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The Martial Library

  
 
illmatic
16:05 / 28.09.07
I am sure that this thread should go in Games and Gameplay but I am under the impression that more people will actually read it here. G&G seems dominated by PC gaming.

Anyway, Proinsais mentioned that he'd like to see a thread on martial arts books, so here it is. Post mini-reviews of your favourite martial arts books and resources - things that you find fascinating, titles you are curious about and best of all, books that have changed your training for the better. If you post just a cocking title, list or a link, expect a shuriken in the back of the head.

I'll start: The Self Defense Manual - Doherty & Birdsall.This is a brilliant book full of practical self defense and conflict management tips. It's more what could be called "self-protection" really - "self defense" implies a last minute response to a thread, but this books deals contains loads of information on how to simply avoid that shit in the first place. I like it precisely because 80% of it isn't about fighting. The authors use the adage ADDER to describe their approach - Avoid, Defuse, Deter, Evade, Respond, and only the last of these is about getting physical. Each section is given a full explanation, with several real world examples to back it up. There is a wealth of information on practical tips to watch out for and avoid trouble, and loads of stuff that everybody needs to know and think about - things like having the confidence to act on feelings of threat and remove yourself from a situation, the way "attack rituals" work (i.e. an aggressor will often work himself up to attacking you, using verbal cues and "interviewing" you, to check you out) and hw to coe with and defuse this. The martial techniques given are simple, basic, roughouse stuff which is pretty much all you'll ever need should you be unlucky enough to encounter violence.

Any martial artist who asks themselves "Would my art protect me? Would it work for real?" - needs to do themselves a favour and read material like this. Though this isn't a book just for those who train regularly - anybody who's ever felt a bit threatened while out and about and would like to address this could benefit from reading.

More to follow
 
 
My Mom Thinks I'm Cool
17:29 / 28.09.07
the few times I've picked up a martial arts book I've been pretty disappointed. really, though - what can you expect to learn from a book? it's not like you're going to master a form that way.

stuff like self-defense exercises make more sense. there's not (generally) as much of an emphasis on getting the movement just right. still, most of that stuff isn't going to be anything you can practice without a partner. it's pretty easy to sit in an armchair reading a book and decide you know how to take care of yourself and pretty hard to react quickly if you haven't been doing drills.

anyway - for an actual recommendation I'd say Tao of Jeet Kun Do by Bruce Lee. Not something that you should just study on your own, but a great accompaniment to pretty much any striking discipline. He really gets into basic theory behind what various styles have in common and why - great philosophy and insight going along with the descriptions of movements. As I understand it, it's cobbled together from notes but not really finished, so it's kind of patchy. Also I don't remember it being very in-depth for grappling.

It's a shame he didn't get to finish it - he was doing years of research into all kinds of different systems and really trying to get at the root science of all fighting styles. Not a bad writer either.
 
 
Proinsias
18:07 / 28.09.07
Thanks again Roy, you beat me to it. I'll try and chip in my 2 cents over the next few days.
 
 
EmberLeo
21:18 / 28.09.07
Oh, I mis-read this as Marital, and was hoping for more wedding script sources... *sigh*

--Ember--
 
 
Unconditional Love
13:40 / 29.09.07
Meditation and the Martial Arts

This book which i have not read looks like a good examination of martial arts in modern society and martial spirtuality, i intend to read it in the near future.

Description from Amazon >

The relationship between meditation and the martial arts is a multifaceted one: meditation is one of the practices in which martial artists engage in order to prepare for combat, while the physical exercises constituting much of the discipline of the martial arts might well be considered meditative practices. Michael Raposa, himself a martial arts practitioner, suggests there is a sense in which meditation may in turn be considered a form of combat, citing a variety of spiritual disciplines that are not strictly classified as ³martial arts² yet that employ the heavy use of martial images and categories as part of their self-description.
Raposa, in this extraordinary alloy of meditation manual, historical synthesis, and spiritual guide, provides a fascinating approach to understanding the connection between martial arts and spirituality in such diverse disciplines as Japanese aikido, Chinese tai chi chuan, Hindu yoga, Christian asceticism, Zen Buddhism, and Islamic jihad. What happens when spiritual discipline is appropriated for exercises meant for health or recreation? How might prayer, meditation, and ritual be understood as martial activities? What is the nature of conflict, and who is the enemy? These are some of the questions Raposa raises and responds to in Meditation and the Martial Arts, his rumination on the martial arts as meditative practice and meditation as a martial discipline.

