With its intense action and the unbelievable skills of its athletes, kickboxing has gained worldwide popularity in a way that few international sports ever do. It requires perfect timing, incredible speed, and relentless power, and this guide details the techniques and methods needed to win. Author Pat O’Keeffe is a coach, trainer, and champion with three decades of experience, and his book includes dozens of techniques to prepare both body and mind for this dangerous and exciting sport. Helpful step-by-step illustrations demonstrate the techniques of defense; counter-attack; timing, distance, and mobility; sparring; speed and power; conditioning; and more. Perfect for the amateur kick boxer or the experienced fighter, Kick Boxing is a must-read resource written by one of the sport’s top experts. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports—books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team. In addition to books on popular team sports, we also publish books for a wide variety of athletes and sports enthusiasts, including books on running, cycling, horseback riding, swimming, tennis, martial arts, golf, camping, hiking, aviation, boating, and so much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Your fists are your primary weapon system in a streetfight, but most martial arts "masters" like to gloss over that fact. Now fisticuffs expert Ned Beaumont shows you how to duke it out in back alleys and smoky bars and walk away grinning (with all your teeth). All the dirty tricks of boxing are included, too. Not for the faint of heart, this one is destined to become a classic.

This comprehensive manual illustrates and tells how to throw advanced combinations, cut off the ring, fight off the ropes, generate power, corner a foe and how to hit and not get hit. Information is presented through logical, easy-to-follow drills that require just two pairs of gloves and the enthusiasm of a sparring partner.

Chronicling the legacy of boxing’s biggest names—including the great Muhammad Ali—and their impact on “the sweet science,” Knockout: The Art of Boxing pays tribute to Ken Regan’s incomparable photography and coverage of the sport. Ken Regan was a young photographer in 1964 when he covered Muhammad Ali’s first fight: his historic victory over Sonny Liston in Miami Beach. Afterward, the young photographer embarked on a lifelong love affair with the sport of boxing. For the next four decades, Regan chronicled the greatest fights and the greatest fighters of the age. His extraordinary photographs include many of the most enduring images ever created in the history of boxing, as well as portraits of notable trainers, managers, promoters, writers, and the whole panoply of celebrities associated with the sport. Featuring some of the greatest ring action in boxing history, Knockout takes us from sparring sessions and press conferences to weigh-ins and post-fight sessions. Knockout also features Regan’s compelling stories and firsthand account of his amazing photographic journey into the heart of boxing. Beginning with his early magazine work shooting prizefights, and throughout the following decades, Regan developed close personal friendships with some of the world’s greatest boxers. Regan captures intimate moments showing fighters with their families at home and on the road. With black-and-white and color photography that captures the art of boxing in its purest form, Knockout is one of the most celebrated books ever published on the sport, and a fitting tribute to "The Greatest" boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali. Foreword by Muhammad Ali, introduction by Liam Neeson, commentary by Norman Mailer, and afterword by Budd Schulberg.

Ultimate Sparring is the most comprehensive book ever written on sparring and dueling methods around the world. It contains the rules and methods of sparring for cross-training, competition, and self-defense in dozens of Eastern and Western martial arts. Ultimate Sparring also features dozens of methods of sparring for the development of skills, or for keeping training interesting and fun.

Going beyond the standard workout for boxers, this innovative manual introduces a diverse set of training methods, integrating them into drill sets that build the athletic attributes for which past and present fighters are known. From Leroy Jones sparring with chickens and Ken Norton’s 15 combined rounds of shadow boxing, sparring, and bag work to Ricky Hatton’s staggering 12-round sparring bouts with a body belt and Kosta Tszyu’s creative tennis-ball and head-strap punching apparatus, this guide highlights a wide vocabulary of exercises, all incorporating boxing-specific equipment. The drills can be performed solo or with a partner, and each piece of equipment is approached individually with detailed descriptions of routines, including floor exercises and drills with the heavy bag, medicine ball, horizontal rope, and jump rope. With two workout menus for weight training, this guide guarantees a regime to suit any individual need—be it professional or simply a desire to train like some of the best athletes in the world.

Paladin is pleased to present this rare reprint of a little-known hand-to-hand combat classic. At the outset of World War II, boxing heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey was appointed as a lieutenant in the U.S. Coast Guard and given the job of director of physical fitness. His orders: "Make 'em tough!" His task: to teach rookie Coast Guardsmen how to fight down and dirty in the face of the very real threat of enemy troops infiltrating American shores. Get in the ring with "the Manassa Mauler" as he gives 18 fully illustrated lessons in the art of bashing and brawling on the battlefield, including Subduing an Armed Enemy, The Unbreakable Strangle, Beating the Punch, Hammering Your Way Out of a Stranglehold, The Belt Trick, Fooling the Smart Knife Man, Turning the Tables with a Bayonet and Breaking a Standoff. All students of nasty close-quarters combat in the tradition of Sykes, Fairbairn, Applegate and other giants of the World War II era will thoroughly enjoy this fascinating piece of CQB history.