I’m torn about Wrestling for Fighting. I badly wanted to love this book, and it is good.
But it’s not great.
Randy Couture is one of my heroes, and I was always going to be biased towards his book when it came out, but Wrestling for Fighting is to much pure wrestling and not enough fighting for a book that’s nominally about MMA.
Oddly enough the parts of the book I enjoyed the most were the pieces detailing Randy’s early career in MMA and his multiple attempts to make the US wrestling team. Randy can write extremely well and he has an easy going, arrogance free style of writing. His life story is entertaining, and I would actually love to read some of the other books he has written to get more of his war stories.
But this is an MMA book, and while the advice he gives is excellent, and the pictures clear there is far too much time spent on pure wrestling. While I’m aware that forming a foundation of skills is important, some the techniques Randy imparts will get your clock cleaned if you tried them inside the cage (although to Randy’s credit he does explain that they are pure wrestling moves).
I would have loved to have seen a fitness and nutrition guide from Randy. At the age of 44 he’s in far better shape than most teenagers. It would have been cool to know what he does every day not only to get himself into the incredible physical condition he’s in, but staves of injuries at an age where most pro athletes have long since retired.
Of course when Randy does get to the MMA portion of Wrestling for Fighting the book suddenly goes from mediocre to excellent. If you have ever wanted to beat someone like a red headed step child inside the clinch or on the ground then this bit is for you.
Many MMA books are simple rehashes of the techniques you already know (unless you are a complete beginner) but Randy shows wrestler specific MMA techniques that are completely separate from the normal BJJ and SAMBO based techniques we’re used to seeing. He evens goes into some wrestler specific submissions for people who like controlling from the top position.
I would like to have given this two gloved thumbs up, and I would have if the whole book had been as good as the last third was. As it is it gets one and a half.
Sorry randy. Maybe next time?
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