gene lebell's grappling world book

The first thing you will notice if you purchase this book is its shear size. It has 520 pages in all with 16 chapters. The next thing you will probably notice is the god awful front cover, quickly bypass this and begin to explore this treasure throve of pain.

The first few chapter deal with obtaining "handles" and grips with which to move your opponent around with. These are quite interesting but the book fails to show us what to do with these handles once obtained. Already genes sadistic sense of humour and love for the wrestling singlet are evident.

The most impressive sight that is held within these early chapters is the thing of beauty that is Genes daughter, Monica. If all the women in genes clubs train in denim hot pants and bikini tops I may well take a trip to Beverly Hills Ju Jitsu.

Chapter 3 deals with foot and leg control. The guard to me and you, again positions are shown with little reference as to what to do with them once obtained.

The next chapter is entitled Women against Men. This chapter is pretty much pure comedy. One picture has gene hoisting a women of her feet by her throat, the caption below reads "Gene not only hates dogs, cats and kids, he’s not too fond of women either, especially when they do not do what he says the instant he says it". Gene soon gets his comeuppance when the same women is seen in the next picture power slamming him. This in itself is worth mentioning as gene weighs in at 260lbs and the lady involved is probably on the skinny side of 110lbs.

Next we have another pointless but funny chapter, this time Gene is on the wrong end of some exceedingly violent babies, toddlers and kids. The pictures detailing "Daniel’s wet diaper attack" show us just why kids are not allowed in the UFC, they’re just to dirty.

At last we begin the real meat and veg of this book; submissions. Unlike the fighters notebook which is divided into sections by position, these chapters are grouped together by the limb they affect, beginning with straight armbars and finishing with neck cranks and back, abdominal and groin stretches.

Gene shows just what he’s famous for in these chapters. Every conceivable way of breaking a limb, choking somebody out and quite possibly tearing someone’s head of is explained in these 9 chapters.

Each move is explained in great detail. This is one of the major strengths of the book. It is actually very simple to pick up the most complicated "rolling downward hammerlock and shoulder crank using a figure four leg scissors"

However on many occasions, the techniques are not done from a recognised position of control. This makes them hard to add to your repertoire. Other moves require you to be fighting a muppet for you to actually get away with them. In an interview I remember Gene mentioning that some of the techniques were added for completeness (and there comedy value) and that there were may he would not try himself.

It would take me ages to briefly describe a small fraction of the submissions in this book, so ill just mention some of my personal favourites from each of the chapters.

Chapter 6 Straight Arm Bars and shoulder locks- Helicopter armbar, flying armbar, countering an opponents single leg with armbars. This section also has some great ways to attack an opponent defending the armbar.

Chapter 7 Bent Armlocks- Great selection of compression locks applied to the arm from various positions. This is great as it is often hard to find material on these moves from other sources. A few different grips for the kimura are also note worthy.

Chapter 8 Wrist locks- a couple of descent wrist flexion submissions. This is probably the weakest chapter in the book.

Chapter 9 Kneebars- a selection of cool sambo style kneebar takedowns as well as the more basic kneebars from inside the guard.

Chapter 10- Bent knee and hip locks- a lot of dodgy stuff here, but the compression locks make up for it.

Chapter 11 Ankle bends and twists- probably the best chapter in the book. Toeholds and loads of lovely heel hooks as well as some devilishly sneaky ankle lock counters. This chapter may just give you the edge when you star getting involved in leg lock wars with an opponent.

Chapter 12 Chokes- as Gene says if in doubt choke em out. This section includes a large number of gi chokes.

Chapter 13 Neck Crank, Back, Stomach and groin pain- The neck cranks against a turtled opponent and when you have got someone’s back are really good. Several of the abdominal stretches are doable on a resisting opponent. the groin stretches are less accessible and are just plain immoral.

Chapter 14 Lebells Rulebook- This is a very interesting chapter in that gene is not only openly condoning cheating but is actually showing us how to get away with it. Biting, genital tampering, biting and the old chin in the eye socket, all of these are there. There is a strong element of comedy in this chapter. During one "technique" gene sticks some poor guy in a pro wrestling surf board while Benny Urquidez grabs his wallet.

And that in just over a thousand words is The Encyclopaedia of Finishing Holds. When I first got this book I was a little disappointed. I saw very few moves that I could use, many of them looked like they would require a ton of strength to pull off.

But as I learn more about this sport and actually drill the techniques, I find that I have started to get a lot of these moves that I previously thought were crap. A couple of weeks ago I actually submitted a guy with an abdominal stretch. The book has also helped me in the general application of moves such as heel hooks and kneebars as the instructions are quite detailed.

I think this book has a place in everybody’s MMA library. There are very few people who will truthfully gain nothing from it. However i recommend you actually have a look at the book before buying it. Its far from perfect but it is quite good.

Maccavelli

You can order this book from The Sports Pages, Charing Cross Road, London - telephone number: 02072409604