Customer Reviews

Advanced Karate-Do: Concepts, Techniques, and Training Methods

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased this book without knowing anything about Elmar Schmeisser, guided by the excellent reviews this book got all over the Internet, and to be honest, it deserves it. It is NOT for beginners but more for advanced studnets (brown belt and up) and instructors. It covers in depth the in-breathing forms of kata and some interesting philosophical aspectes of fighting, mental and other martial arts (not specially karate) related stuff. It's great to read too, well written. Why not 5 stars ? The text is very dense and the illustrations are sometimes difficult to understand. And even if it's not a book for beginners I think it could have been nice and helpful to have a greater work on the figures and illustrations.

Generally speaking, I have found karate books to be of pretty limited use, but this is a rare and much appreciated exception. As the author makes clear, this is not a book for the beginner, but anyone who practices shotokan karate even semi-seriously should have this in their library as soon as they make black belt (and maybe even a bit before that). What makes this book different is its in-depth treatment of the technical aspects of karate. No pages and pages of staged or stilted photographs substituting for explanation, no retreats to mysticism (the trite stuff someone I know generally refers to as "glasshoppah chronicles"). What we have here is someone who has obviously put some serious thought into the technical aspects of karate and how they are linked together, and then put forward a detailed exposition of his findings. While I think five star reviews are given all too frequently in these reviews, this book actually deserves it.

At the time of this writing, I have had Dr. Schmeisser's book for about 8 months, and it becomes more valuable all the time. Both for my own understanding, and for use in planning and teaching karate to others, Advanced Karate-Do is in a class by itself. Every important karate principle is touched upon and explained. Students of martial arts other than Shotokan will still find much of value here. Any serious Shotokan practitioner who has not read this book is missing an extremely valuable resource.

This is a must-buy for any serious Shotokan practitioner, particularly those who are instructors and/or think they already know all there is to know about the techniques of their style of karate.

Although there is a only a limited amount of images showing what is described in words -and no photographs- this apparent flaw may actually be a blessing in disguise, as it requires the reader to concentrate fully on trying to understand the words for their precise meanings, which is worth the challenge it presents.

Most people will not be able to get through this book quickly, due to the depth of detail into which the author delves. This should be considered a reference manual, that you refer to for review and inspiration. No need to read through the entire book in one sitting, although you will probably be tempted to do so...

This book would be a good value at twice the price.

As the title clearly state this book is intended for advanced students and instructors. The text in this book is technical and intended for people whom already posses a moderate to high level of knowledge in karate-do. I had to read most sections of the text 2-3 times before I was able to fully understand what was being conveyed. I believe this would be typical for the average reader, due to the nature of the material. Rob Redmond summarized the book far better than I can when he wrote on his web site: "Schmeisser's work is not for beginners. Novices to Shotokan will find the concepts in the book difficult to understand and will be overwhelmed with information that they are not capable of multitasking while moving around a dojo. But for the advanced student, this book is a godsend. It is the essential text for the advanced student."R.Redman -Shotokan Planet, Oct. 2000-

Schmeisser's work is unlike many of the so called martial arts books on the market. It is not sensational. It is not for beginners. It won't tell you how to become a lean, mean killing machine. What it does do is focus on the mechanics of specific techniques and how they interrelate with human body mechanics and a specific system of karate. Though never a "light read," his unique insights are worth the effort.

This is a continuous stream of karate thought that will leave you breathless. Excellent. I highly recommend it.

Nice book. Deeper insight in mechanisms of kicking and punching, as well as hip functioning. A must have for the advanced karate practitioner.

Normaly when we se books about karate almost all talk about how doing some moviment, but this book is more than this. The writer shows concepts behind de moviments and a deeper aprouch about karate-do. I recomend it.

This is a interesting read not only for karateka, but for people interested in Japanese arts.

It's different because the author manages to raise the concepts to a level where he also can discuss them in relation to other arts, and modern science. And that without becoming too speculative. It's also different in the sense that I find that despite the book being about shotokan, I believe he sometimes end up saying the same things that those who critique traditional arts tend to say. (!) Or to put it in another way, he closes the distance between the traditional and the modern.

The book also have several appendix that are especially useful for reference for shotokan students and instructors, such as a pretty good glossary, class outlines, and kata run through.

Highly recommended!!