Customer Rating:
Summary: Good beginner's book. Especially for women.
Comment: This is the first martial arts book I have read that is written with women in mind. Don't get me wrong, it's not all about women kickboxers. It's just the first time I've read any martial arts book with specific paragraphs for and about women in martial arts. This is a good book for beginners or someone just trying to decide if they want to try kickboxing. It includes techniques, conditioning and theory. This book needs more pictures explaining the moves, positions and combinations. This book seems like it would be inspirational for women.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Kickboxing
Comment: Brillant book on Kickboxing for both beginner & advanced student. Lots of interesting compination. Excellent to compliment your training in Kickboxing Karate or Tae Kwon Do.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Complete Reference, Not the best for Beginners.
Comment: I really thought this book was a 3, but after some thought I gave it a 3.5. The main reason I gave it the higher score is because, as many other reviewers point out, it is a very complete reference. It's loaded with information. The author is clearly very experienced.
Unfortunately, as a beginner, this book came up short in several key areas. First of all, the pictures and diagrams were simply not clear enough. While not true of all books in this series, I find this issue does crop up from time to time. The pictures are dark and dated, and it's very difficult to clearly see the poses. The publisher should have sprung for new pictures for this book.
The book's other shortcoming is in the area of organization. The information is dropped on you as if you were reading a dictionary. It's very difficult to learn something new by going through so much information. The book could have been better layed out, starting with some basic exercises and then delving into the more complex.
In my opinion, these changes would make this a tremendously better book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent guide to self defense
Comment: This book is outstanding. I have 13 years experience in different martial arts (tae kwon do, kickboxing, Brazilian Jujitsu) and think that this is a very complete resource. I was impressed by the explanations and photos of techniques related to kickboxing and training, but what makes this so wonderful are these added features.1. actual self defense techniques using palm hand strikes instead of a closed fist
2. advice on ground fighting (using striking techniques)
3. advice for young children on self defense
In addition, the training routines presented and pad drills are first rate. They even work with Thai boxing's elbow and knee strikes.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Comment: Mezger was the USKBA United States Heavyweight Champion and Super Heavyweight Champion as well as the WKC/WKKC World Heavyweight Champion. Don't forget he was the UFC 13 Tourneament Champion, and the 7th King of Pancrase.His kickboxing record is 22-3 with 19 KOs
His MMA record is 40-11-2 with wins over Masa Funaki, Tito Ortiz, Yuki Kondo, Ryushi Yanigisawa, Minoru Suzuki, and Semmy Schilt. Plus he trashed Kazushi Sakuraba, Ricardo Arona, and Chuck Liddell.