can win and where you can't. This text shows you exactly that. It discusses philosophy of Western Martial Footwork, "Climate" which is really trends is given by showing or providing references to each techniques/ patterns taken from real fights, Leadership shows how the energy is led when applying the patterns/ techniques, Ground talks specifically about the Ring dynamics, and Methods are the patterns/ techniques themselves with a chapter dedicated on ways to enhance those methods.As a strategist, and adept of the martial way this is an awesome book to add to one's collection of knowledge; to digest, to assimilate, and foster evolved growth in your combatives game and strategic thought. To the author, you mentioned that you put many hours into the crafting and shaping of this text, well It definitely shows. Thank you for your contribution to the Martial World and I look forward to any future work you might be contemplating.

First of all, at lot of the advice in here is kind of redundant if you have any experience in anything. It's not really for someone who's been a martial hobbyist for any length of time. Some of the advice is just common sense stuff, maybe better for people who don't know anything about self-defense. Secondly, most of the book looks like screenshots of youtube video, so the images aren't that clear and there's a lot of wasted space in the book. I could see a teenage boy having a lot of fun learning some basics from the layout, but for people who are used to real training manuals, expect it to be a little frustrating or annoying to read.

This is a good tutorial on footwork, and I especially liked the historical references (available on video to those willing to search for them) which move the concepts from "theoretical" to "practical". The narrative explanations are clear enough to be of value. My only criticism (thus the 4-star review) is the black & white photos used to illustrate the techniques. They are a bit grainy and out of focus. I understand that these may be stills captured from video, and the reference points on the ground plus overlayed directional arrows help better understanding of what's being demonstrated, the focus could be better, or a high-speed camera used to get better shots.If a 2nd Edition ever comes out with better photos, I will definitely buy it.Otherwise, a solid edition to my "Fighter's Library".

was what i expected

Not a bad book. It does a great, and I mean great job of showing examples of when specific types of footwork have been used in televised fights of varying types. But I was expecting a bit more in terms of training for footwork. Not simply how they did it in the video's of the actual fights. I wanted more in how to develop it, not just follow along as they did it. That's just me. It was a good book. The author really did his homework in regards to finding footage that really demonstrated footwork and how important it is! I liked his other book on 'aggressive defense!" There were a lot of drills in that one. He really took things apart more, gave more tools to use to develop the skills mentioned. Maybe I just expected more of that in this book.

I've followed David Christian's YouTube channel (ModernMartialArtist) for a while and his videos are always thoughtful, informative, and valuable to the fighter developing his craft. This book breaks down the mechanics of footwork for fighting with the same meticulous, studious approach that defines his videos.I've felt for a while now that mobility is the key to winning any fight, regardless of scenario, and Mr. Christian breaks down the fundamentals in easily understood language, with examples are provided to further clarify the techniques described.Whether you're beginning your martial arts journey or have been practicing and simply need a handy encyclopedia of steps, pivots, shifts, etc., this book, at the current price, is an absolute steal.

First off, If you're looking to better your footwork in any martial art this will of course help you. But don't think its a substitute for an actual coach, it should only be used to compliment actual training. The book covers many topics, but doesn't have much time to discuss them in depth very much. The photo's are very grainy and dark, but the information is all there. A good book for quarantine or when you're unable to train.

Imaginad un trabajo de instituto escrito con un procesador de textos al que se le han insertado fotos de pésima calidad y se ha impreso con una impresora de inyección de tinta en blanco y negro (a color la portada) con la tinta al 50 o al 60%. A todo esto, que no es poco, añádele una cantidad incontable de erratas que te hacen perder el ritmo y la comprensión de la lectura. Estoy hablando de la edición original en inglés en tapa blanda.Creo que ya he dado motivos suficientes para justificar el título de mi reseña. Es una pena que un libro con una información tan completa y detallada y al que se le nota un trabajo de investigación bastante laborioso haya sido editado de una forma tan inmisericorde.Pese a todo esto, mi intención (siempre y cuando no encuentre mejor alternativa) es seguir comprando el resto de libros del mismo autor ya que la información contenida en estos -una vez descifrada- sirve de manual de consulta y guía para entrenador@s y/o quienes practican deportes de combate; de ahí mis tres estrellas.

Some writers have one good idea and pad an entire book with it. Others have excellent information, but don’t include enough of it for you to put it together by the end of the book. And then there are writers like David Christian who give you heaps of useful, actionable info.Take your time with this book. Play around with the contents, find out what works best for you. You could happily spend years mastering all the ideas here. If you enjoy watching martial arts fights or boxing, this will also give you a deeper appreciation for what’s going on.

I first found the author of this book, David Christian, on his YouTube channel (ModernMartialArtist) where he provides in-depth breakdowns of fights and fight strategy. His YouTube content is phenomenal and this book does not disappoint. It provides the reader with a breakdown of the fundamentals of movement, footwork techniques, fighting strategy, gives example of what positions are superior and which are less so, and finally provides examples of basic and advanced footwork sequences which you can copy. All of this comes with great photos and fight examples which you can pull up on YouTube.I was able to directly apply the techniques taught in this book immediately and with great effect. Learning is a long curve, but it was great to immediately see some small results straight off the bat.

good information, easy to follow instructions also

I love this book. Plenty of detail and photographs. It's given me lots of new techniques to work on and helped me brush up on a few others. Also the knowledge in the book has made watching combat sports even more interesting by being able to identify strengths and weakness's in the combatants techniques.