Customer Reviews

Five Years, One Kata

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an outstanding tome which provides important insight for any karateka, not just Shotokan practitioners. Since each kata contains a fully developed, practical self-defense system, the ancient karate masters did not generally learn the plethora of forms we attempt to master today. Instead, they focused on one or two core forms such as naihanchi or sanchin kata, then went on to devote 5 or 10 years to deeply understand every nuance of one single additional form. Over time they internalized the strategy, principles, and tactics of that kata, mastering every detail. Once they fully understood all aspects of that kata, they might then pick-up another new form to study.

Over the last century, the practice of mastering a single kata has disappeared from our curricula. The deep understanding of a few kata has been replaced by the superficial practice of many. This book follows the author's five year experiment as he focused all his training on a single kata, Gojushiho. You will not only find unique insight into the Burger's experiment, but also develop improved understanding of your own forms and what you can learn from them. This is a great book, a worthy addition to your martial library.

Lawrence Kane
Author of Surviving Armed Assaults, The Way of Kata, and Martial Arts Instruction

I took a chance on buying this book without waiting for more reviews to come out on it. My interest was peeked by the study of one kata for five years. Why? Because this sounds like the original way in which Okinawans studied their kata. So I bought it and was not disappointed at all.

I would like to start buy saying that I believe Mr. Burgar did an excellent job in his overall presentation of his material in this book. It is easy to follow and is laid out in a logical sequencial manner. By stating that one Kaishugata is in itself a fighting system takes a bold step in this modern day world of "sport and game" karate. Finally a Shotokan stylist is getting back to the roots!

Those of us who have studied Okinawan Karate while always respecting Funakoshi, have needed an explanation as to why he changed so much of the kata when he introduced them to Japan. Here Mr. Burgar gives us the answer with Funakoshi's own words "that karate has changed so much from the way I learned it as a youth on Okinawa". Mr. Burgar then explains that karate was intended as a civilian self defense system.

On studying one kata the reader comes to realize that the techniques (bunkai) within the kata were designed to handle various habitual acts of violence that a person will run into in the everyday life. By careful analysis one can study this way given the careful criteria that is easily followed by this experienced karate-ka.

I applaud Mr. Burgar for writing for an advanced audience of practitioners. It is indeed refreshing to read something that may not be new to me but helps me to expound further into my own studies. I should mention that one can and should learn from any good book on karate. There can always be something taken away that is useful as well as learning what to leave behind.

Self defense is a very personal thing. That's why it has to work for the practitioner first and then be researched again by the people that they teach it to. It must become your own. Yes you must own it. Mr. Burgar sheds light to the karate world in general and this reader believes to the Shotokan stylist imparticular, why students of the early karate known as "te" or "tote" learned only one or two kata from their teachers. The Okinawan expression "Three Year Sanchin" does mean something after all.

I think a little more time could have been spent on speaking about the stances of karate and why they are practiced at all. Shedding light on that area would be helpful to students on different positioning of the body's center for balance purposes. After all, stances are what the karate-ka uses to learn balance while moving even if they may not be used in actual fighting. This was the only oversight that I could see.

Over all I give this book 5 stars simply because it is that good and unique. It's nice to see a new author shine in the karate world with something good and of substance. I will use some of the material in your book for myself and for my students. I believe that that is the highest praise I can give you besides writing this review and reading this book.

To the reader of this reveiw, buy it. I look for more from Mr. Burgar in the future. I only hope that the message in my traditional karate book "Nahashu Ryu Karate-Do" will impact one person as much as Mr. Burgar's book impacted me.

For those of you interested in a meaningful, reality-based analysis of kata, this is a book from heaven. Although Mr. Burgar is nominally a Shotokan practitioner, this book and the concepts contained therein are style-less. The book clearly demonstrates how anyone can analyze and develop a self-defense system from any kata. Many of the author's assertions and conclusions are challenging, to say the least; however,they are nevertheless carefully and logically explained utilizing researchable facts. I cannot remember the last time I read a martial art book that was laid out as rationally and logically with little unnecessary verbage. The book states clearly that its intended audience is upper-rank practioners and I would concurr. I would rate the book higher, but I don't give anything 5 stars.