Review from Amazon.com interview with the author>

"Anyone who does the martial arts has asked himself or herself about the investment of time. I live in a decent neighborhood. I have been mugged exactly once in my life, and I ran -- I didn't engage in any kind of martial encounter. I leave my family and spend a lot of time on practices that are not natural to me.

"As this book evolved, it became more and more a reflection on our contemporary situation living in a high-information society. I read about what these people wrote about the struggle to maintain attention in cultures so different from our own, and I ask myself, "Could they ever have conceived the world that we live in, with cable TV with 190 channels and the World Wide Web?" There is this incredible battle, backed by economic power and remarkable technologies, to capture our attention and then shape our habits and our behavior. It seems to me that there is a real struggle here. One has a limited amount of attention to invest, and the competition for it is extraordinary -- in ways that these spiritual writers could never have imagined.

"So I see these disciplines -- it doesn't have to be martial arts, but can be some other kind of meditative discipline -- as being exercises to equip a person in the 21st century to deal with this crisis. And I really believe that it is a crisis. You can see what is being invested in industries of diversion."
 
 
zedoktar
22:50 / 29.09.07
Path Notes of An American Ninja Master by Glenn Morris. Title sounds cheesy as hell but its a good read. More focused on the esoteric and mystical aspects of martial arts. I would consider it required reading for any martial artist. It manages to be entertaining and informative and a page turner all the way.

His second book, Shadow Strategies, is a lot more rambling and seems to go nowhere while spewing random info everywhere. I'm still in the middle of so I can't pass final judgment yet, its weird. He seems to have been much crazier when he wrote this one, but there might just be a lot to be gleaned from this book.

The Book of The 5 Rings by Miyamoto Musashi is a classic. Its so full of hidden meaning and subtley... I need to read it again. Its been years.

Stick Fighting: Techniques of Self-Defense (Bushido--The Way of the Warrior) by Masaaki Hatsumi is decent if your into stick and cane fighting. Normally I find martial techniques don't carry through books too well, but this one was pretty decent, and well presented. I used to have an awsome trick with chopsticks I adapted from this, no good for actual defense but good for fucking with people at a party.

Hung Gar Kung-Fu by Bucksam Kong and Eugene Ho is maybe the best technique book I've ever seen. It covers a few basic Hung Gar forms in a simple manner, plus some Iron Wire chi stuff, and basic 5 Animals, and then has this big footwork chart plus directions for a two person form, so someone can read it while you and a friend practice the full two man form really easily. One of the few I'd reccomend for actually trying to pick up a technique.
 
 
grant
14:34 / 01.10.07
I've gotten a bit out of both books I've found by Da Liu, who teaches Yang style tai chi chuan. One is on the I Ching & tai chi, the other is on tai chi & meditation.

He gets bonus points for including photos of all the moves in the form, so you can learn the tai chi basics as you cover some of the internal stuff that he's really talking about.

I've copied some notes from his I Ching correspondences into the wiki... I think that book might be out of print. But if you Google his name, you should find more material.
 
 
Ticker
19:40 / 02.10.07
The Essense of Aikido

This collection of writings by the founder of aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, illuminates the philosophical basis of the traditional martial arts. It contains photographs of Ueshiba in action, Ueshiba's calligraphy and a transcription of epigrams and poems in English, romanized and Japanese orthography.

while there are a shit ton of great Aikido books out there (I'll post more) this is really the one I found that embraced O'Sensei's spiritual history and goals with Aikido. One of my teachers lent the book to me with some disclaimers about the mysticism in it not realizing that's what I was looking for in a book about the founder of Aikido.

I found the descriptions of O'Sensei's early spiritual pursuits and illnesses very insightful (those familair with shaman sickness maybe interested in the detailed accounts of how illness influenced his studies). It was a great resource for the mystical side of Aikido rather than the technical side.

I'll go look on my shelf for the other titles I found of great use for more technical aspects.
 
  
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