Before I get into some of the surprises hidden within the book, you should be familiar with the process I used to write the book. Typically, for Victory Belt books, the author, photographer, and publisher fly out to a fighter's gym and spend two or three days taking sequential photos of techniques. When the photographer and publisher leave, the author often stays at the gym to conduct more research (or comes back at a later date). Every author handles the process a little bit differently, but that's the general summary.
In the case of Marcelo's book, the photo shoot and information gathering took place long before I was invited to join the project. At the time, Erich Krauss and Glen Cordoza were managing the project, but the sheer volume of work coming through Victory Belt was overwhelming (Erich and Glen are workhorses and are always working on at least two books at a time, if not more). I picked up where they left and worked from photos, videos, and interviews to complete the book. If I had a question on a detail or a nuance, I would email Marcelo or Glen for clarification and set up a time where we could discuss the technique over the phone.
While I worked on the book, I wrote for 8 hours a day and trained every night. Each day, I would take the techniques I was writing about and test them in the gym, both for my enjoyment and to gauge my understanding of a move. This turned out to be the best way to write the book because I was essentially the reader and the writer simultaneously. I was teaching myself the material, just as my readers would be, and if something was not working right I immediately reviewed the notes and phoned Marcelo or Glen. I repeated this process until the instruction in the book was perfect (and then Marcelo and Glen went back over it again, just to be sure).
