Customer Reviews

American Freestyle Karate: A Guide to Sparring (Unique Literary Books of the World)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a collector of over 300 books on the martial arts, Anderson's book is the best I have seen on sparring. A top tournament competitor in the '60s, '70s and '80s, Anderson has crammed his book with tons of information gathered from his vast experience sparring countless fighters nationally and internationally. American Freestyle is an encyclopedia of techniques and concepts proven in the ring over many years of tough, competitive experience. I highly recommend this book.

I have been involved in the martial arts for over nine years and I have never come across a better manual for sparring than this!!! Mr. Anderson goes beyond the typical martial arts primer found in most martial arts books to explaine strategy, angles of attack, different attacking modes... this is an excellent book for the experienced martial artist as it doesn't spend much time on the basics. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in improving their sparring. this book is geared to compitition sparring but with a small ammount of imagination the reader can apply it to street fighting!!! a wonderful book!!! ps. if anyone knows of others like it please let me know!!!

The book IS hard to read, with its font size 9 (!!) print and Unique Publication's usual B&W photography. However, Mr. Anderson did add arrows to his pics to show the original position of limbs b4 movement and their destination (head of the arrow)is represented in the subsequent photographs. The material is NOT adequate for a beginner in my opinion. The TX reader speaks true in this regard. However, if you are intermediate to advanced, seeking to refine, and CAN STAND READING FONT SIZE 9 PRINT with small B&W photos, then, Dan's work smacks of sincere intent to TEACH GOOD SPARRING TACTICS just as Synthtcboy03 says. (Thanks for the recommend, btw) and I would recommend it too, though I probably shouldn't as I have a competition later this month and my opponent might be looking for something just like this to make our encounter more challenging on me. ;)

I have been involved in martial arts for 4 years (about to test for my black belt in American Karate). No first year player should be looking to a book for sparring instructions! Any beginner in any style belongs in a studio well past one year learning basics from an instructor before picking up a book and attempting to learn something new. I picked this book up about a year ago when I got to brown belt and have used it VERY effectively in sparring (both free and point). The presentation of the critical distance range and effective monitoring range were great! This is an aspect of sparring that is not taught well or emphasized enough (at least in my school), but without mastering it you will not win.

Perhaps I was mistaken in assuming that a book titled "American Freestyle Katate A Guide to Sparring" would focus more on sparring and strategy and tactics over basics, but I'm glad I assumed the content would match the title. 'Cause it does.

A typical MA book demonstrates basic punches and kicks, maybe has a brief section on sparring and then hits you with a half dozen forms/kata and calls it a day. It's a rare thing when the content is mainly focused on helping the reader develop those skills that the reader is interested in furthering, and rarer yet when that information is useful. The example techniques depicted aren't nearly as useful as the theories presented, as the theories can be mapped on to any style that practices point or continous sparring.

If there's a better book on the subject, I haven't found it sitting on a bookstore shelf yet.

This book is a must for anyone who wants to take sparring seriously. This book is not a standard "primer" on martial art movements and technquies, but instead, is a masterpiece in giving the karateka tools, both mentally and physically, to enhance their sparring abilities.

The book discusses everything from entry and retreat to attacking and defending. Ideas are explored such as offensive and defensive attacking postures.The book discusses sparring for tournament, the dojo (training hall) and self-defense. This book was published in 1982 and still remains the epitome of sparring manuels. An absolute must!

I like the part in the book where Dan teaches you blocks and evading techniques. I used some of them in sparring and it works. His book gives detail instruction on the basics and uses plain english. I recommend this book just to see what else is out there.

I was disappointed in the book honestly. Dan Anderson unquestionably knows what he is doing. But with this book he is trying to teach you exactly how to move and execute sparring techniques, which is very difficult to do so with text. Although there are many pictures, 3/4ths of the book are pages full of small black and white pictures of Dan executing techniques, they are laid out in a fashion that is very hard to follow. I feel that if you want to learn how to spar better, your best bet is to get personal instruction. This book is basically just the text of a karate class describing the various techniques. A much better book in my opinion is "The Fighter's Fact Book" by Loren W. Christensen, that not only covers the techniques but also the mindset and drills to help you become better at fighting.

The book has a terrible layout with almost no chapters or sections. It makes finding specific information hard. I will not be buying any more books from Unique Publications.

My background is 1 year in Tae Kwon Do - so what do I know. :)