Showing titles in Combat Sports & Self-Defense

By creating WrestleMania, jumping into the pay-per-view field, and expanding across North America, Vince McMahon changed professional wrestling forever.

Wing Chun is the most popular form of Chinese kung fu in the world today, with more than four million practitioners. This guide will fascinate and educate anyone interested in the martial arts, from beginner to master. The art as it is presently understood has been handed down from teacher to student for more than 300 years. Until now, no one has ever stepped back and taken a critical look at why this art's techniques are presented and performed the way they are.

In 2017, after being told that no independent wrestling group could draw a crowd of more than 10,000, a group of wrestlers took up the challenge. For several years, these gladiators had been performing in front of rabid crowds and understood the hunger for wrestling that was different from the TV-slick product. In September 2018, they had the numbers to prove it: 11,263 fans filled the Sears Center Arena for the All In pay-per-view event, ushering in a new era. A year later, WWE had its first major head-to-head competitor in nearly two decades when All Elite Wrestling debuted on TNT.

A mythic figure in fighting and a legendary member of the “first family of martial arts,” Rickson Gracie is considered the godfather of what we recognize today as Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). Although Rickson’s three decades of total dominance in Jiu Jitsu is astounding, even more astounding is the serenity and spiritual depth of his approach to combat. For Rickson, Jiu Jitsu is a metaphor for life. Some consider Jiu Jitsu a martial art, others consider it a sport, but to Gracie, it is a philosophical system he uses to face and evaluate life’s challenges and maintain happiness and mental balance.

Since he burst onto the scene as George St. Pierre’s grappling coach in the late 2000’s, John Danaher has risen to be recognized as one of the foremost minds in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and competitive grappling. More than just a coach, Danaher has garnered a reputation as a philosopher of the art. His social media is read by hundreds of thousands, serving as daily inspiration for students around the world. Danaher is able to take the complex and often contradictory rules of jiu-jitsu and break them down into universal concepts.

Joining a boxing gym is intimidating for beginners. Causing most people who have the desire to start boxing, to miss out on the mental and physical benefits that you gain from boxing—I want to stop this. I was once very lazy; I lacked discipline and was generally scared to try anything that looked difficult. You most likely find yourself in that position, but enough is enough; it is time to improve yourself.

Beginning students in Japanese martial arts, such as karate, judo, aikido, iaido, kyudo, and kendo, learn that when they are in the dojo (the practice space), they must don their practice garb with ritual precision, address their teacher and senior students in a specific way, and follow certain unwritten but deeply held codes of behavior. But very soon they begin to wonder about the meaning behind the traditions, gear, and relationships in the dojo.

Governor Jesse "The Body" Ventura affectionately called him "Chico Santana" in the golden age of wrestling and in turn helped propel this WWE Hall of Famer into stardom. Tito Santana's autobiography brings you a comprehensive and historical look at one of wrestling's most legendary Latinos.

This book discusses the struggles and importance of Carlos Gracie Jr. and the IBJJF in giving jiu-jitsu structure, shape, and professional credibility at a time where it was under threat of becoming simply another fad. The Rise and Evolution of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu also discusses the greatest challenges the art faces today, as its popularity carries with it problems that threaten to fragment precisely some of the qualities that set jiu-jitsu apart from other martial arts to begin with.

Mistakes either make or break you, and you are making many mistakes with your form, technique and mindset. It’s a frustrating and painful process. In boxing, errors are very easy to make and hard to identify, therefore you are likely to develop bad boxing habits - which can take months to fix.

This piece of writing by famed samurai Musashi (1584–1645) is the single-most influential work on samurai swordsmanship, offering insights into samurai history, the Zen Buddhist state of "no-mind" that enables warriors to triumph and the philosophical meaning of Bushido — "the way of the warrior."

This is a manual designed to get white belts to competent blue belts in as fast a time as possible. Zen Jiu Jitsu is more a rendition of concepts than techniques. This is the simplest and easiest way to break down and simplify the many and varied ideas, philosophies, and combinations in the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu arsenal. For both competition Jiu Jitsu and self-defense Jiu Jitsu, most white belts need to fully understand the concepts, but they can be VERY confusing!

Decried as “human cockfighting” by Senator John McCain and dismissed by the New York Times as a “pay-per-view prism” onto the decline of Western civilization, the UFC seemed by 2000 to be bleeding out. The cage fighting promotion had been banned in thirty-six states and was struggling to cover production costs for its next event.

Pro wrestler and political commentator Tyrus goes deep into his wild but triumphant life story, from his painfully dysfunctional upbringing to bodyguarding for Snoop Dogg, to becoming a wrestling icon and one of the most provocative on-air voices today.

In BJJ and in life, a strategic mindset matters more than raw talent or skill. It is very difficult for new students and even some experienced fighters to develop aspects of their ‘inner game’ if they don’t have the concepts and methods to play with. In the Champions Mind, best-selling Brazilian Jiu Jitsu coach, Oliver Staark, will teach you the routines and exercises that the greatest Jiu jitsu stars use to take their performance to the next level — whether the ‘next level’ for you means getting onto the mat in your first competition or striving for a win in a professional super fight.

By the Sword is an epic history of sword fighting - a science, an art, and, for many, a religion that began at the dawn of civilization in ancient Egypt and has been an obsession for mankind ever since. With wit and insight, Richard Cohen gives us an engrossing history of the world via the sword.

"I can lick any son of a bitch in the world." So boasted John L. Sullivan, the first modern heavyweight boxing champion of the world, a man who was the gold standard of American sports for more than a decade and the first athlete to earn more than a million dollars. He had a big ego, a big mouth, and even bigger appetites. His womanizing, drunken escapades, and chronic police-blotter presence were godsends to a burgeoning newspaper industry.

At one time or another, we all feel that we were meant to be more than we are, like a ship made to sail the high seas but forever tethered to a dock, or at least dragging the anchor around. Well, it's time to give full reign to the voyager within you!

In the Chinese calendar, 1964 was the Year of the Green Dragon. It would be a challenging and eventful year for Bruce Lee. He would broadcast his dissenting view before the first great international martial arts gathering and then defend it by facing down Chinatown's young ace kung fu practitioner in a legendary behind-closed-doors, high-noon-style showdown. The Year of the Green Dragon saw the dawn of martial arts in America and the rise of an icon.

The personalities in pro wrestling have always been some of the most unique and entertaining in the world. For more than 10 years, Kayfabe Commentaries has been the leading production company in the shoot interview genre, and now, you'll go inside the company and see how it was done. Sean Oliver, the on-camera ringmaster and co-owner of the company, takes the listener through all the components of building the business that bought the real-life personalities behind wrestling's outrageous personalities to the masses.