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Wrestling for Fighting: The Natural Way
Randy "The Natural" Couture is the most respected and celebrated MMA combatant in the history of the UFC. A UFC Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight World Champion, and a UFC Hall of Famer, Randy Couture's reputation and fighting style are among the best in the world.
Now, with Wrestling for The Sport of Mixed Martial Arts, Couture presents the techniques and strategies that allowed him to devastate the world's best strikers and grapplers time and time again. His unique fighting system, a mix of martial arts, wrestling, boxing and jiu-jitsu, is broken down clearly and concisely for amateurs and seasoned veterans alike. Couture also includes important information on creating fight game plans, and a variety of training tips you won't find anywhere else.
Now, with Wrestling for The Sport of Mixed Martial Arts, Couture presents the techniques and strategies that allowed him to devastate the world's best strikers and grapplers time and time again. His unique fighting system, a mix of martial arts, wrestling, boxing and jiu-jitsu, is broken down clearly and concisely for amateurs and seasoned veterans alike. Couture also includes important information on creating fight game plans, and a variety of training tips you won't find anywhere else.
216 pages, Paperback
First published June 15, 2007
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About the author
Randy Couture
10 books5 followersRandy Couture is a retired mixed martial artist, UFC multiple time champion, actor and author.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 24, 2008
I got Wrestling for Fighting: The Natural Way by Randy Couture, Erich Krauss and Glen Cordoza a few months back and have been slowly digesting it ever since. My wife came across Krauss and Cordoza's Mixed Martial Arts: The Book of Knowledge (with B.J. Penn) on my Amazon wish list and it made for a successful Christmas present so she followed up on my birthday with this tome.
I'll confess, at first I was a little disinterested in it. Let's face it, as much as I respect wrestling as a sport and marital art and regard it as an essential 1/3 of MMA, I'd always thought of it as pretty boring.
But I made a good faith effort to at least give it as much of a reading as I gave Penn's book. So it sat on the bed side, next to the crapper and on the kitchen table and slowly but surely I came to really appreciate it over several months of perusing it one technique at a time.
First off, Krauss and Cordoza have this shit down. They have a great formula -- get a name fighter with a distinct style or expertise, set up a clear organizational structure (color coded even), add clear descriptions of each step of each move and great great color pictures that are very clear and easy to see -- with little inserts to show grips and other little subtleties.
Secondly, my fat little almost 40 year old ass hasn't trained in over a decade and I have no interest in going back to the gym. Nevertheless, I find these books have dramatically increased my appreciation for and understanding of the human chess aspects of MMA. Previously I thought of wrestling as just single and double legs, trips, sprawls, slams and body locks. Now I'm much more attuned to the nuances of the game, like the battle to secure underhooks by pummelling, etc.
I also find the transitional sequences very enlightening. Knowing the way moves can be strung together to set up one another adds great depth to my understanding of fights and strategy in the ring.
These books are also great insights into the mentality and technical repertoire of individual fighters. Couture is clearly based in wrestling -- over 2/3 of the book focuses solely on wrestling techniques. Only the last quarter (there's also a narrative section at the beginning running through Randy's career) adds strikes and a very basic submissions. This contrasts to B.J. Penn's more integrated book which centers on BJJ but is very self-concious about featuring every technique in the context of MMA.
All in all, for me this book has been highly enjoyable and I look forward to reading Karo Parisyan and Fedor Emelianenko's books with Krauss and Cordoza.
I'll confess, at first I was a little disinterested in it. Let's face it, as much as I respect wrestling as a sport and marital art and regard it as an essential 1/3 of MMA, I'd always thought of it as pretty boring.
But I made a good faith effort to at least give it as much of a reading as I gave Penn's book. So it sat on the bed side, next to the crapper and on the kitchen table and slowly but surely I came to really appreciate it over several months of perusing it one technique at a time.
First off, Krauss and Cordoza have this shit down. They have a great formula -- get a name fighter with a distinct style or expertise, set up a clear organizational structure (color coded even), add clear descriptions of each step of each move and great great color pictures that are very clear and easy to see -- with little inserts to show grips and other little subtleties.
Secondly, my fat little almost 40 year old ass hasn't trained in over a decade and I have no interest in going back to the gym. Nevertheless, I find these books have dramatically increased my appreciation for and understanding of the human chess aspects of MMA. Previously I thought of wrestling as just single and double legs, trips, sprawls, slams and body locks. Now I'm much more attuned to the nuances of the game, like the battle to secure underhooks by pummelling, etc.
I also find the transitional sequences very enlightening. Knowing the way moves can be strung together to set up one another adds great depth to my understanding of fights and strategy in the ring.
These books are also great insights into the mentality and technical repertoire of individual fighters. Couture is clearly based in wrestling -- over 2/3 of the book focuses solely on wrestling techniques. Only the last quarter (there's also a narrative section at the beginning running through Randy's career) adds strikes and a very basic submissions. This contrasts to B.J. Penn's more integrated book which centers on BJJ but is very self-concious about featuring every technique in the context of MMA.
All in all, for me this book has been highly enjoyable and I look forward to reading Karo Parisyan and Fedor Emelianenko's books with Krauss and Cordoza.
March 22, 2009
So far, this book has been a promising source of material on freestyle and greco-roman wrestling as applied to combative sport. I have found it easy to follow and well written overall.
Like all books on martial arts or sports, it doesn't replace a good instructor. However, for those with a background in some aspects of unarmed combat, it may help broaden your horizons.
Like all books on martial arts or sports, it doesn't replace a good instructor. However, for those with a background in some aspects of unarmed combat, it may help broaden your horizons.
May 3, 2021
I use a few of the takedowns for jiu jitsu. Good stuff.
September 14, 2012
The best part of this book is the techniques, obviously, but my favorite part was the autobiographical story about Randy's career as a fighter. As a fan of the sport since his early days, I would have never guessed that early on he was essentially winging it and relying entirely on his wrestling to get him through multi-dimensional cage fights.
August 15, 2017
one of the first books I read in my teenage years oh so many memories
August 16, 2017
this is one of the first books I read its quite easy to understand
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October 4, 2017read this a few years ago super helpful
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews