Martial Arts - Ground Fighting: Books, Videos

Following his collaboration with Jack Dempsey on the WWII standard, How to Fight Tough, this 1959 solo effort by B J Cosneck, American Combat Judo, is a lengthier training session in vicious close-in fighting skills. In it, Cosneck combines elements of jiu-jitsu, boxing, wrestling, savate and plain old dirty fighting into an easy-to-learn set of practical unarmed combat techniques designed to incapacitate any attacker as quickly and painfully as possible. No collection of hand-to-hand combat books is truly complete without this exclusive reprint edition of American Combat Judo from Paladin Press.

A champion intercollegiate wrestler and chief hand-to-hand fighting instructor for the U.S. Coast Guard, B.J.Cosneck is perhaps best known as the man who teamed up with boxing great Jack Dempsey to write How to Fight Tough for rookie Coast Guardsmen during the war.
$16.00
Softcover 978-1-58160-528-0 124 pages 5.5" x 8.5" photos

Brazilian jujitsu is one of the most effective fighting arts ever developed. But as good as it is, it only represents a small part of the overall spectrum of the grappling arts.

In this groundbreaking Paladin video, Western martial arts expert Mark Hatmaker takes a critical look at Brazilian jujitsu and shows you how it stacks up against the techniques of Western scientific wrestling. In addition to pointing out how the fundamental conceptual differences between wrestling and jujitsu can be used to negate much of jujitsu's traditional arsenal, Hatmaker does a point-by-point analysis of more than a dozen of Brazilian jujitsu's most popular techniques. He first reveals some of the little-known weaknesses of jujitsu's techniques and how to easily counter them with simple wrestling moves. He then shows you how to take your combat grappling skills to the next level by enhancing or replacing your Brazilian jujitsu techniques with faster, less complicated, more effective Western wrestling tactics.

This video is packed with more than two hours of never-before-seen information that is sure to revolutionize your grappling game. For information purposes only.
$59.95
DVD-R 805966 031231 120 minutes

While the first volume in Mark Hatmaker's best-selling Beyond Brazilian Jujitsu series focused on the differences in approach from Western wrestling to Brazilian jujitsu, this explosive video production from Paladin Press specifically addresses how to defeat BJJ's formidable combat arsenal using Western scientific wrestling. There aren't any tricks or gimmicks here, but rather a collection of escapes and counters to Brazilian jujitsu's most effective moves, taught with Hatmaker's typical attention to detail and specificity. Included are arm bar beats from various body positions; choke counters, including several triangle and rear naked choke escapes; and a collection of foot lock counters. An experienced BJJ player is no joke, but you don't have to fear him: know what he's capable of and beat him at his own game. For information purposes only.
$59.95
DVD-R 805966 060231 150 minutes

In this controversial video production from Paladin Press, groundfighting expert and best-selling author Mark Hatmaker shows you that there's little to fear when you're inside your opponent's guard. With his typical attention to detail, Hatmaker begins this veritable encyclopedia of antiguard techniques by teaching the "buzzsaw": striking, grinding and brutal pressuring moves that will make your opponent wish he'd never gotten on the mat in the first place. He then goes into grappling techniques from every aspect of the guard: when you're in the low guard, the half guard and the high guard, with all the necessary variations: when your opponent's feet are in your hips, when your opponent has wrist grab cohesion, when he has double elevators in and more.

Throughout, Hatmaker refines the most commonly shown locks and submissions, showing you how you may be doing them wrong or how you can make them even more effective. In addition, he demonstrates the highest percentage submissions available from being in the guard, counters to those submissions and even counters to the counters. For information purposes only.
$59.95
DVD-R 805966 050133 330 minutes 3-Disc Set

Catch Wrestling
A Wild and Wooly Look at the Early Days of Pro Wrestling in America
by Mark S Hewitt

Anything-goes catch wrestling from England merged with the rough-and-tumble fighting of the American frontier to spawn one of the most lethal fighting arts ever - North American catch-as-catch-can wrestling. Catch Wrestling chronicles the exploits of an elite group of wrestlers who took on all comers in packed arenas, carnivals and dirt lots all across America. Includes matches featuring wrestler, boxers and jiu-jitsu practitioners and a superb collection of old photos, posters and ads.

