I reviewed Loren Christensen’s book Fighting in the Clinch here and he graciously agreed to do a quick follow up interview. Here it is:
Q: “Fighting in the Clinch” came out a little while ago. How has the feedback from readers been?
A: All positive – so far. But there is always someone in the martial arts community who feels compelled to say, “Well, your heel is up in that photo,” or “A better way to do that move is…” But so far everyone likes how we laid out the book with Mark Mireles showing his grappling moves for half of it and me doing my tearing, clawing and ripping techniques for half. Mark is an amazing grappler with over 30 years experience training and 20 years using his stuff in the street as an LAPD cop.
Q: For which audience did you write the book? The average martial artist? Grapplers? LEOs?
A: We wrote it for everyone because it’s been our experience – we have 50 years of police street experience between us – that there is a moment in most (not all) physical encounters where there’s clinching. I’m not talking about a nice Gracie jujitsu type clinch, although that does happen, but rather a desperate moment where both fighters are trying to dominate the other as they clash body-to-body. A broad definition of clinching includes grabbing/holding/clinching the side of the body, grabbing from the back, grabbing in the classic bear hug, tackling around the waist and tackling around the chest.