In recent years there has been a small revolution in the world of karate and cognate disciplines, as people have come to see that kata can really be useful for self defence. Thus it has become fashionable to develop bunkai or self defence applications for kata moves. This is a healthy development in my view, but sometimes the bigger picture is not clearly seen. What Bill Burgar has expertly done is show the bigger picture - how one kata can be a complete self defence system, not just a bag of random applications. An impressive amount of thought has gone into making the set of applications coherent and effective: Coherent in the sense that the set of applications as a whole provides responses to all of the most common acts of physical violence Bill believes he is likely to face, in the sense that there is balance in covering this set of likely attacks, and in the sense that the same moves can be used as likely continuations of outcomes of using the very same moves. Bill has thought about efficiency in terms of reducing the set of moves to as a small a set as possible to prevent complicated decisions, while maintaining flexiblity in responding effectively to different "what if" scenarios. Further, Bill points out that the problem these days is not in generating SOME application for a given kata move; it's in mercilessly throwing out applications that do not get through a strict filter. Bill provides a list of criteria to assess potential applications against; those that fail must be discarded.
In my view, the genius shown in the book lies not in any individual bunkai shown but in how they all fit together, how Bill satisfied many simultaneous constraints to create a lean efficient but flexible self defence system. Further, he showed how other martial artists could do the same themselves. This is a "must read" for black belts in karate and related disciplines; to read how Bill actually practices kata is an eye-opener that leaves one's view of kata completely transformed.

This book was all I expected based on the various reviews. It contains very favourable reviews from Patrick McCarthy and Vince Morris, both of whom I have trained under, and greatly respect.

There are really two parts to the book. The first half focuses on philosophy of kata in general, while the second half is all about bunkai for Gojushiho as seen by the author. It clearly demonstrates that it takes years of dedicated study to fully appreciate the benefits of just one kata. Do as I did - read both parts together.

Highly recommended.

I am a police officer and have a Shodan in Shotokan. I have studied Goju Ryu for several years as well. Since becoming a police officer I have been skeptical about the efficacy of karate in real life encounters.

Burgar's book explains how to make karate work in real life. I was not expecting the book to be nearly as comprehensive and well written as it was. Burgar's book brings the best of karate together with cutting edge research about use of force encounters.

He includes research by Col. Dave Grossman, Loren Christensen, and Bruce Siddle- well known names in law enforcement circles. He ties that to accounts of the way karate was done "in the old days" by Funakoshi and Patrick McCarthy to show that they were probably doing it right back then.

Burgar details the types of attacks that are used most frequently in assaults. He discusses how violence unfolds, physiological and psychological responses that are likely to occur, and how to train to overcome theses obstacles.

His dicussion of Gojushiho is a good example of how to interpret a kata to make it a personalized style of self defense.

There is no fluff in the book. If you want to know how to make your karate work for real, get the book. It won't disappoint.

This is an excellent piece of work. Mr Burger writes well, and expounds, without hesitation, rather "heretic" views in the karate community. His introduction to the way current practice of karate is organised in most clubs, with military-style group performance of the techniques while stepping up and down the training hall, is very useful and explains much. His idea that everybody should build their own kata as a memory device to remember self defence techniques is also original, but in my view it is too bold and unrealistic. The construction of a kata is not a simple task, and building self-defence techniques takes much analysis, time and effort. In addition, this proposal flies in the face of his own example, where he has taken one existing kata and adapted it to his needs. It would seem that a less radical solution, the one adopted by Mr. Burger himself, would be more reasonable.

I enjoyed reading Mr. Burger on this occasion. The only reason for not giving him 5 stars is the part of the book dealing with the bunkai of his own kata. To be frank, this is a boring part. The self defence techniques selected are dubious, to say the least (defences against punches typically involve moving the whole body, which contradicts the basic "martial mechanics" principle that "a fist is faster than the body", etc.). This "practical" part, despite the pictures( :)) is far less interesting than the "dry" reading in the text-part, which is extremely interesting. Mr Burger is clearly a highly intelligent man and a very good writer. This is an excellent book.

Only one other book I have read so far goes into this level of detail on a single Kata. The author gives us some great insight into the applications of the Kata Gojushiho. The applications are simple and well organized. This book uses a great matrix of qualifiers that each application is compared to in order to verify viability in a real self defense situation.

In addition to the authors insights from what he learned over the five years of study he also comes to some fascinating conclusions. Conclusions that might be worth the whole book all by themselves.

Nicholas Guinn
5th Degree Black Belt - Aikijutsu
4th Degree Black Belt - Shotokan Karate
GuinnMartialArts.com

There are a lot of books in my bookshelf and I read all of them. Some are good, some are bad. The "Burgar-Book" is an outstanding work because the author isn't a practitioner of a style. So, what's this book all about? This book is about an idea to train alone self defence through Kata, your own Kata. He points out how to make your own kata, how to use it. He gives you background information to history, self defence, pressure points and more. This book is worth every cent!!! Buy and enjoy!!!