Mark Hewitt is a lifelong history buff with a great interest in old-time wrestling and boxing. Among his ongoing projects are studying the carnival athletic shows and detailing the matches of the legendary Helio Gracie in Brazil vs. pro wrestlers Fred Ebert, Wladek Zbyszko and Taro Miyake.
$20.00
Softcover 978-1-58160-473-3 296 pages 5.5" x 8.5" photos

Take another trip back to the raucous early days of pro wrestling as Mark Hewitt brings you even more blow-by-blow accounts of dozens of the most famous and infamous mat battles of the day, as well as the backstage stories of the colorful characters who crisscrossed the country from the 1880s to the 1960s in search of fame, glory and cold, hard cash.

From all-comers matches to high-profile card events, from dirt lots and carnivals to packed arenas, from country boys to skilled scientific wrestlers, the fighting lore is packed in here tighter than a Strangler Lewis headlock. Filled with extremely rare photos culled from the libraries of fight fans and historians and the family scrapbooks of the wrestlers themselves, Catch Wrestling: Round Two offers up such gems as:

* The most notorious double-cross in wrestling history
* London's legendary Alhambra Tournament of 1908
* Japanese sensation Matsada Sorakichi's U.S. debut
* Wrestler vs. boxer mixed matches
* Celebrity referees, celebrity wrestlers and the French Angel
* The Gracie brothers and the fight scene in 1930s Rio de Janeiro

Read the true stories of Tigerman Pesek, Midget Fischer, Earl Caddock, Billy Wicks, Lou Thesz, and all the other grapplers who paid for their place in sports history with blood, sweat and pain.
$39.95
Softcover 978-1-58160-720-8 427 pages 5.5" x 8.5" photos, illustrations

In this revolutionary video production from Paladin Press, best-selling author and groundfighting expert Mark Hatmaker explodes the common myth that the guard, also known as the bottom scissors, is a position of strength and shows you how to get from the guard to the top game. First, Hatmaker teaches why you always want to be on top of your opponent so that your strikes have greater force and your submissions are more likely to succeed. From there, he gives you more than a hundred different techniques to get out of the guard position and turn the tables on your opponent, putting you in the top game and your opponent at a significant disadvantage. Hatmaker's instruction runs the gamut, from low sweeps to transition sweeps to high sweeps, giving you enough material to keep your grappling game on top. For information purposes only.
$39.95
DVD-R 805966 044231 180 minutes 2-Disc Set

Discover the grim reality of floor fighting and the secrets of being off your feet, on your ass, but still in control. This dynamic video covers balance, how to avoid going to the ground, how to fall on any surface without being injured, the secrets of protecting your vital areas when on the ground and ways to get back on your feet quickly and safely. You'll also learn why grappling moves that work on the mat can spell disaster in a back alley or on a barroom floor. For information purposes only.

Marc "Animal" MacYoung knows the ins and outs of American violence. He is the author of many books and has appeared in countless videos on street violence and self-defense for Paladin. Reading his books and watching his videos will save you a lot of hassles and a lot of hurt.
$19.95
DVD-R 805966 0054735 60 minutes

This book isn't about sport fighting, flashy moves or how to become a better person through a martial art. It presents realistic grappling techniques designed to control and restrain through the application of pain to the joints. Its purpose is to provide today's modern warrior – the self-defense oriented martial artist, combat soldier or law enforcement officer – with easy-to-apply techniques that first restrain and then, if taken to their maximum potential, inflict severe physical injury, including torn ligaments and tendons, broken bones and even paralysis or death in extreme cases.
$21.00
Softcover 978-1-58160-492-4 204 pages 5.5" x 8.5" photos

NEW! When you crash to the ground, limbs suddenly locked in an opponent's grip, your carefully practiced strikes and kicks may be rendered useless. Stripped of your offensive moves, your only chance is to forcefully and immediately break free.

Mark Hatmaker's years of grappling experience are in plain view here as he not only demonstrates dozens and dozens of escapes and counters to submissions, pins, and rides, but more importantly shows you how to put these moves together into combinations. Just as you chain your offensive moves, you must learn to chain your defenses to react fluidly to your opponent's onslaught, and in Great Escapes you will learn escapes as sequences; you will learn how your opponent is going to flow so you can think three or four defensive movements ahead.

