I have seen a few reviews of Martin Rooney's
Training for Warriors and Bj Penn's
MMA The Book of Knowledge but I haven't seen any with scans so I thought I would throw up my own reviews.
First off is Bj Penn's book.
The first thing I noticed about this book when compared to other fighters books is this one is really true to the essence of BJ. The book is 100% moves and techniques that BJ uses in his fights rather than a generic set of moves that you can find in any book with "MMA" in the title. For instance in the standup technique section there are no kicks instead it is pure boxing and countering which is how BJ fights.
The book is broken up into 2 main sections; Standup and the ground game. Each section has a ton of sub sections dealing with specific situations such as countering the kick or striking from top guard. The pictures are excellent and show multiple angles of almost everything. There are very detailed panels for moves that can often take up 2 full pages.
As an avid grappler I can say without a doubt that I learned a bunch of new tricks and techniques from this book. This book has something to offer everyone from novices to seasoned grappler's and strikers.
While I like the way the book focuses on moves and techniques specific to Bj some people may not like the lack of kicks in this book. That is pretty much my only con. Other than that this book is a must buy for only $35.
I give this book a 9/10.
Next up is Martin Rooney's Training for Warriors.
This book is very well put together and you can really tell that this book was years in the making. For people that think this is a MMA instructional book they are going to be disappointed. This book focuses on training techniques that are specific to MMA. It has everything from barbell complexes, band training, sand bag training, weight cutting and stretching. Much like BJ's book there are great pictures with multiple angles when needed.
The best part of this book is that no matter what your gym or equipment you can find plenty of workouts in this book to get your ass in shape. The book breaks workouts down into body parts such as "warrior back training" and "warrior heart and lung training". I found it very interesting that there was even a section on weight cutting. It was not the most detailed section but it gives all of the necessary information such as properly re-hydrating.
For anyone who is looking to get into great shape or specifically anyone looking to compete in MMA or other combat sports this book could be a very good investment for a measly $32. I added several workout to my training like the Alligator crawl and the barbell truck drive.
I didn't really find anything wrong with this book. As far is training and conditioning books go this is the best one that I have ever read. I give it a solid 9.5/10.
