Book Reccomendations for Atheletes

After reading the Tudor Bompa interview some time ago I started thinking about buying his periodization book. He seemed to come off as if only his books are worthwhile but I’m sure the $$ issue may have come into that. Does anyone have any reccomendations for me? My training partners and I are mixed martial artists (pro and amateur) and our workouts are pretty much a cross between amateur wrestling, bjj and boxing/muay thai. We are trying to raise the level of our game and I’m sure a more scientific approach to strength and conditioning will help. Any ideas our appreciated. Thanks!

Charles Staley’s book: The Science of Martial Arts Conditioning might be a good one to look into. Also Coach Davies’ Renegade Training program for MA, as well as Matt Furey’s Combat Conditioning (have you looked into these?).

Doesn’t he say to go beyond failure on each set? And to eat high carb low fat? What’s the big deal about him? This trainer at my Gym insists with me that i should be eating less than 15% fat and always go to failure in every set due to his books. I don’t get it.

Patricia, I’ve looked into Charles’ book and I think I’ll probably give it a shot - I think Charles is a pretty smart cookie. It does seem to emphasize training for the “traditional” martial artist which we are definitely not. One reason I was considering Bompa was that he seems a little more tuned in to Olympic atheletes such as wrestlers, judoka and boxers who are much more like us that a TKD competitor (very different use of the muscles IMO).

Furey - anyone with a year or two of high school wrestling can do his drills in their sleep - great book if you don’t know about amateur wrestling drills but not very useful for our purposes (i.e. cycling our trainig for peak performance). Also, I think Furey’s a pompous dick who talks way too much crap about fighters without ever stepping up and it would pain me to support him financially.

Coach Davies seems like an interesting guy but I have issues with the amount of training required that is not skill specific. Perhaps I don’t really understand what he’s doing (likely) so I’ll try reading up on his stuff again. Thanks again.

What’s up, Geoff? I compete in NHB, too. Where do you train? I’ve thought about buying the Bompa book as well, but I haven’t gotten around to it.

Jason, I’m with Shah Franco (Behring JJ) in Toronto (Canada). While I haven’t competed in vale tudo (yet) we have a number of guys who fight in the UCC’s and IFC’s here and in the states doing fairly well. Yourself?

Wow, didn’t realize that about Furey. I rec’v his email newsletters and they are a good read.

But as for Staley. His book is very good. His training theories for MA practitioners make alot of sense. Plus the extra bonus is his experience as a MA practitioner (and competitor).

As for "skill specific" - the only way to obtain that type of training is by "sport specificity" training: direct training of/with the sport you are involved with. Davies' methods are good in terms of conditioning you for your chosen sport. Oh, and there's always Plyometrics. The books by Dr. Donald Chu are good ones regarding Plyometrics.

Who are your boys who fight in UCC and IFC? I live in Gainesville, FL, and I train in Gainesville and Orlando. I’ve had four amateur fights, two in Florida, and two in New Orleans, and one pro fight in Florida. In Gainesville, I train with Mike Lee whose fighting in King of the Cage tomorrow night. I train with Din Thomas, Paul Rodriguez, and Scott Bills in Orlando. (Scott’s fought in IFC before, maybe you know him.) Then Din and Paul have been around, of course. Sometimes I train in Ocala, FL with Tom Sauer, the current World Extreme Light Heavy Weight champ and former RINGS fighter. I haven’t been at it long, but I’m pretty damn hooked, and I’d like to see how far I can take the fighting thing, but I’m going to keep a real job while I’m at it. Shoot me an email and let me know how you train, man!

Jason, where have you fought in New Orleans? Coming back anytime soon?

J.Pat O’Shea’s book “Quantum Strength and Power Training” is much more easily deciphered than Tudor’s books. Tudors books are much more theoretical and harder to understand. Pat spells out what to do and why so that the average person can follow along. There are many great insights in Pats book.

Bill Hinbern sells the old Farmer Burns wrestling course if you’re into that.

Check out Charles Staley’s book “The Science of Martial Arts Training” He has trained some of the top no holds barred fighters in the world. You can find the book at myodynamics.com

DocT, are you from New Orleans? It’s possible he fought at Main Event. That is where I train and they have fights there every friday. They even had a pay per view fight there a few weeks ago

A occuring theme in this tread: Were do I find some good books for this or that sport ?
Isn´t it a good ide to do a “Feed your head II” but this time be more sportspecific like these book are good for martial art, these for fooboll and so on, not that I wouldn´t mind to get some information about new titels on books for ordinary bodybuilding or strenght training either :slight_smile:

PS English isn´t my native language.

Jason, that’s where I kinda figured he had fought. Just wanted to see if he was coming back anytime soon so I could go watch him. And, yeah, I live in New Orleans.

Thanks for the info guys. I will start doing research right away.

Jason, we’ve got Justin Bruckman, Sean Pierson, Richard Nancoo, Pain Peters, Frank Colcher and a few others who have fought in either the IFC, UCC and MFC. Most of the IFC’s were on the Indian reserve just outside of Montreal but a couple of our guys have fought in Cali. Do you know Chris Cordeiro? He’s the guy that puts on the Jacksonville vale tudo’s. I hung out with his crew a few years back at one of the IFC’s and from what I remember he had a pretty good relationship with Din and the boys. BTW your crew is top notch - I love watching Din fight and Paul’s ko of Hallman is one of my favourites.

Yeah, I fought at the Main Event last time at Rich Clementi’s show, and I fought for Karl Schmidt the time before that at Reality Combat 15, losing and winning those fights respectively. I should return to the Main Event before too long to get my win. Yeah, I hang out with Cordiero pretty regularly, as he’s Mike Lee’s promoter. He should start having BattleJax events again now that they’ve sanctioned MMA in Fl. Din should be back in action soon, as he’s just starting to train again after having meniscus surgery a while back. Are any of your guys fighting in the IFC event out in CA this month? My boy Scott Bils is fighting Nick Diaz. Keep in touch.

Karl Schmidt - pretty tough dude. Carlos Newton fought him and said he was quite strong. As for the IFC - we are pretty much done with those guys. The pay is horrible and their treatment of fighters sucks. Both the UCC and the MFC and far better in both regards. Say hi to Cordeiro for me - he should remember the Geoff from Toronto.

Rebecca, Who has Charles Staley coached in nhb? Not really questioning his credentials (already think highly of him), more so just casual interest.

Check out his website: www.myodynamics.com for that info. I believe you can find it there.