But what if you're not a grappler? You're not planning on a ground fight, so do you really need to know all these escapes? The reality is that grappling just happens. The shoot happens, the takedown happens, the ground will happen. If you don't plan for it now, you're in for pain later.

Whether you're a grappler looking to cover every base or a nongrappler who's realizing that his game is incomplete, this DVD set will teach you a multitude of new ways to get out of bad situations. For information purposes only.
$94.95
DVD-R 805966 063133 4-disc Set 360 minutes

The founders of Russian sambo sifted through all of the world's martial arts, including judo and jiujitsu, to get the most combat-effective techniques available. Each technique was carefully dissected and considered for its merits in achieving sambo's ultimate goal: to stop an armed or unarmed adversary in the least time possible.

In Mastering Sambo for Mixed Martial Arts, author Scott Sonnon traces the development of the four types of sambo (self-defense, sport-wrestling, combat sambo and Spetsnaz) and then focuses on sambo's mixed martial arts applications. Here he reveals the signature "saddle" techniques that have made him one of the most respected leg-lock coaches in the world. With 101 step-by-step moves – including entries, sweeps, passes, recounters and a host of submissions – this series is a must for all MMA competitors searching for an edge over the competition.

Sambo prides itself on fast-wrestling, with only 60 seconds of groundfighting permitted. In mixed martial arts, however, these locks only work 20 percent of the time and aren't worth sacrificing quality position. As a result, Sonnon modified traditional sambo to become a "lower-half" positional approach so that fighters could both strike and defend against strikes, maintain positional dominance and easily transition from one submission to the next in a chess-like fashion, as Brazilian Jiujitsu has become known for in the "upper-half" game. Now you too can learn these winning strategies from one of the best sambo instructors in the world.
$20.00
Softcover 978-1-58160-686-7 174 pages 8.5" x 11" photos

If you want to train to fight and win in the octagon or on the street, there are some techniques you just can't practice on a live partner for fear of grave bodily harm, and a floor bag falls short for most throwing and takedown techniques. That's where the throwing dummy comes in, and in this comprehensive video production from Paladin Press, veteran grappler Mark Hatmaker teaches you how to get the most out of training with this vital piece of equipment.

Hatmaker starts with conditioning exercises that not only build endurance but also burn basic grappling skills into muscle memory. From there, he moves into the heart of the program: the throwing and takedown skills all groundfighters need to know, and which can only be practiced on a training tool that doesn't have bones to break or a mouth to scream. He teaches throws from such positions as outside arm tie-ups, reverse headlocks, arm drags, flying mares and more. He also includes a special section on suplexes, showing you which muscles you need to develop to do a proper suplex (also called a backcast) from both the front and the back, and how to perform them without injuring yourself. For information purposes only.
$49.95
DVD-R 805966 055237 185 minutes

Arguably the most brutal mixed martial art practiced today, catch wrestling's devastating arsenal of strikes, takedowns, throws, flesh-tearing rips, and bone-shattering hooks has been copied by many, but mastered by only a few. In this extraordinary video series from Paladin Press, expert catch wrestler Tony Cecchine teaches you catch's most street-worthy techniques, combining hard-core grappling with brutal striking to provide you with a turnkey self-defense system that will make you unbeatable on the street.

In Volume Six: Groundfighting, Cecchine shows the grappling skills you need to prevail in any encounter that ends up on the ground. He starts with a series of rapid escape and reversal techniques that include the sit-out, hip heist, and arm drag and then teaches you how to develop maximum power when striking on the ground whether you're on your back or on top. Next he teaches several vicious ground submissions designed to cripple your opponent and end the fight quickly, ranging from the top and double wrist locks to the head lock crank, neck-breaking further nelson and the leg-destroying stopper toe hold. For information purposes only.
$69.95
DVD-R 805966-060934 240 minutes 3-Disc Set

Sambo is an explosive blend of strking, throwing and grappling methods specifically designed to fight and win against armed opponents, physically superior opponents and multiple attackers. Dr. Brett Jacques teaches you how to use Sambo to defeat dozens of common street attacks, reveals the secrets of its ground fighting techniques and features never-before-seen information on grappling with armed opponents
$29.95
DVD-R 805966 045139 225 minutes 3-Disc Set

What do you really need to know to fight and win on the ground? Scientific wrestling authority and best-selling Paladin author Mark Hatmaker began searching for the answer more than 25 years ago. What he learned the hard way is now available to you in a remarkable new video production from Paladin Press.

