Book Review: Anderson Silva's MMA Instruction Manual

by Nate Wilcox on Aug 20, 2011 12:00 PM EDT in MMA Technique

Victory Belt released Anderson Silva's MMA Instruction Manual: The Muay Thai Clinch, Takedowns, Takedown Defense, and Ground Fighting. This is a sequel to his uber-useful The Mixed Martial Arts Instruction Manual: Striking which Victory Belt released a couple of years back. I was grateful to get a free review copy to share with Bloody Elbow readers.

This time Glen Cordoza alone co-writes with Silva as they cover basically everything in his MMA repertoire that is not striking at range. Silva's approach to ground fighting and take downs are singular and very interesting, but let's not kid ourselves, it's the stuff on the Muay Thai clinch that makes this book such a gem.

Silva is famous for his use of the Thai plum aka double collar tie as an offensive mainstay of his arsenal and here he shares his secrets to success with the position. For many fighters the Thai plum is just a way station from which to throw a few knees to the face. For Silva it's a complete system of moves to break down an opponent's posture and deliver painful strikes in sequence from less to more and more damaging.

We've looked at Silva's use of the clinch to rob Rich Franklin of the middleweight UFC title and to keep Franklin from taking it back. The book was an invaluable tool for decoding what Silva was doing to make the clinch so effective and to counter Franklin's attempts to counter the clinch in the second fight. A student who really masters this book will have a big step up on the competition when it comes time for clinch fighting.

The rest of the book is well worth a read and includes a section on working out with a striking coach wearing mitts, a very practical section for those doing real striking training.

The book is colorful, well organized, clearly explained and includes hundreds of color photographs illustrating each technique in detail.

Co-author Glen Cordoza has also done books with Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Randy Couture, two with B.J. Penn, Karo Parisyan, Marcelo Garcia, Dave Camarillo, Cung Le plus two with Eddie Bravo and I've enjoyed them all.

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Comments

Erich Krauss?

It says Glen Cordoz on the cover.

by StephenDedalus on Aug 20, 2011 12:04 PM EDT reply actions

Is there a chapter on how to tap in to the Matrix?

by SLIP15 on Aug 20, 2011 12:20 PM EDT reply actions 4 recs

you cant bend a spoon with your mind. thats impossible.

You are bending yourself.

"Many have the will to win. Few have to will to prepare to win."

" A black belt only covers 2 inches of your ass. The rest is up to you." - Royce Gracie
"Wanderlei eventually got to his feet and stalked Fujita like a Japanese octopus in an all-female prison." - Sean Baby Cracked.com

by the-gentle-way on Aug 20, 2011 12:25 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

That is still the most incredible thing I've ever seen in a fight

by 775assassin on Aug 20, 2011 12:26 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

Holy shit

Look at the last punch Forrest throws Anderson knew exactly where it was going to go before Forrest did. WTF!

by GuyMontague on Aug 20, 2011 1:30 PM EDT up reply actions

It does, actually!

$ ssh-keygen -t dsa -b 1024
$ ssh spyder.matrix.com.br
$ password:
$ mkdir -m700 .ssh
$ touch .ssh/authorized_keys
$ chmod 600 .ssh/authorized_keys
$ cat .ssh/id_dsa.pub | ssh neo@term “cat >> .ssh/authorized_keys”

Thanks, Anderson.

/geekery

by StephenDedalus on Aug 20, 2011 12:27 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs

Is this spam?

I think this might be spam, because it certainly isn’t English.

by Hummus5989 on Aug 20, 2011 12:43 PM EDT up reply actions

It's not spam.

You mean to tell me you’re not familiar with SSH? Come on, man.

by StephenDedalus on Aug 20, 2011 12:46 PM EDT up reply actions

haha

..he’s obviously not familiar with English.. Those spam words such as ‘password’ and ‘Thanks’ must have threw him..

by drmc on Aug 21, 2011 4:05 AM EDT up reply actions

oh dear

*thrown

by drmc on Aug 21, 2011 7:04 AM EDT up reply actions

It's not spam...I thought the same thing.

But figured out he’s doing hot keys like in the Matrix.

Follow me on twitter @MattRoth512

by Matthew Roth on Aug 20, 2011 12:53 PM EDT up reply actions

I don’t even get what would make someone think this is spam. The dollar sign? It’s just the command prompt for a non-root user.

by StephenDedalus on Aug 20, 2011 12:59 PM EDT up reply actions

You would be surprised at how similar the spam comments look

No worries though.

Follow me on twitter @MattRoth512

by Matthew Roth on Aug 20, 2011 1:41 PM EDT up reply actions

This looks like spam

by SLIP15 on Aug 20, 2011 12:50 PM EDT up reply actions

You’re right, it’s spam for my new website about SSH, featuring Anderson Silva and sponsored by Sinister.

by StephenDedalus on Aug 20, 2011 12:53 PM EDT up reply actions

Forrest was mentally beat by this point

Greatest dominant perfomance ever.

Be careful, my opponents - Junior "Cigano" dos Santos

by Henrique on Aug 20, 2011 12:52 PM EDT up reply actions

Love this...

Forrest’s retelling of that exchange:

"I was very confused. I tried to punch him and he literally moved his head out of the way and looked at me like I was stupid for doing it," Griffin recalls with a laugh. "He looked at me like, ‘why would you do such a stupid thing?’ He looked at me like, ‘oh, did you really think you were going to hit me? What a stupid thing to think you slow, slow white boy!’ Then I felt embarrassed for even trying to punch him. I felt like some kid trying to wrestle with his dad!"

"Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but it seems to me that when the giant who holds up the Earth dies, we are screwed!"

by AwkwardwithwordmakingisGoldberg,huhJoe on Aug 20, 2011 1:46 PM EDT up reply actions

When iI first read this

Victory Belt released Anderson Silva’s MMA Instruction Manual: The Muay Thai Clinch, Takedowns, Takedown Defense, and Ground Fighting. This is a sequel to his uber-useful The Mixed Martial Arts Instruction Manual: Striking which Victory Belt released a couple of years back.

I thought it said Vitor Belfort realeased Anderson Silva’s MMA Instruction Manual haha

by rscott94 on Aug 20, 2011 12:50 PM EDT reply actions

Haha I thought the exact same thing

by MemphisMike on Aug 20, 2011 1:46 PM EDT up reply actions

Some of the techniques Anderson displays are sort of surprising. One of the counters he teaches to the MT Plum is an Aikido or TMA standing armlock. Another counter to low kicks if I recall correctly are karate/judo style foot sweeps.

Also I thought it was interesting that his takedown and takedown defense section had a strong judo flavor to them with just a smidge of “traditional” American wrestling. People always cite that Anderson’s “weakness” is his wrestling but reading his instruction he really knows what he is talking about.

One critic though is his stand up grappling style really caters to his long spindly body type. He pretty much plays big man/long man judo, which is good for him BUT I think shorter stockier fighters might struggle a tad more trying to implement Anderson’s grappling.

by Zone Eater on Aug 20, 2011 1:11 PM EDT reply actions

muay thai loves long fighters

"Many have the will to win. Few have to will to prepare to win."

by the-gentle-way on Aug 20, 2011 1:43 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

Which is ironic considering that Thais are pretty small.

"... All reined up in old language and old assumptions, straining to jump clean-hoofed on to a whole new track of being I only suspect is there. I can't see it, because my educated, average head is being held at the wrong angle..."

by dancingChicken on Aug 20, 2011 2:05 PM EDT up reply actions