Is Mark Hatmaker legit/for real?!?

**Torakaka** · Posted On: 10/01/2005 4:56pm

Originally Posted by Scribbly

(based on his videos...) He seems like a compentant teacher. Take his advice like the friendly highschool wrestling coach. It's a bit of a gamble with his information, which I kind of enjoy. It tends to be more of a "find-out-for-yourself" nature instead of gospel. For example his Beyond Brazilian JuJitsu video raises decent questions about technique, and he'll proceed to show counters that just plain don't work, but are still interesting to experiment with.

I wouldn't ever recommend buying his material, but if you have some freetime to kill it's not the worst way to do it.

so I think we can pretty safely conclude that he in fact doesn't have much (if any) fight experience

**Gypsy Jazz** · Posted On: 10/01/2005 11:11pm

I have 2 books of his. "NHB Fighting: Savage Strikes" and "NHB Fighting: The Ultimate Guide to Submission Wrestling". Now I haven't done MMA training just yet, but I got a good deal getting both at the same time and I was really just after a submission wrestling book.

The sub wrestling book is very basic and really doesn't teach much new stuff to anyone who's actually involved in the sport. It also isn't terribly NHB as it examens everything from a purely grappling prospective. That said, I really like some of the stuff in that book. He explains everything quite thoroughly and with good pictures. He most certainly has some stuff I wouldn't ever try unless toying around with a friend. Some of the mount escapes in there are just too complicated and likely very low %. I feel like in the overall that if you're just getting started grappling, it's a pretty good book if you use it as a place to get some new ideas for training, but by no means should be followed to a t. Fortunately I still look at myself as a begginner and therefore this book did give me some consideration for a few different things.

The striking book is in my opinion superior in every which way. He goes over some theory, important basics and then gets you right into things. This book covers boxing basics, hammerfists, forearms, elbows, knees, low round kicks and even some ground and pound. There are also defenses shown for almost everything he mentions (short of ground and pound). He really does a good job of exposing you to lots of different tools and even offers drills. For the price (about $10) it was certainly worth it.

So has he fought? Maybe. He's not competley talking out his ass, that's for sure. I think that if you want to get something on grappling, there's a lot better stuff out there. From what I've seen of his striking so far though, he's really got his stuff together.

**VikingPower** · Posted On: 10/01/2005 11:24pm

I have his Extreme Boxing series. I enjoy it because he goes back into some of the bare-knuckle tactics and demonstrates them pretty well. His Gladiator Conditioning tape, though I gained nothing new from it, would be a great workout for getting into fighting shape. From what I've seen, he's good, but I haven't seen any of his NHB/MMA stuff.

**coors75** · Posted On: 5/09/2006 10:09pm

He apparently has had Randy Coutre train at his gym for a while which I would take as a fairly decent endorsement. However that is according to his own website for Straight Blast Gym and you never know the real capacity of length of time Coutre was there. His striking Vids seem to be generally well accpeted but I can't offer my one oppinon as I have not seem them. He also seems to have a fair bit of information on his students fights and competitions on his site so best bet is to check that out if you have not already and assertain for yourself. www.straightblastgym.com, Cheers

**UpaLumpa** · Posted On: 5/10/2006 10:56am

Thorton>>>Hatmaker

**Aesopian** · Posted On: 5/10/2006 10:59am

Hatmaker is basically a borderline catch wrestler teaching sloppy BJJ basics.

**Teh El Macho** · Posted On: 5/10/2006 11:16am

I got three of his books:

- Boxing Mastery: Advanced Technique, Tactics, and Strategies from the Sweet Science,
- No Holds Barred Fighting: Savage Strikes: The Complete Guide to Real World Striking for NHB Competition and Street Defense, and
- No Holds Barred Fighting: Takedowns, Throws, Trips, Drops and Slams for NHB Competition and Street Defense

I like "Boxing Mastery" and the takedowns/throws/etc books. But the NHB savage striking book, it's kind of odd. It covers elbows, hammer fists, the boxing stance for MMA, etc. So far so good, but there is something wacky - it has these long ass combinations to practice in a heavy bag - for example: jab, cross, right elbow, reverse hammer fist with right hand, followed by left hook, left elbow, reverse hammer fist with left, right hook, etc.

I mean, who the **** is going to pull something like that for real????? :5dunce: :icon_scra