The Complete Grappler is a comprehensive multimedia course that hands you the most effective, must-have grappling techniques and skills on a silver platter. The culmination of nearly three decades of painstaking research, documentation, organization and hard-core training and application, this extraordinary package contains everything you need to know to learn to wrestle effectively. Unlike the narrow-minded, style-focused grappling arts that are so popular today, Hatmaker drew his knowledge from the entire spectrum of the grappling arts. Then, through objective analysis and Western empiricism, he distilled it to 380-plus critical skills that form the foundation of true scientific wrestling. In the process, he rediscovered many of the "lost" techniques of history's most famous and infamous wrestlers and incorporated them into this amazing program.

The Complete Grappler presents every one of these moves in meticulous detail and demonstrates them step-by-step, at full speed, and in slow motion from all the camera angles you need to see to truly understand and learn. Hatmaker also organizes his instruction to present offensive techniques, counters to those techniques and finally "re-counters" to the counters. Through this scientific progression, you don't just learn a collection of disjointed techniques; you learn how to chain techniques into winning strategies and tactics that work on the mat and on the street.

This incredible course includes six DVDs containing more than 10 hours of detailed instruction. It also includes a 496-page workbook that presents comprehensive written instructions and step-by-step photos for every technique. Best of all, the vast majority of the information in this course is entirely new and not included in Hatmaker's other best-selling videos. If you already own other Hatmaker titles, the material in this course will help you further integrate your skills into a comprehensive fighting system. If you don't, this series will provide you with the scientific wrestling foundation you need and whet your appetite for Hatmaker's other takedown, submission, no-holds-barred, and street wrestling courses. For information purposes only.
$229.95
DVD-R 805966 042039 617 minutes 6-Disc Set 496-page workbook

In the early 20th century, one man ruled the tough world of professional wrestling - Frank Gotch. Learning the ferocious craft of catch-as-catch-can wrestling under the tutelage of catch wrestling master Martin "Farmer" Burns and in regular, brutal bouts in the ring, Gotch went on to dominate the sport and become one of the most famous sports figures in the world.

The Life and Legacy of Frank Gotch chronicles Gotch's rise to the pinnacle of the wrestling world before his untimely death in 1917. It provides little-known details about his earliest matches, his trip to Alaska to hone his wrestling skills, his training under Farmer Burns, his harshly instructive contests with the fierce Tom Jenkins and his two epic bouts against the "Russian Lion," the great George Hackenschmidt. Author Mike Chapman offers intriguing speculation about how Gotch may have matched up against some of the other top wrestlers of all time, and he has unearthed fascinating accounts from wrestling legends, promoters and sports writers, during and after the Gotch era, who all weigh in on why Gotch was the greatest of them all. Close to 80 photos, many of which are being published for the first time in nearly a century, round out this portrait of one of the most influential figures in the history of professional wrestling.

Mike Chapman has spent more than 40 years writing about the sport of wrestling on various levels and has been named National Wrestling Writer of the Year in amateur wrestling five times. He created WIN magazine, the amateur sport's top publication, in 1995, and has written over 600 columns on wrestling. He is the author of 19 books, 13 of them about wrestling. He is the founder and executive director of the Dan Gable International Wrestling Institute and Museum in Waterloo, Iowa, a facility that is dedicated to preserving the history of amateur and professional wrestling.
$19.95
Softcover 978-1-58160-646-1 162 pages 5.5" x 8.5" photos

Hall of Fame wrestler Ed "Strangler" Lewis and his legendary manager and promoter, Billy Sandow, were founding fathers of professional wrestling. The two men helped transform wrestling from local matches to traveling circus tours, with celebrity wrestlers, full cards and packed arenas filled with screaming fans.

Feared inside the ring for his crippling submission holds, Lewis was respected outside the ring for his extensive knowledge of wrestling. In 1926 he and Sandow compiled their vast knowledge of physical conditioning, fighting and wrestling into an eight-volume collection, called the Sandow-Lewis Library. These books became instant classics and were instrumental in teaching the science of wrestling and physical fitness to generations of wrestling aficionados. Long out of print, copies of these individual volumes are hard to find and command such steep prices when they do surface that it is virtually impossible for wrestling or fighting enthusiasts today to own the entire collection.
$26.00
Softcover 978-1-58160-664-5 262 pages 5.5" x 8.5"

Hall of Fame wrestler Ed "Strangler" Lewis and his legendary manager and promoter, Billy Sandow, were founding fathers of professional wrestling. The two men helped transform wrestling from local matches to traveling circus tours, with celebrity wrestlers, full cards and packed arenas filled with screaming fans.

Feared inside the ring for his crippling submission holds, Lewis was respected outside the ring for his extensive knowledge of wrestling. In 1926 he and Sandow compiled their vast knowledge of physical conditioning, fighting and wrestling into an eight-volume collection, called the Sandow-Lewis Library. These books became instant classics and were instrumental in teaching the science of wrestling and physical fitness to generations of wrestling aficionados. Long out of print, copies of these individual volumes are hard to find and command such steep prices when they do surface that it is virtually impossible for wrestling or fighting enthusiasts today to own the entire collection.
$14.00
Softcover 978-1-58160-665-2 70 pages 5.5" x 8.5"

Hall of fame wrestler Ed "Strangler" Lewis and his legendary manager and promoter, Billy Sandow, were founding fathers of professional wrestling. The two men helped transform wrestling from local matches to traveling circus tours, with celebrity wrestlers, full cards and packed arenas filled with screaming fans.

Feared inside the ring for his crippling submission holds, Lewis was respected outside the ring for his extensive knowledge of wrestling. In 1926 he and Sandow compiled their vast knowledge of physical conditioning, fighting and wrestling into an eight-­volume collection, called the Sandow-Lewis Library. These books became instant classics and were instrumental in teaching the science of wrestling and physical fitness to generations of wrestling aficionados. Long out of print, copies of these individual volumes are hard to find and command such steep prices when they do surface that it is virtually impossible for wrestling or fighting enthusiasts today to own the entire collection.
$22.00
Softcover 978-1-58160-666-9 200 pages 5.5" x 8.5"

The best no-holds-barred fighters and submission grapplers know that techniques alone are never enough. To be a great fighter, you need to be able to integrate your techniques into true fighting tactics - natural chains of movement that enable you to counter your opponent's counters and always stay one step ahead of the game. Mark Hatmaker is a master of this tactical approach to grappling and has spent years integrating the best techniques of both Western and Eastern fighting styles into a comprehensive no-holds-barred combat system.

In this video series, Hatmaker reveals the secrets of this amazing system and in the process presents a living encyclopedia of the world's most effective submission techniques. In this first volume, he presents eight different submission chains containing more than 60 devastating techniques. In each of these chains, you'll learn a submission technique, the counter for that technique and another technique to overcome that counter. By practicing both sides of these submission progressions, you can master well over 100 hard-core grappling techniques and revolutionize your groundfighting game. For information purposes only.
$39.95
DVD-R 805966 032733 120 minutes 2-Disc Set

Frank Gotch is universally regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. His relentless training regimen and ferocious style in the ring that enabled him to dominate all comers have been well documented, but this Paladin Press Combat Classic reprint offers a fascinating portrait of another important aspect of his success – his unparalleled skill at the art of catch-as-catch-can wrestling.

Published soon after Gotch's epic 1908 world championship defeat of George "the Russian Lion" Hackenschmidt, this booklet showcases Gotch performing his signature wrestling moves in some 30 clear, instructional photographs, along with tips on how to make them work against an opponent. It also contains his thoughts on the science of wrestling, advice on training and photos of Hackenschimdt, Farmer Burns, George Bothner, Dan McLeod, Fred Beell, Leo Pardello and other greats of the day.
$18.00
Softcover 978-1-58160-663-8 122 pages 5.5" x 8.5" photos